4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade

The 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade is a brigade-sized unit of the United States Marine Corps that is designed specifically to be an anti-terrorism unit. The mission of this unit is to be a quickly deployable unit to wherever needed in the world so they can fight terrorism and deter, detect and defend from terrorist groups both domestically and internationally. The unit became operational on 29 October 2001.

What is Marine Expeditionary Brigade?
A Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) is a smaller brigade of marines that can deploy quickly when they are needed. All Marine Expeditionary Brigades are a part of a Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF).

The reason a MEB exists is that they are large enough to support themselves without needing help from local infrastructure. They are also small enough to transport easily, especially in amphibious mechanized landing craft. The 4th MEB is specifically trained to find and stop terrorist plots so civilians and other active military personnel stay safe. There are different types of the MEBs, and not all are anti-terrorism like the 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade. The MEBs are designed so no matter what mission comes up there is always a force that can handle that specific situation effectively.

History of the 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade
The 4th MEB was formed during World War I as the 4th Marine Brigade. It served in France as one of the two infantry brigades of the U.S. Army 2nd Infantry Division and all Marine combat units in World War I were organized under the 4th Marine Brigade. The 4th fought actions at Belleau Wood, Soissons and Meuse-Argonne campaign. Following World War I the brigade was inactivated until just before the commitment to the war in Vietnam in 1964. The brigade didn’t go to Vietnam though; it went to the east coast and Caribbean for counter insurgency exercises. On the east coast it participated in the intervention in the Dominican Republic in 1965. The next major operation for the 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade was going to the Middle East for operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the 1990s. The main operation performed by the 4th MEB was operation EASTERN EXIT which the brigade rescued the Soviet ambassador, the U.S. ambassador, and 300 other dignitaries from Mogadishu, Somalia. After a period of inactivation, the 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade (Anti-Terrorism) was reactivated on 29 October 2001 at ceremonies held at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Organization and Training of the 4th MEB
The organization of the 4th MEB is a unit designed to work independently, but also trained to work with other Marine units. This unit is organized with a couple of other units like the Chemical, Biological Incident Response Force (CBIRF). Being paired with this and many other units like security force battalion broadens the range of response circumstances that the 4th MEB can respond to. With all of the assets the 4th MEB has, it makes them very deadly and able to perform the job extremely well. When a mission comes up the MEB team can be paired with almost any other unit in the Marines like aviation and ground forces so the mission will have a greater chance of success. The way the Marine Corps set up their forces like the MEB is having them be part of larger task forces. The category that MEB falls into is Marine air-ground task force (MAGTF) which means they operate both in the air and on the ground. This MAGTF is then subdivided with the Marine Expeditionary Forces (MEF) being the largest of the three subdivisions. The medium sized one being the Marine Expeditionary Brigade and the smallest is the Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). This makes the Marine Expeditionary Force a good size, with about 4,800 marine and sailors, because it is large enough to sustain itself for long periods of time but can also send smaller units on patrol.

The 4th MEB Marines go through extensive training to become part of the anti-terrorism team. The main goal of their training is to learn urban combat tactics. An example is when the team goes through BUST, which is Basic Urban Skills Training. The goal of this course is to better train soldiers to be safer when they're in urban environments and perform breaching and other tactics used in urban combat. This training helps the anti-terrorism group become better at eliminating their targets so there are fewer terrorism threats. They also go through normal marine boot camp like all soldiers in the Marine Corps must go through. Also, they must train with other units they are paired with like Chemical, Biological Incident Response Force. They do this so if need arises they are prepared for whatever circumstances could arise. This is extremely important to do because if the units aren’t trained together and they are needed in a time of war the mission could go badly and there would be a larger chance for loss of life.

Awards
On 26 July 2002, the 4th MEB became the first regular military unit to ever receive the Department of State Group Superior Honor Award for the hard work and dedication of its Marines and sailors during Operation Enduring Freedom. The award recognized Company L, 4th MEB (AT) for outstanding service while stationed at the American Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.