United States Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance

So if they pass their NSWs, if they get a secret clearance, that kind of stuff, then they can go to ARC, which is another nine weeks.

And so you have your 18 weeks of Recon training stays intact.

The people that are the instructor cadre for both of these are only 03-17 scout snipers or 03-21 reconnaissance Marines.

My personal fear is that what they are doing with this course, now again, I say this with, we fault none of the Marines themselves who are doing what they're told to do and making the best with the product and the environment that they have.

What my fear is is they are trying to, the service is diluting recon purposefully to be able to eventually remove recon from the assets.

Because they were more dangerous than they were good.

And so what we don't want is now a scout with a drone with a possible munition on it that hasn't been trained to a standard.

You know, we're we're also training them to be reconnaissance Marines.

Pretty cool, unique weapon

... and people know, all right, MP5s are used by special forces all over the world, Delta, you know, SEALs, Marines, Force Recon, uh, Secret Service, on and on and on.

But what is it that appeals to people? What can we as citizen civilians get out of the SP5? What do we use that for?

A submachine gun or a PCC is, is a niche weapon, you know, just like a sniper rifle's a niche weapon or a shotgun's a niche weapon.

Uh, originally it was supposed to be active duty to go into infantry.

I think I also had seen that, you know, Force Recon video, and that's what I wanted to do, but I, I, I wanted to leave Hialeah, uh, or I would've ended up either, you know, in jail, in trouble, or, um... [lips smack] And so, uh, I went off, I went off into the Marine Corps, um, to do infantry.

Uh, and so I'll go ahead and stop there.

Well, you, you spent quite a bit of time in the Marines too, didn't you? Um, and ser- served as a s- uh, scout sniper, if I recall correctly?

Um, and then I was like, "Are you kidding me? Is this what the Army does?" Right? So I saw DLI from a spouse perspective.

Um, and then I started to do my research again, and as I'm over there, there wasn't...

I think the only closest unit was, like, a reserve force recon unit up in Nevada.

I'm like, "Man, I don't wanna travel over there." Um, and then I just, I did some, some thinking, some soul searching really, and I was like, "Oh, okay, well, maybe how about going to the Army as an option? Let's do this military intelligence," 'cause I thought that that would align best at that point with going to the CIA, right? Or, or, or, or going to go do intel work, um, as I had planned, and that I would ultimately focus, focus on, on school.

They gave us Al-Qaeda, and Al-Qaeda was not very strong, at least in Anbar.

Uh, when, when we'd send, uh, the SEALs or Delta or Marine Recon in to get those guys, it'd be a house with, like, six or seven dudes.

Yeah.

That's it.

[upbeat music] Welcome to the Building the Elite podcast, where we discuss the physical, mental, and emotional aspects of human performance within military special operations by looking at the principles that can help anyone thrive in chaotic and challenging environments.

For BUD/S, SWCC, and Marine Reconnaissance students in Coronado, water quality issues are a constant concern and a major occupational hazard.

Dr. Falk Feddersen is one of the leading experts on what's in the water in Coronado, how it gets there, and what it does.

Dr. Feddersen received his PhD from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in nineteen ninety-nine, followed by a position as a postdoctoral scholar for two years at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Authors of postcards through hell.

Ed's a retired U.S. or United States Marine who served in infantry and force reconnaissance before continuing his career as a security contractor with experience spanning the Gulf War, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Chase served in the United States Navy as a hospital corpsman and later worked overseas providing high-risk medical support for protective security details, convoy operations, and force protection missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Together, they became part of a group known as the Pony Express, private security contractors tasked with moving U.S. mail and other critical supplies across Afghanistan.