The Marine Corps Special Operations Command Detachment One, also simply known as Det One, was a pilot program of attaching a permanent unit of the United States Marine Corps to the United States Special Operations Command. It was commanded by Col. Robert J. Coates, former commanding officer of 1st Force Reconnaissance Company. Det One was activated on 19 June 2003 and had its headquarters at Camp Del Mar Boat Basin in Camp Pendleton, California. It was disbanded in 2006 and succeeded by the permanent United States Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC). Personnel The unit consisted of 81 Marines and 5 Navy Corpsmen divided among 4 sections: reconnaissance element (30 men) Marine Corps Intelligence element (29 men), containing a headquarters element and a Radio Reconnaissance Team (RRT), (9 men) a SIGINT support team (3 men) a human intelligence (HUMINT) exploitation team (HET), (6 men) an all-source fusion team (12 men) fires element (7 men) headquarters element The original Marines that formed the detachment were hand-picked from over 500 superior candidates. Despite common misconceptions, Det One was not a beefed-up Force Reconnaissance platoon. While the reconnaissance element was composed mostly of Force Recon Marines, they made up only 24 of the 86 members of the detachment. The detachment, though lacking organic aviation, operated under the Marine Air-Ground Task Force philosophy of leveraging integrated, complementary capabilities to be more effective than the sum of its parts. More than half of Det One's Recon Marines were trained Scout Snipers. Insignia Detachment One's Insignia comes from the World War II Marine Raider's patch, a blue patch with a skull and stars. The insignia was created by LtCol (then-GySgt) Anthony Siciliano, USMC. The scarlet, blue, and gold disk represents the unit's joint Navy-Marine Corps origins. The crossed stiletto/lightning bolt represents the unit's special operations mission, and its global communications reach. The parachute wings represent airborne-qualified status and the mask above it represents the combatant diver qualification. History Although Detachment One was a relatively new unit its heritage can be traced back to World War II Marine Raiders. In World War II, the Marine Raiders were formed to seize key beaches and hills and also conduct guerrilla-style strikes against Imperial Japanese Forces. After two years the Raiders were disbanded but they set the stage for other raider-style units like Detachment One. In 1986, when the Department of Defense established the new joint Special Operations Command,