3 Key Differences Between Recon Marines and Marine Raiders

By Tim Kirkpatrick,We Are the Mighty

Marines from the special operations community have been kicking ass and taking names for years. From hunting down Taliban fighters for questioning to tracking the highest value targets — they’re on the job.

While people know that the Marines have two different special forces units, most don’t understand the differences between them.

Both Marine Recon and Marine Raiders go through a similar training pipeline, but their differences may surprise you.

Related: 5 key differences between Army medics and Navy corpsmen

In many ways, these badasses are similar, but here are three key differences between the two elite units.

3. Their MOSs are different — but not by much.

Every job in the military has a different MOS, or military occupation specialty, designation. Marine Raiders have use MOS 0372 while Recon uses the designation of 0321.

You might’ve noticed that the first two numbers of these designations are same. If you have the numbers “03” at the beginning of your MOS designation, that means you’re a part of the Marine Infantry — and not a POG.

These Recon Marine conduct target practice and immediate action drill while on stationed on the MEU.