COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Service: General
Sailors may replace Marines in camp security
Christian Lowe, Army Times
February 13, 2006
In an
effort to get more sailors into Iraq while freeing up leathernecks for
combat, the Navy’s top commander is considering the possibility
of deploying gun-toting sea warriors to Iraq for camp security duty.
The idea is still in the early stages, but after a major expansion of
the Navy master-at-arms force over the last four years, the Navy is
looking for ways to contribute more ground forces to a war that’s
seen little action at sea.
The idea is to use naval facilities guards for duty in Iraq, sending them to the war zone for short deployments.
“You’ve got a security force that provides for all the Navy
security of Hampton Roads [in Virginia]. And not unlike ships, they get
on a rotation and they rotate overseas or for security somewhere for
six months, wherever that is,” said Chief of Naval Operations
Adm. Mike Mullen in a Feb. 13 interview with Military Times reporters
and editors. “That kind of unit cohesion is very attractive to me
to try to respond to these needs in Iraq.”
So far, the Navy has about 6,000 troops deployed to Iraq —
including Seabees, SEALs and corpsmen. Mullen said that number could
climb to 7,000 over the next two years.
Marines are largely responsible for security of their forward bases in
Iraq — a requirement that can take as much as a company-sized
unit out of the action.
Mullen said that, based on his observations from Combined Joint Task
Force Horn of Africa in Djibouti — a mission for which the Navy
recently assumed responsibility — a “company minus-sized
force” of master-at-arms sailors would be a workable solution to
ease the Corps’ guard post missions overseas.
“You could deploy that company — for six months or for 12
months — out of the security force that’s doing security in
Norfolk,” Mullen said. “We’re an expeditionary force.
We understand how to do that.”
Since 2001, the Navy has expanded its master-at-arms force from a
fledgling group of 1,000 sailors to more than 10,000 and recently
established the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command to boost its
anti-terrorism contribution and “recognize the need of the young
men and women at war on the dirt,” said the command’s top
officer, Rear Adm. Donald Bullard, at the NECC’s Jan. 13
activation ceremony.
Mullen insisted this plan was “just a concept” and that
there are still a lot of details to be worked out before the Navy could
start deploying the new guard units to Iraq
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