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I don't see this as elitist.

Even the force recon guys rotate back to conventional units; it is part of the standards of training and the outlook the USMC has on continuing development of its forces.

BTW, Gen Hejlik was in the same squad as I in TBS in 1975. He may have been our class honor man. If he wasn't he was second, (and competition among brand new Marine officers is pretty keen).

When I was at SOCCENT my argument was that the USMC routinely performed five of the (then) seven special operations missions. The missions have been expanded and refined since 1990, but I still maintain the the USMC performs a greater percentage routinely then the other larger forces.

The argument stems from a general perception of SPECOPS.

Most folk consider the mission to be Unconventional Warfare and Strategic Reconnaissance. These are the glamour missions and the most important (IMHO) of the SOC missions. However these were missions that the USMC were not involve in, although they did the other missions.

The attest missions for SOC are: Direct Action (DA), Combating Terrorism (CBT), Foreign Internal Defense (FID), Unconventional Warfare (UW), Special Reconnaissance (SR), Psychological Operations (PSYOP), Civil Affairs (CA), Information Operations (IO), and Counterproliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (CP).

My son was in ANGLICO when it was decommissioned. The next year the US needed that capability but was denied it because of force reductions. We weren't using them in peace time and conventional training could not be allowed to suffer the Clintonian cuts. They were soon resurrected.

Gen Hejlik is the perfect selection for this position. I've followed his career as the others in my class, but he has excelled, as befits his rank; many awards he has received aren't included in his bio.

But the end item is his definition of the USMC SPECOP folks:

Marine.

With special ops, I don't see these guys rotating back into their units anytime soon. I could be wrong. But I think the statement the General made is very telling because it is obvious that these guys will be Marines, I think that General Hejlik and the Commandant are trying to speak to those who feel that this may be an end of an era for the Marine Corps as we know it.

My concern is really based on my experience working with the army where you have almost a two army dichotomy: Rangers and everyone else.

I just hope this doesn't cheapen the Marine Corps and what we have grown to know. Only time will tell.