Navy SEALs vs. Marine Raiders (MARSOC)

The United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the U.S. Navy’s primary special operations force and a component of the Naval Special Warfare Command. Among the SEALs’ main functions is conducting small-unit special operation missions in maritime, jungle, urban, arctic, mountainous, and desert environments. SEALs are typically ordered to capture or kill high-level targets, or to gather intelligence behind enemy lines.

All active SEALs are members of the U.S. Navy. The CIA’s highly secretive and elite Special Operations Group (SOG) recruits operators from SEAL Teams, with joint operations going back to the MACV-SOG during the Vietnam War. This cooperation still exists today, as evidenced by military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Marine Raiders are special operations forces originally established by the United States Marine Corps during World War II to conduct amphibious light infantry warfare. “Edson’s” Raiders of the 1st Marine Raider Battalion and “Carlson’s” Raiders of the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion are said to have been the first United States special operations forces to form and see combat during World War II.

Despite the original intent for Raiders to serve in a special operations capacity, most combat operations saw the Raiders employed as conventional infantry. This, combined with the resentment within the rest of the Marine Corps that the Raiders were an “elite force within an elite force”, led to the original Raider units being disbanded.

In 2014, the Marine Special Operations Regiment, serving under the United States Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC), was renamed the Marine Raider Regiment. This change was implemented as an homage to the World War II Raiders. Marine special operators of the Marine Raider Regiment are once again called “Marine Raiders”