Teams visit Camp Lejeune to screen candidates for MarSOC

They say they’re not just looking for a few good men — they’re looking for the right ones.

A screening team from Headquarters Marine Corps visited Camp Lejeune and surrounding bases recently in search of Marines interested in becoming one of an elite number of critical skills operators under Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command.

The teams spent time each day on mainside as well as at Cherry Point and New River air stations and Camp Geiger, giving informational briefings, answering questions and interviewing candidates.

The goal of this recruiting tour is to gain about 220 new critical skills operators, 114 from the East Coast, to join the roughly 700 CSOs now within MarSOC.

“These are the guys that kick down the doors; these are the guys that work with foreign armies; these are the guys that train Afghan nationals,” Col. Kelly Alexander, administrative officer of recruiting for MarSOC, said.

Volunteer applicants for MarSOC, he said, must go through a rigorous assessment and screening process with physical, mental and team components. In additional to minimum standards — a score of 225 or better on physical fitness test, 105 or more on the general technical test, and no more than two NJPs on a current contract for enlisted Marines — screeners said they look for Marines who exemplify 10 values, including adaptability, resilience under stress, integrity and people skills, to name four.

Alexander said that while interest in MarSOC has been steady, recruitment remains a challenge because of the high attrition rate of candidates in the assessment and screening process, in large part due to physical tests including a 12-mile hike and swim assessment.

About half of the overall 56-percent attrition rate, he said, occurs in the first 72 hours of assessment.

But once initial hurdles are past, Staff Sgt. Michael Hudak, lead recruiter for MarSOC East, said many opportunities await a special forces Marine.

“It will help you progress through the ranks,” Hudak said. “Right now the board is looking at us pretty much the same as if somebody was a drill instructor or recruiter or Marine security guard.”

Marines also will have the chance to do work outside of their military occupational specialty, he said, and gain advanced training not available to the general ranks.

And although Marines of any MOS can become a part of MarSOC, Alexander said the recruiting emphasis now is on enlisted infantry Marines.

“If someone’s looking for something different, then MarSOC is completely different,” Hudak said, an opportunity for some to “be that Marine that they thought the Marine Corps was all about to begin with.”

Following successful completion of an A&S course, Marines will enter a seven-month Individual Training Course or be directly assigned to a MarSOC battalion. To learn more about becoming a candidate for MarSOC, contact Maj. Brendan Wolfe or Staff Sgt. Hudak at 910-451-0097.

Contact military reporter Hope Hodge at 910-219-8453 or hhodge@freedomenc.com.