Marine Security Guard

Marine Corps Embassy Security Group
MCESG logo
Founded	1948
Country	United States of America
Branch	United States Marine Corps
Type	Marines Security forces
Role	Embassy security
Size	approx. 1,800 at 176 locations[1]
Garrison/HQ	MCB Quantico, Virginia, U.S.
Nickname(s)	"Marine Security Guards", "Marine Embassy Guards"
Motto(s)	In Every Clime and Place
Commanders
Current commander	Colonel Kelly Frushour[2]

Overview of the Marine Security Guard selection and training, c. 1964 (25:57)

A Marine Security Guard (MSG), also known as a Marine Embassy Guard, is a member of the Marine Corps Embassy Security Group (formerly Marine Security Guard Battalion),^[3][4] a brigade-sized organization of the United States Marine Corps (USMC) whose detachments provide security at American embassies, consulates, and other official U.S. government offices, such as the United States Mission to NATO in Brussels, Belgium.^[a]

The USMC has a long history of cooperation with the U.S. Department of State, which administers the nation's diplomatic posts; Marines have served on special missions as couriers, guards for embassies and delegations, and security for U.S. citizens in the frontier. Notable examples include engagements at Derna and Tripoli, the secret mission of Archibald H. Gillespie in the Mexican-American War, and actions during the Boxer Rebellion.

However, the formal and permanent use of Marines as security guards began with the Foreign Service Act of 1946, which authorized the Secretary of the Navy, upon the request of the Secretary of State, to assign Marines to serve as custodians under the supervision of the senior diplomatic officer at a diplomatic post; pursuant to the act, the first joint Memorandum of Agreement between the Department of the Navy and the Department of State was signed on 15 December 1948 regarding the provisions of assigning Marines overseas. Initially trained at the Foreign Service Institute, the first Marines arrived at Tangier and Bangkok in early 1949; the Marine Corps has assumed primary training responsibility since November 1954.

The authority granted in the Foreign Service Act of 1946 has since been replaced by 10 U.S.C. § 8183 and the most recent Memorandum of Agreement was signed in October 2020. The Corps is budgeted to train and maintain a limited cadre of guards to cover over 100 embassies worldwide. Embassy duty has been a crucial and longstanding aspect of the Marines’ mission. In response to the 2012 Benghazi attack, Congress ordered a near doubling of Marine Security Guards in the midst of a post-war drawdown in overall USMC numbers.^[5] The USMC has responded by redeploying one company from 1st Battalion 1st Marines while additional guards are trained.^[6]

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