Marines get standalone command at MacDill AFB
TAMPA — Though the U.S. is beginning to focus military might on the Far East, the Marine Corps delivered a message to our friends and enemies in the Middle East Tuesday morning at MacDill Air Force Base.
"The Middle East is critically important to us," said Lt. Gen. Robert Neller, at a ceremony marking the decision to make Marine Corps Forces Central Command at MacDill the sole responsibility of one three-star general.
In the past, the commander split time between MacDill and Camp Pendleton in California, home of the 45,000-strong I Marine Expeditionary Force. Making the MacDill command a standalone is a signal that the Marines want to continue focusing on the Middle East, even as U.S. forces are scheduled to turn over control of security in Afghanistan to local forces in 2014.
"Now, you might ask, why do this now?" asked Neller, the command's first leader. "Well, I would say the events of the past week kind of answer that question by itself."
Those events include an attack on a joint Marine-British forces base in Afghanistan in which two Marines were killed and six Harrier jets, worth millions, were destroyed by the Taliban, as well as the worldwide unrest associated with a movie denigrating Islam.
"I think that for the entire force, it does make it more difficult," said Neller of the movie – "Innocence of Muslims."
Neller said that there is an investigation into the attack on Camp Bastion, in which 15 Taliban breached the heavily fortified base.
"There is war over there and the enemy gets a vote," Neller said. "For a short period of time, they did what they did, but at the end of the day – sadly we lost two Marines – but all the attackers, with the exception of the one we captured and wounded, are no longer able to do this type of thing again."
Neller said he hopes to gauge how our allies are responding to the decision about the command in the next month, as he visits the region.
"I'll find out if this resonates with them and they still understand we have that commitment to them," he said.
The command, known as MARCENT in military terms, provides command and control of about 15,000 Marines in one of the world's most dangerous regions, a 20-nation swath controlled by U.S. Central Command, also based at MacDill. The region includes Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Yemen and Egypt.
Centcom commander, Gen. James Mattis, said that as the U.S. presence in the Middle East shifts from land-based to one focused on the Navy, Marines and Air Force, "MARCENT will be crucial."
While the decision to make MARCENT a standalone is intended to have global ramifications, there won't be much affect locally in terms of jobs. The command, which began in 1990 and came to MacDill in 2005, has about 150 Marines and will maintain those numbers with the new designation, according to MARCENT spokesman Lt. Col. Joe Kloppel. And that's despite the Corps looking to cut 20,000 Marines from around the force.
"We don't anticipate a change in the staff," Kloppel said.
