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USMC Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team (FAST)

Unit Profile

U.S. Marine Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team (FAST) Company

FAST Company is primarily designed to conduct defensive combat operations, military security operations, and rear area security operations. It also can be tailored for specific tasks from the Chief of Naval Operations. They also ensure nuclear material on submarines is not compromised when the vessels are docked.

Following the bombing in Saudi Arabia, the threat condition was raised for installations and FAST Marines responded. Based upon site surveys at each location, the Task Force determined that tactics and techniques for protecting entry onto installations varied widely, even among those installations in the same Threat Condition. At Eskan Village, Riyadh, service members entering the base went through two checkpoints. The first was manned by Saudi forces, who checked all members, including U.S., host nation, and Third Country National citizens. The second check point was manned by U.S. forces, who also checked all people. This contrasted with Khobar Towers, where all base entry points were manned by both Saudi and U.S. forces. At Camp Doha, Kuwait, an initial checkpoint several kilometers from the base was manned by both Kuwaiti and U.S. military forces, while the base entry point was manned by armed contract security guards. At Ali Al-Salem Air Base, Kuwait, Bangladeshi military forces, contracted by the government of Kuwait, provided entry control. At the Sahara Residence, a billeting facility in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, entry was controlled by unarmed contract security guards, while at Manai Plaza in Bahrain, another billeting complex, entry was controlled by Marines from the U.S. Marine Corps Fleet Antiterrorist Security Team (FAST) and Bahrainian special forces troops. Entry control at the Administrative Support Unit Bahrain was provided by U.S. Navy and Bahrainian forces, with heavy weapons support from the Marine Fleet Antiterrorist Security Team.

FAST Company has proven itself in more than 70 special security missions and has been in the following operations: Desert Shield/Desert Storm, Sharp Edge (Liberia,) Just Cause (Panama,) Promote Liberty (Panama) and Safe Return in Haiti.

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.