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Expeditionary Military Force

Decent Essays

EF-21 describes as the Marine Corps serving as an “expeditionary force-in-readiness” that focuses on amphibious operations centered on a culture that “fast, austere, lethal”. The adage that “words have meaning” should be considered when we start talking about employing a lethal force that is built upon the idea that individual units will act in accordance with broad intent and limited support. Peace operations in particular present a unique set of challenges as civil and military considerations change throughout the operation and those considerations are necessarily accompanied by restrictive ROE and codes of conduct. In general this long term “police” type action is not well suited to a force dedicated to being “the right force at the right …show more content…

On the other hand employing a MEU in DSCA operations makes a tremendous amount of sense, at least historically (due to the short timeline of employment). Lesson 3’s slide highlights an excellent example with the LA Riots of 1992, 1500 Marines were employed as part of a joint task force to restore order after the Rodney King verdict there was a clear mission with achievable goals in the near term (right force, right time). The other example of Hurricane Sandy and the 26th MEU highlights the same clear achievable mission where Marines can be employed providing large movements and large impact over the short term but without becoming bogged down in long term relief actions better suited to other organizations. The difference between Peace Operations and DSCA is having a clear achievable mission with a relatively short timeline that takes advantages of the strengths of a MEU (or Marines in general), something not typical of operations like

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