MARSOC Marine Special Operations Command Spec Ops MOS Patch

MARSOC stood up at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, on February 24, 2006, and in June 2015 its units took back a name the Marine Corps had not used since World War II: Raiders. United States Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command is the Marine component of U.S. Special Operations Command. It was the last of the services to put a component under SOCOM, and it built its force out of Marines who already knew small units and hard country. The men who earn the spearhead are called Critical Skills Operators. Most Marines will never wear what they wear, and the ones who do rarely talk about it.

The 1942 Raider battalions under Merritt Edson and Evans Carlson are the lineage MARSOC claims, and the 2015 redesignation made it official in name. Today the command fields the Marine Raider Regiment with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Marine Raider Battalions, the Marine Raider Support Group for logistics, communications and intelligence, and the Marine Raider Training Center, which screens, assesses, selects and trains every candidate. The 1st Raider Battalion is at Camp Pendleton, California, and the 2nd and 3rd are at Camp Lejeune. Enlisted operators hold MOS 0372, Critical Skills Operator. Their missions run from counterterrorism and counterinsurgency to foreign internal defense and security force assistance, and the Raider operator device followed in August 2016.

The patch measures 4.5 by 3.25 inches, laid out in the arched MOS style with a red merrowed edge. A black arch across the top reads MARINE CORPS, and a matching arch along the bottom reads UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS FORCES. In the red center panel, SPEC and OPS flank a gold disc ringed in red, and inside it a black spearhead carries the eagle, globe and anchor. The spearhead is the special operations mark, and putting the Corps emblem on it says these are Marines first. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND runs in white beneath the disc. It has an iron-on backing and can be sewn on.

MARSOC teams have deployed around the world since 2006, and the command has lost Raiders on those deployments. Its operators are known for sending teams forward that live with and train partner forces for months at a time. The Raider name ties them to Guadalcanal and Makin Island, and the Marines who carry it treat it that way. Every candidate goes through the same selection at the Raider Training Center, whatever his rank. The red and gold on this patch belong to the Corps, and the spearhead belongs to the men who earned it.

Put it in a shadow box with your MARSOC photos and your Raider coin, or on the jacket you wear to a battalion reunion. It also makes a good gift for a Marine who just made it through selection, or for the family waiting on him. Red, gold and a spearhead.