Article

Marine Times
Published: 04-19-99
Category: NEWSLINES
Page: 16

A Marine's Life In The F.A.S.T. Lane

By C. Mark Brinkley


Warning: Marines interested in kicking down doors, shooting anything that moves and taking no prisoners should not join FAST platoons.

They don't do that here.

"We are a specialty team, in that we do one thing and we do it well," said Capt. Andrew Petrucci, physical security officer for Marine Corps Security Forces Battalion in Norfolk, Va. "People hear 'specialty team' and then instantly associate it with Chuck Norris and Rambo."

That's a bad characterization of the Marine Corps' high-speed, high-profile Fleet Antiterrorism Security Teams.

"We're not door-kickers by any stretch of the imagination," Petrucci said. "We emphasize 'deter, detect and defend' against terrorist attacks."

That means that FAST teams usually deploy quickly to a high-threat region to enhance the security already there, such as the Marine Security Guard force at an overseas embassy.

Or, it could mean flying to Alaska to guard a nuclear submarine against sabotage, as was the case in March, when FAST Marines participated in Exercise Northern Edge.

Becoming FAST

That may sound like the mission statement for a run-of-the-mill security force, but FAST puts a different twist on it.

Most Marines in the Corps' nine security force companies and two FAST companies are junior Marines locked into a two-year security forces contract. They each begin with infantry training, and are later sent to the basic security guard course in Chesapeake, Va.

Those selected for security force duty will deploy to their new homes and spend their time guarding a specific base or cache of weapons.

But those selected for FAST platoons -- and Marine officials say it really is the luck of the draw -- receive even more security guard training at the company and platoon levels, and spend their time guarding anything they are told to look after.

Responding FAST

Because they are spread across the globe, FAST Marines can be sent anywhere in the world within 24 hours. The length of their stay is determined by the mission, Marine officials said, but the average FAST Marine spent about 150 days on the road in 1998.

"If you like to deploy and go out with real bullets, this is the job for you," Petrucci said.

But don't go expecting to go on offense.

FAST officials are quick to point out that their anti-terrorism job doesn't involve counter-terrorism missions -- like crashing through skylights, Delta Force-style, to rescue hostages and kill terrorists -- but instead includes preventing such incidents.

"We are defensive in nature," Petrucci said. "Site security is our bread and butter."

Occasionally, as with the embassy bombings in Africa last year, FAST Marines are asked to help get a bad situation back under control.

The 1998 bombings left sensitive documents literally blown into the street, available for the taking of any passersby.

"You've only got so many Marine Security Guards there," said one FAST Marine. "At a time like that, they can't protect everything."

While the companies advertise little in the way of offense, about a dozen Marines from each platoon are typically trained in close-quarters combat, Marine officials said.

But putting those skills to use often means the defensive mission has failed.

"We're like a mobile guard force," the FAST Marine said. "We go to a high-threat area and set up security, but we have to be ready for all types of situations. You never know what's going to happen out there."

Organizing FAST

FAST platoon commanders are usually captains from combat-arms fields, Petrucci said, and there is rarely a shortage of volunteers asking the monitors for the assignments.

Each platoon also has a staff non-commissioned officer, three or four sergeants and three or four corporals, all of whom usually come from the Fleet Marine Force.

Women may be assigned to Marine Corps Security Forces Battalion, but because they are excluded from most combat-arms MOSs, none serve in the FAST platoons.

All told, about 500 enlisted Marines and 20 officers are divided into 11 platoons -- six at 1st FAST Company in Norfolk and five at 2nd FAST Company in Yorktown, Va.

The FAST Deployment Program, very similar to the Unit Deployment Program that rotates Fleet Marine Force units to Okinawa Japan, keeps three platoons deployed to Bahrain, Italy and Japan.

Every six months, a platoon from 2nd FAST will relieve a platoon from 1st FAST -- or vice versa -- at each of the three locations.

Each deployed platoon supports the fleet commander, a Navy admiral, in that area.

Additionally, one platoon at each U.S. location is always on alert, Marine officials said, for the possibility of being called to action by the commander in chief of U.S. Atlantic Fleet.

FAST=Fake Ass SEAL Team....

HAH...HAH...HAH funny little smart ass. 

By:  2nd Lt. Patrick Boyce

SUBSCRIBE | EMAIL | PRINT | BOOKMARK | HOME

I’ll tell you why!  The Confined Spacing of shooting in a Oil Refinery.  Confined Space Shooting and Close Quarters Battle, is the Bread and Butter of FAST Co.

FAST Marines fire Baharia range, keep anti-terrorism capabilities sharp and ready

CAMP BAHARIA, Iraq (April 26, 2005) -- Atrophy is defined as ‘a wasting away, deterioration, or diminution of something due to lack of use.’ It’s a condition Marines in Iraq won’t experience.

Lance Cpl. Brian M. Cloonan, who by trade is a designated marksmen, finds himself deployed to Fallujah to provide security for military convoys.

“As designated marksmen, our mission (normally) is to support security operations,” explained the 20-year-old member of 2nd Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team Company, Marine Corps Security Force Battalion. “If our platoon were to make a hit on a building, we’d be off someplace making sure nobody gets in or out who’s not supposed to.”

The Chino Hills, Calif., further added that FAST Marines act as an anti-terrorism quick reaction force, and are among the first troops to respond to certain international crises.

Marines from 2nd FAST Company were some of the first boots on the ground during Operation Secure Tomorrow, when a task force of Chilean, French, Canadian and American troops helped bring about security and stability to Haiti after former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted Feb. 29.

“It was a platoon from our company that went down to Haiti and secured the embassy,” Cloonan explained.

However, due to the current nature of operations in Iraq, he and fellow designated marksmen are accomplishing missions different from their usual designated marksman tasks.

“Here, we’re doing a lot of convoy security,” the 2003 Ruben S. Ayala High School graduate explained. “Right now, we’re attached to (Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group). We’re all just going out on convoys as drivers, gunners … basically whatever they need us to do.”

As they perform these new tasks, Cloonan’s unit still maintains proficiency in their old ones.

Members of 2nd FAST Company practiced firing their M-14 DMR sniper rifles and adjusting their sights aboard 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment’s range.

“We’re getting a warm weather (battle sight zero) for our rifles,” Cloonan stated. “Last time we BZOed these weapons, it was 30 degrees outside.”

Marines BZO their weapons to ensure their rounds hit where they aim. Differences in breathing patterns, eyesight, and climate affect how the rounds impact the target, so troops fire several shot groups and observe where the rounds impact after each string of fire.

According to Cloonan, a round strikes lower on a target during cold weather firing.

This range also allowed the FAST Marines a chance to re-familiarize themselves with their rifles to maintain their marksmanship skills.

Operational requirements could change at a moment’s notice in the ever-changing world of insurgent warfare, so Marines like Cloonan must keep their skills sharpened to razor-edge perfection.

 

Why request a FAST Team, why not a Ranger Plt smart ass? 

 

I’ll tell you why!  The Confined Spacing of shooting in a Oil Refinery.  Confined Space Shooting and Close Quarters Battle, is the Bread and Butter of FAST Co.

 

 But what’s funny is you guys claim to want info outside your own little fu(king boxes, you get info on some Brits or Aussies and your like “Oh(suck, suck, suck sound) that’s awwwe-some” you get on Marines and you get all protective about your sh*tty little territory.  OK!!

A Marine's Life In The F.A.S.T. Lane

By C. Mark Brinkley


Warning: Marines interested in kicking down doors, shooting anything that moves and taking no prisoners should not join FAST platoons.

They don't do that here.

"We are a specialty team, in that we do one thing and we do it well," said Capt. Andrew Petrucci, physical security officer for Marine Corps Security Forces Battalion in Norfolk, Va. "People hear 'specialty team' and then instantly associate it with Chuck Norris and Rambo."

That's a bad characterization of the Marine Corps' high-speed, high-profile Fleet Antiterrorism Security Teams.

"We're not door-kickers by any stretch of the imagination," Petrucci said. "We emphasize 'deter, detect and defend' against terrorist attacks."

That means that FAST teams usually deploy quickly to a high-threat region to enhance the security already there, such as the Marine Security Guard force at an overseas embassy.

Or, it could mean flying to Alaska to guard a nuclear submarine against sabotage, as was the case in March, when FAST Marines participated in Exercise Northern Edge.

Becoming FAST

That may sound like the mission statement for a run-of-the-mill security force, but FAST puts a different twist on it.

Most Marines in the Corps' nine security force companies and two FAST companies are junior Marines locked into a two-year security forces contract. They each begin with infantry training, and are later sent to the basic security guard course in Chesapeake, Va.

Those selected for security force duty will deploy to their new homes and spend their time guarding a specific base or cache of weapons.

But those selected for FAST platoons -- and Marine officials say it really is the luck of the draw -- receive even more security guard training at the company and platoon levels, and spend their time guarding anything they are told to look after.

Responding FAST

Because they are spread across the globe, FAST Marines can be sent anywhere in the world within 24 hours. The length of their stay is determined by the mission, Marine officials said, but the average FAST Marine spent about 150 days on the road in 1998.

"If you like to deploy and go out with real bullets, this is the job for you," Petrucci said.

But don't go expecting to go on offense.

FAST officials are quick to point out that their anti-terrorism job doesn't involve counter-terrorism missions -- like crashing through skylights, Delta Force-style, to rescue hostages and kill terrorists -- but instead includes preventing such incidents.

"We are defensive in nature," Petrucci said. "Site security is our bread and butter."

Occasionally, as with the embassy bombings in Africa last year, FAST Marines are asked to help get a bad situation back under control.

The 1998 bombings left sensitive documents literally blown into the street, available for the taking of any passersby.

"You've only got so many Marine Security Guards there," said one FAST Marine. "At a time like that, they can't protect everything."

While the companies advertise little in the way of offense, about a dozen Marines from each platoon are typically trained in close-quarters combat, Marine officials said.

But putting those skills to use often means the defensive mission has failed.

"We're like a mobile guard force," the FAST Marine said. "We go to a high-threat area and set up security, but we have to be ready for all types of situations. You never know what's going to happen out there."

Organizing FAST

FAST platoon commanders are usually captains from combat-arms fields, Petrucci said, and there is rarely a shortage of volunteers asking the monitors for the assignments.

Each platoon also has a staff non-commissioned officer, three or four sergeants and three or four corporals, all of whom usually come from the Fleet Marine Force.

Women may be assigned to Marine Corps Security Forces Battalion, but because they are excluded from most combat-arms MOSs, none serve in the FAST platoons.

All told, about 500 enlisted Marines and 20 officers are divided into 11 platoons -- six at 1st FAST Company in Norfolk and five at 2nd FAST Company in Yorktown, Va.

The FAST Deployment Program, very similar to the Unit Deployment Program that rotates Fleet Marine Force units to Okinawa Japan, keeps three platoons deployed to Bahrain, Italy and Japan.

Every six months, a platoon from 2nd FAST will relieve a platoon from 1st FAST -- or vice versa -- at each of the three locations.

Each deployed platoon supports the fleet commander, a Navy admiral, in that area.

Additionally, one platoon at each U.S. location is always on alert, Marine officials said, for the possibility of being called to action by the commander in chief of U.S. Atlantic Fleet.

umm, so FAST helped seize the oil facilities in the Al Faw peninsula?, strange I know that there were  SEAL's, RM's and GROM, but no one ever mentioned FAST, and the port was not taken by SEAL's, that and I don't see where exactly FAST would fit in in the combat that took place there, it was sporadic and there was little need to clear buildings with advanced CQB tactics....it just seems an odd place for FAST to turn up

Its hard to find any articles still on the subject but here is one dealing w/ another subject but it mentions the mission.  The Article is "New high tech, high-speed ship saw action in Iraq War".

 

"The Joint Venture did much more than just ferry supplies back and forth in the Persian Gulf during Iraqi Freedom. She also took part in her first combat operations, serving as a special operations “mothership.” Details of this action were recently written up in Marine Corps Times. Joint Venture deployed Navy SEALs and U.S. Marine Corps Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Teams (FAST) in Mark V craft and Rigid Inflatable Boats. The SEALs and Marines seized two major offshore oil terminals at the entrance to the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr. Navy Captain Phil Beierl told Marine Corps Times, “For the first few hours of the war, we were the most forward ship in the U.S. Navy.” "