How Fast is FAST?

Wikipedia

Most of us have read about our military elite operators: the SEALs who are connected with the United States navy, the Delta Force and Green Berets who are with our army. But few people have heard about our Marine special units. 

We talked about one of them the Marine Raiders HERE, but there's another Marine unit called FAST. Marine Fleet-Anti-terrorism Security Team.

I featured a Marine with the Marine Raiders in WASP, the first book in the Uncommon Enemies series, and in the second book, RELIC, Brian Ackerman, our hero, is retired from a FAST unit.

FAST units are deployed all over the world. You might be most familiar with them as the team that responded to the Benghazi attack from their base in Spain.

If there is a terrorist attack anywhere in the world that involves US forces, these guys are ready to be deployed. They have received special training to handle terrorists.

"They are highly skilled in counter surveillance, physical security, urban combat techniques, close quarter combat, and martial arts... Companies contain six platoons of fifty Marines. On deployment, FAST can be stationed in Spain, Japan, and Bahrain." (1)

Right now we have three FAST companies in the US as well as a training company. Companies A and C are located in Norfolk, Virginia, and Company B, which is located at Yorktown, Virginia. These companies operate under the control of the Marine Corps Security Force Regiment located on Naval Air Station, Norfolk, Virginia.

The Security Force Regiment Training Company is located on Naval Support Activity Hampton Roads, in Chesapeake, Virginia. (2)

Can I just say all four units are about two hours from my house where there is also a SEAL team - so in the event of a zombie apocalypse, or any other disaster - I know where I'm headed. 

Marines assigned to FAST have:

• SOI (School of Infantry).
• Security Force School - (NSA Northwest, Chesapeake, VA) - Teaches Combat Marksmanship (shotgun and pistol), Close Quarter Battle
• FAST Training (5 weeks)-(NSA Northwest, Chesapeake, VA) Additional training in Advanced Urban Combat. (2)

Elite US Marines, ready, willing, and more than able!

In RELIC, Retired Marine FAST member is now working for Iniquus where his work as one of the nation’s top security professionals has fueled his lust for adrenaline-laced danger. While Brian’s private life may seem risky, his professional life is strictly business. Until he accepts two private protection contracts that is. 

Available on most e-readers

Two security assignments seem simple enough. Brian’s been wrong before.

The first assignment involves protecting archaeologists, Sophia Abadi and Nadia Dajani. While digging to uncover a remote site is a bit mundane by Brian’s standard, he welcomes the chance and the challenge.

The second assignment requires Brian to do his own digging to uncover the truth. The thrill seeker is contracted by the FBI to discover who is financing ISIS through the sale of conflict relics from Syria. Problem is, his suspects are also the two archaeologists.

His initial introductions to both esteemed scientists not only reveal the challenges of protecting them, but a shocking dilemma of honoring his security contract. Seems the woman he’d fallen for after one incredible night in New York is the very same Sophia he’s now charged with protecting and leading into an FBI trap.

Meet Brian Ackerman. He has a gun. He also has a heart.

I hope you enjoy reading RELIC, I look forward to hearing what you think!

Cheers,

Fiona

Information for his article comes from:

• http://www.military.com/special-operations/marine-fleet-antiterrorism-security-team.html (1)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Corps_Security_Force_Regiment (2)

DARPA...What?

DARPA - have you heard of it?

It stands for: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

If you haven't heard of them, you might have heard some of the inventions that DARPA research helped bring to reality:

• the Internet
• Windows and the World Wide Web
• Video conferencing
• Google maps
• GPS
• Stealth aircraft

Your tax dollars, ladies and gentleman, hard at work.

Here are 10 incredible, mind boggling research projects they're working on right now! 

• Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) - that is bullets that can change directions!
• Flying trucks
• Transformer program flying cars
• Legged Squad Support System (LS3) - a four legged robot meant to go where the soldiers go and carry their burdens.
• Z-man helps soldiers crawl up walls like a spider or lizard.
• BOLT! Doesn't that awesome? Broad Operational Language Translator - to break down language barriers.
• Solar Eagle - a drone that can stay in the air for years.
• A contact lens that increases optical awareness
• Upward Falling Payloads - one of the problems that the Navy has is with restocking/obtaining supplies. What if they were stored on the ocean floor easily available?
• On demand satellite imaging

In my novel WASP, Zoe Kealoha is a micro roboticist who is contracted with DARPA. She is working to save lives after she was influenced by the 9-11 water rescues to do everything she could for the greater good. Her research is geared toward doing just that - keeping innocent people out of jail. Pinpointing the terrorists so innocent bystanders aren't swept up in events -- but not everyone has her level of compassion. In fact, there are a whole bunch of people who want the information in Zoe's head. They just don't care how they get it from her. READ IT TODAY!

Resource information for this article came from HERE

What in the World is a Marine Raider?

Marine Raider. 

For other Marine Raider images go HERE

No? Never heard the term? 

I recently received a lovely note from a Marine after I sent out a newsletter that mentioned that my new novel WASP had a hero named Gage Harrison who was a Marine Raider out of Lejeune. "Uh oh," he said, "Marine Raiders haven’t been around since mid-twentieth century." 

And you know what? He was right! Sort of.

You see, the Marine Raiders were developed as an elite unit back in WWII. The Marines didn’t very much like the idea of an “elite” unit and the effort was ended in 1944 when they were considered "no longer necessary." And then, yup, America decided they were pretty darned necessary. 

In 2014, they were back but this time they worked under the name MARSOC – Marine Special Operations Regiment and later reclaimed their original name Marine Raider – like Gage, my wonderful character.

AMAZON LINK

You all know about Army Rangers and SEALs. You know of the difficult selection process and the rigorous super-human training that they go through. And this is the same for the Marines. The Marines were faced with establishing their own brand of super-hero. They began by building on what they knew from the other branches, but as the Marine Raiders' role clarified, so did the selection and vetting process as well as the training.

“Raiders' capabilities are a unique blend with more emphasis on amphibious operations than, say, Army Rangers, but less than SEALS. And they offer something else, that aggressive can-do Marine ethos.” (NPR, 2016)

One of the reasons that Marine Raiders are not well known is that they keep a low profile. There are some Raider units that are not even discussed officially. This anonymity is part of their mystique and perhaps partly because they are a small group of operators. 

According to a Marine, Price, interviewed by NPR at Lejeune, 

“…the Raiders say their size is also a strength because it means a tighter team. They have only about 3,000 Marines. That's little more than a tenth of the number of troops in Army special operations and less than a third as many as Navy special ops. Arkin [Military analyst William Arkin] says a big question is whether their identity will be distinctive. He thinks they should lean heavily on the traditional Marine expertise in brief, hard-hitting missions and coastal fighting.”

In WASP, Gage’s skills are put to the test – good to know he had the background and the intensive training so he knew how to get the job done.

WASP: Available on most platforms

Zoe Kealoha is a military research scientist. Her work with microrobotics is meant to save lives. But she’d kept her work a secret to protect her from just this kind of scenario. As footfalls outside her bedroom door stalked closer, Zoe knew her quiet world was about to be upended.

​Unlike Zoe’s orderly world of hypothesis and laboratory controls, Gage Harrison loved the rush he got from his high-risk job as an elite warrior with the Marine Raiders. He was a Marine in every sense of the word. His soft spot was Zoe.

​When Gage hears Zoe’s screams from inside her home, his instincts and training switch from lover to guardian. He’ll stop at nothing to protect her from those plotting her abduction. Gage and his team are willing to risk everything to guard Zoe and her top secret military research. Zoe and Gage work together to untangle the sticky web of intrigue that traps politicians, schemers, spies, and lovers and those willing to put money over loyalty.


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I hope you enjoy my book - it's getting stellar reviews. I'd love to hear what you think!

~ Fiona


This article is based on an NPR article found HERE