By Megan Scully CongressDaily November 29, 2007
The commander of the Marine Corps' nascent Special Operations Command Thursday said he has roughly 65 percent of his force in place, with plans to fill all 2,600 positions by next year. Maj. Gen. Dennis Hejik said growing the new command, which was created in February 2006, initially proved challenging because he had to recruit from within the Marine Corps' ranks.
"That in itself was a little bit difficult to start with," Hejik said. But over the last 20 months, he has attracted hundreds of special operators, all of whom have combat experience. The command, Hejik added, is "a very top-heavy organization" by Marine Corps standards, with most personnel having eight to 10 years of experience. Of the 1,700 personnel under his command, Hejik said 70 are majors -- an unusually high number of mid-grade officers for the Corps.
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