Marines' embassy guard boost will be tough, expert says

• Classes are offered 5 times a year, have 200 students and have a 25% washout rate
• Extending time served as guards is an option but could strain other areas
• State Department wants to reallocate $553 million for the extra guards

The Marine Corps could face significant challenges fulfilling a congressional mandate to nearly double its number of embassy security guards at a time when the service is drawing down its active-duty force.

In response to the deadly attack in September on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, Congress has called for 1,000 new Marine security guards to provide additional protection for U.S. diplomatic facilities around the world. About 1,200 Marine security guards now are assigned to more than 130 countries.

The additional guards would be assigned to the Marine Corps Embassy Security Group, based in Quantico, Va., and to regional commands and detachments at embassies, consulates and diplomatic facilities worldwide. The extra personnel would be authorized beginning fiscal year 2014 and would be available for three years.

The service anticipates it will be able to assess and train the enough Marines to fulfill the new requirement, said a Marine Corps spokesman at the Pentagon, Capt. Gregory Wolf.

But filling manpower quotas has been a challenge even when the State Department capped the number of Marine security guards at much lower levels, said Andrew Bufalo, a retired Marine master sergeant who served as a detachment commander at American embassies in the Republic of Congo and Australia. He's the author of Ambassadors in Blue, a book about the Embassy Security Group.

Nearly doubling its size won't come easy, Bufalo said.

"When you look at the quality of troops you need out at the (Embassy Security Group), usually they're the better Marines, so commanders don't want to let them go to that duty," he said. "Then you get to the school and you have a high attrition rate because the standards are high."

Those high standards historically result in a 25% washout rate at Quantico's Marine Security Guard School, Wolf said. That means for every 200 students, sergents and below, who start the seven-week training program, about 150 go on to become Marine security guards.

In comparison, the washout rate has averaged less than 3% in the past two years at Marine Corps Security Force Regiment, which trains Fleet Antiterrorism Security Teams in Norfolk, Va., a Marine official there said. Those platoons can be dispatched to shore up security at diplomatic facilities when trouble arises, as they were in wake of the Benghazi attack and other violent incidents abroad during the fall.

A report released Tuesday by the State Department summarizes an independent review board's findings on the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in Benghazi. It cites several internal failures that led to inadequate security for preventing and responding to the incident, which left U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans dead.

To carry out the review board's recommendations, the State Department asked Congress to reallocate $1.4 billion originally set aside for Iraq. That includes $553 million for additional Marine security guards.

The standards at security guard school are high for a reason, Bufalo said, and lowering them to get more Marines through the school is not the answer. If the Corps attempts to push too many students through the program quickly, it risks fielding some personnel who are unfit for the job.

The school can accommodate 200 students per seven-week class and has five classes a year, Wolf said, leaving time between each round for instructors to complete specialized training and take leave.

Churning out 1,000 new Marine security guards could mean adding more classes or adding more students per class. Bufalo said the Corps will need to boost staff significantly for either option.

"They just built the new compound," he said of Quantico's new training facility, which has been opening in stages and is expected to be complete in 2014. "And I'm thinking they probably didn't build it with a larger class size in mind."

The State Department's proposal to Congress recommends more Marines be stationed at dangerous diplomatic posts around the world, according to a report published Tuesday in The Daily Beast, which cites unnamed government officials familiar with the State Department's plan. It's not immediately clear if that means more Marines at existing posts or if new posts will be created for places now without detachments.

Another option for filling these 1,000 slots: Extending the time a Marine is assigned to the Embassy Security Group. They now serve three years at two or three posts, depending on their rank.

But keeping Marine security guards on special duty assignment would take them from their primary jobs, potentially creating other deficiencies and voids in the Marine Corps' operating forces, Bufalo said.