marine recon differences?

Force Reconnaissance Companies are deployed within a type of larger Marine Corps units called a Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) or MEU(SOC). MEU(SOC)s are deployed onboard Amphibious Ready Groups, a group of United States Navy ships. This group is usually centered around an amphibious assault helicopter carrier (designations for these ships range between LHA, LPH, and LHD). There may be as many as three of these groups, with their attendant MEU(SOC)s, deployed around the world at any given time. The mobility and continual rotation of these formations is integral to current Marine Corps operating procedure, which sets a stated goal of being able to field a MEU(SOC) on any shore around the world within six hours of an order being given.

The structure of a Force Reconnaissance Company is more similar to that of an infantry battalion than a standard company. The command element includes the Commanding Officer or CO (normally a Lieutenant Colonel), Executive Officer or XO (normally a Major), a Sergeant Major and the S1 (Administrative), S2 (Intelligence), S3 (Operations), S4 (Logistics) and S6 (Communications) officers. The bulk of the Company is divided into six platoons, under a Platoon Commander (Captain) and a Platoon NCO (Sergeant, Staff Sergeant or higher). One of the six platoons is a scout/sniper unit retained from the MEU's Battalion Landing Team. Force Recon units also include U.S. Navy Corpsmen as integrated combat medical personnel, and, like corpsmen in all Marine Corps units, these corpsmen receive the exact same training as the members of the units they support.

SSG Schramm

US Army 15 years

OIF 2003