Col. Victor Pastor, Assistant Chief of Staff, G-3/5, 4th Marine Division, discusses force design and establishing a crisis response force Dec. 15, 2021, at Marine Corps Support Facility New Orleans. II MEF and MARFORRES are the Marine Corps’ service-retained forces administratively and operationally controlled by the Marine Corps instead of a combatant command, such as most Marines stationed in California and Japan who are aligned to support U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. The importance of these operational planning teams is to establish the process needed to create an effective service-retained crisis response force to respond to global threats outside of USINDOPACOM area of responsibility. MARFORRES and II MEF are the Marine Corps’ service-retained forces, which means they are administratively and operationally controlled by the Marine Corps. - Col. Victor Pastor, Assistant Chief of Staff, G-3/5, 4th Marine Division, discusses force design and establishing a crisis response force Dec. 15, 2021, at Marine Corps Support Facility New Orleans. II MEF and MARFORRES are the Marine Corps’ service-retained forces administratively and operationally controlled by the Marine Corps instead of a combatant command, such as most Marines stationed in California and Japan who are aligned to support U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. The importance of these operational planning teams is to establish the process needed to create an effective service-retained crisis response force to respond to global threats outside of USINDOPACOM area of responsibility. MARFORRES and II MEF are the Marine Corps’ service-retained forces, which means they are administratively and operationally controlled by the Marine Corps.
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12/05/2025 - https://news.usni.org/2025/12/01/u-s-marine-corps-activates-3-new-companies-at-japan-base-as-part-of-force-design-2030
12/02/2025 - https://taskandpurpose.com/news/marines-retention-goal-record-time/
11/24/2025 - https://apnews.com/article/melania-trump-usha-vance-military-north-carolina-e208c5836eb8687f0950ad7625ab3203
11/19/2025 - https://defence-blog.com/u-s-marines-test-rapid-response-in-urban-combat-drill/