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USMC DMR 2000's pics

7K views 52 replies 18 participants last post by  Konez 
#1 ·
Inspired by Ryan and Robski posts recently on the USMC DMR I came across some nice pics online that I hadn't seen before, thought I'd share. I've seen conflicting end dates of service (2010 vs 2014), still very cool to see them being used in 2010.

Sky Air gun Machine gun Brickwork Military uniform


2001, Marine FAST team, embassy retaking training.

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Marine Sgt. Zachary Zobrist, 3rd platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion. Northern Trek Nawa, Afghanistan, Aug 15, 2010.

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COB in Toor Ghar, Helmand providence Afghanistan Feb 8, 2010. 1/3 marines Alpha Co.
 
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#2 · (Edited)
That first picture is pretty unusual, one of the few early prototypes with the black stock, thanks for sharing. The 2nd and 3rd pics show a non-standard scope with an illuminated reticle. Last pic shows the DMR and it’s replacement, the M39. To the left is a transitional M40A3 with the PGW NV mount, but no suppressor set-up that came out with the M40A5. Neat pics. Here’s 2 more:
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The below pic is a little unusual, MARSOC Marine with DMR with SEI mount and the S&B 3-12x scope usually seen on the M40A5. (Not sure of date).
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#6 ·
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Lejuene 2008 or 2009 I can’t remember. I just remember it was taken with a flip phone of the highest quality for its day. View attachment 508284
Sangin 2010

I got some more I just have to get the faces out of them.

I upgraded to a smart phone early last year. Before that I used and LG slider phone. The dang cell company shut the slider off so I had no choice or id still be using it.
I wanted to thank you for sharing these pics with us and thanks for serving too. I actually appreciate it. I have a great deal of respect for Marines. I worked with many throughout my 21 years in LE. Marines were some of the best cops I ever knew and a pleasure to work with. I can honestly tell you this....if a guy needs backup now, it doesn't get any better than a Marine arriving on scene. Yes things will be broken and choice words used but you're safe now.
 
#9 ·
No expert, but here's my understanding. SOCOM was created in 1987, but did not include the Marine Corps. MARSOC was proposed in 2002 and created in 2004. After a two year test period, it was formally incorporated under SOCOM in Feb 2006. Here's a book on MARSOC topic:
So I assume they did away with Meusoc, RG? Thanks for the link and info too, good sir. For the longest time, I had zero clue that the C in Marsoc stood for command. I always thought it stood for capable.


FYI: I've never served in the US Military but nearly all my buddies have. So this stuff is very interesting to me from current to historic facts.
 
#17 · (Edited)
I know you like to answer questions and be helpful, but you don't need to try to answer every single question that's asked on these forums. If you don't know the answer 100%, then don't post up speculation. Let the people who actually know the answer put up a post so that there isn't any confusion on the topic.
I agree, and confess my knowledge is limited to what I have read re MARSOC and it's formative years circa 2002-2006. I think their are some nuances re MEU vs the old MEU(SOC) designation. My limited knowledge is that the old MEU(SOC) certification has been retired. The original MEU(SOC) designation goes back to the 1980s regarding 'special operations capable' Marines forces, which you correctly noted. Apparently the "(SOC)" was a certification-based designation for those Marine Expeditionary forces, presumably based on specialized training and equipment, etc. Again, that's only what I have read. I get the sense that after 9/11, a re-evaluation began of broadening the SOCOM forces to include the Marine Corps, and new designations were created to accommodate that transition...
(2011 article)

"The MEU(SOC)s and FORECON bridged a gap between traditional conventional forces and the still-evolving special operations components of SOCOM in the early years of OEF and Operation Iraqi Freedom. At the same time, they helped create the template upon which the Marine Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC) would be built – and paved the way for significant changes in how today’s conventional forces think, train, and fight.

"Osborn said today’s MEUs are, in many ways, even more “special operations capable” than when they were certified as MEU(SOC)s. Now, what had been the primary “SOC” piece of the pre-MARSOC MEU is called the Maritime Special Purpose Force (MSPF), centered around a Force Recon platoon and trained up to a special ops capable level, but without IHR.

...“So the difference between MEU(SOC) and MEU, realistically, is not great. The certification process today is almost exactly the same as it was in the 1990s, with similar – but more advanced – mission sets, having taken some equipment from the MEU(SOC)s and SOCOM, including the ability to communicate with SOF forces,” Osborn said. “The MEUs worked then and now in the clandestine and overt environment, not in the SOC covert world. So the breakpoint is clandestine overt versus covert.


“Because of the piracy and maritime raid target issue a couple of years ago, the Maritime Raid Force was stood back up as a proof-of-concept with the 15th MEU, centered around the Force Recon platoon for the full-spectrum mission, bottom up and top down. All six MEUs on both coasts – and the 31st in Japan – are expected to train to that level now in all maritime raid target sets – oil refineries, near shore, all those things in the overt mission action area for forces around the world.


"Mission-functionality wise, today’s MEU can do everything the old MEU(SOC)s could do – and more. The training level we take the MEUs to now is designed to operate in support of, adjacent to, and with SOF,” Campbell concluded. “On our last deployment, the 15th MEU had Marines embedded in various SOCOM task forces for almost the entire seven-month deployment.

“With V-22s and Huey-Yankees [UH-1Y Venom, aka Super Huey] and Cobra-Zs [AH-1Z Viper, aka Super Cobra], today’s MEUs are far more capable than the MEU(SOC)s in the early 2000s, with a much greater ability to range targets in early darkness or greater distance. The old metric of a couple of hundred miles being a hard mission has changed to 600 miles being not unusual.”

***

...I could have mis-interpreted that article and the book on MARSOC that outlines the historical formation of MARSOC, but it suggests that as of Feb 24, 2006, the old MEU(SOC) forces and the 2004-2006 "proof concept" called Marine Corps Special Operations Command Detachment One (aka Det One) forces - were formally moved under the brand new MARSOC organization, then commanded by Brig. General Dennis J. Hejlik. Hence my understanding that the old "MEU(SOC)" certification is sort-of a pre-MARSOC era designation, but it apparently stuck around a little longer. I found one MEU that earned the SOC certification in 2007, but not sure how much longer that certification existed.
Here's what Wikipedia states re MEU(SOC):
"Marine expeditionary unit (special operations capable) (MEU(SOC)) was a program created by the United States Marine Corps and the United States Navy in 1985 for Marine expeditionary units (MEU).[1][2] As of 2013 the term MEU(SOC) is obsolete.[3]

....I was never a Marine, so certainly no expert on this topic area, but it seems the MEU(SOC) term is no longer used, that was all I was trying to impart.

Back when MEUSOC first hit the scene I liked their 1911 pistols so much I had one built sorta as a quasi clone so to speak.
Well, you might like this project from years ago, when 'Hobby Lobby' still existed and the guys who built these were still there. (I subsequently traded it for Unertl scope to finish my M40A1 project). Never shot it, and probably should have kept it...but I'm just more into rifles than pistols.
Before picture ($200 for this nickel-plated, and stripped 1943 Colt pistol project)
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After picture (same frame, but built to perfection):
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#20 ·
All the DMRs came with a cheek riser. Some people just got rid of them. The saddle cheek risers on the DMR and M40a3/5 had a bad habit of coming loose and dropping usually at a very inconvenient time. We usually would just pull the cheek riser off and put them n a box and make our pin cheek riser out of isomat and duct tape (see the m40a3 in my early post).
 
#22 ·
" It's as simple as adding a certain unit to a MEU in order to fulfill SOC requirements, that's it, nothing more."

While that may be true now, in my experience in the 1980's and 90's, is different. I did both MEU and MEU(SOC) deployments both before and after the Gulf War. My last MEU deployment was as MEU(SOC) and though we also had the nominal Force Recon Det. on board attached to the MEU(SOC) that is not what made us (SOC) alone. Most units in the Battalion Landing Team and the Air Group had a special operations mission tasked to them. These, along with Force Recon, constituted the SOC in MEU(SOC).
 
#23 ·
" It's as simple as adding a certain unit to a MEU in order to fulfill SOC requirements, that's it, nothing more."

While that may be true now, in my experience in the 1980's and 90's, is different. I did both MEU and MEU(SOC) deployments both before and after the Gulf War. My last MEU deployment was as MEU(SOC) and though we also had the nominal Force Recon Det. on board attached to the MEU(SOC) that is not what made us (SOC) alone. Most units in the Battalion Landing Team and the Air Group had a special operations mission tasked to them. These, along with Force Recon, constituted the SOC in MEU(SOC).

Would any of you Marines happen to know of a good source for MEUSOC photos of say late 90's to the 2000 era?
 
#33 ·

I notice many of your rifles have compensators installed. Do you prefer them over flash suppressors in terms of accuracy?

The bottom woodland camo McMillan stocked rifle is a really slick looking setup.
 
#25 ·
Lot of talk about MEU(SOC) and whether it exists anymore. Keep in mind that name just comes from the way the Marine Corps organizes units for deployment. The Recon units themselves are their own distinct organizations and very much do still exist. USMC Recon units are comprised of 03 (infantry) marines who have gone through the basic reconnaissance course (which is brutal). While MARSOC falls under the SOCOM umbrella, Recon units are still under Marine Corps command. When they first stood up MARSOC they gutted the Force Recon community to make it happen.
 
#26 ·
Man I have to track down a McMillan M2A stock. Albeit a commercial one. Can't afford a take off. lol
 
#49 · (Edited)
The PWS guys used to bring out the "Last of the Mohicans" during the Quantico Shooting Club matches, but they have been since been dissembled and will be (or have been) restored. Here's some of last ones that possibly saw combat in the previous decade somewhere in Iraq or Afghanistan. These pics were taken in 2018, and I think 2019 was the last time I saw them with the orig. paint. The one I used back then at a match had really dirty lens in the old Unertl scope. It needed to be serviced.
Air gun Motor vehicle Trigger Wheel Tire



Plant Automotive tire Grass Gas Auto part
 
#50 ·
The PWS guys used to bring out the "Last of the Mohicans" during the Quantico Shooting Club matches, but they have been since been dissembled and will be restored. Here's some of last ones that possibly saw combat in the previous decade somewhere in Iraq or Afghanistan. These pics were taken in 2018, and I think 2019 was the last time I saw them with the orig. paint. The one I used back then at a match had really dirty lens in the old Unertl scope. It needed to be serviced.
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I'd love to know if one of those M40A1's is the rifle my SSP had in Fallujah, Iraq (the one that WidowMaker 1's team leader used throughout our deployment). Hopefully I can get a serial number or photograph from someone. Also, all of those A1's have been torn apart and rebuilt. All of them. So, next Quantico match they are brought to, guys will be shooting brand new rifles! A 2112 buddy also found one of the 40X M40A1 receivers mixed in with other 40X receivers in one of their cages. He was going to rebuild the 40X receiver back into an A1, but it failed the gauges/measurements that were taken. So, at least we know why that receiver isn't being used, it's no longer serviceable.
 
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