UPDATE: Oris’ CEO has written to the CO of 1st Force Reconnaissance Company, and is seeking to donate to Recon non-profits. It appears that they are sincere, and got led down the wrong path. Good on ’em. ********** Recently, the Swiss watch company Oris announced that they have entered into a partnership with Marine Force Reconnaissance, and are selling a watch with the Force Recon logo on it. The truth is, Oris is NOT in any way actually partnered with the Force Reconnaissance community.
“Pete” Ellis – The First Recon Marine
Lt. Col. Earl Hancock “Pete” Ellis is considered by many to be the “First Reconnaissance Marine,” due to his daring escapade in the Pacific in 1921, over two decades before what was to become 1st Recon Battalion was even formed. A military genius and a careful planner, he was responsible for much of the war plan followed in the Pacific Theater, though he didn’t live to see it. Ellis enlisted in the Marine Corps in Chicago in 1900. He made Corporal by February, 1901. Following a request by Representative Chester Long, and some tutoring in order to pass the tests, he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in December of the same year. Over the next couple of years, he learned the ropes as a Marine officer, including a tour in the Philippines, where he is quoted as saying in a letter, “I think that this is the laziest life that a man could find – there is not a blamed thing to do except lay around, sleep and go ‘bug house’. But the same, I am helping to bear the ‘White Man’s Burden’.” He shortly thereafter gained a billet on the Kentucky. Read the rest on SOFREP.
What a Marine Recon Team Looks Like
Dirty, tired, camouflage-painted, trousers ripped, armed to the teeth, and overloaded. Okay, so that’s what the guys on the Recon team look like most of the time. The team itself has evolved a bit due to operational requirements, equipment limitations, and force protection requirements established by higher. Over the years since Vietnam, the Recon team has ranged from four-man Force Recon Stingray teams to entire Recon platoons going out as one. Read the rest at SOFREP.
The State of Recon
The Marine Reconnaissance community has been through a lot in the last ten years. Some of it has gone for the better. A lot of it has not. At the beginning of the war in Iraq, 1st Recon Bn was pushed into a mechanized role it wasn’t prepared for. The men took the mission and did what they could with it, pushing ahead of 1st Marine Division on the way to Baghdad, securing important sites and looking for Iraqi forces. 1st Force, augmented by platoons from 3rd and 4th Force, was out on the flanks, supporting I MEF on the march up. But when they redeployed, 1st Recon Bn found itself holding battlespace. Recon Marines were put in the role of regular grunts. Even after Recon stopped holding ground in 2005, we regularly found ourselves in similar situations, just not tied to a particular area. Conventional Marine commanders had no idea how to employ a Reconnaissance unit. Some of this was due to a lack of understanding. Some of it was, and is, willful ignorance. Read more: http://sofrep.com/17978/the-state-of-recon-usmc-marine/#ixzz2N3XId3nb