The U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific (MARFORPAC) is the

Marine Corps Marines (or naval infantry) are military personnel generally trained to operate on both land and sea, with a particular focus on amphibious warfare. Historically, the main tasks undertaken by marines have included raiding ashore (often in supp ...

service component command of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. It is the largest field command in the Marine Corps and is headquartered at Camp H. M. Smith in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

. The MARFORPAC area of responsibility covers more than half of the Earth's surface. It is composed of the

I Marine Expeditionary Force The I Marine Expeditionary Force ("I" pronounced "One") is a Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF) of the United States Marine Corps primarily composed of the 1st Marine Division, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, and 1st Marine Logistics Group. It i ...

(I MEF) and the

III Marine Expeditionary Force III Marine Expeditionary Force (III MEF) is a formation of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force of the United States Marine Corps. It is forward-deployed and able to rapidly conduct operations across the spectrum from humanitarian assistance and ...

(III MEF). Each MEF comprises a command element (CE), a

ground combat element In the United States Marine Corps, the ground combat element (GCE) is the land force of a Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF). It provides power projection and force for the MAGTF. Role within the MAGTF The ground combat element (GCE), composed p ...

(GCE) (1st and 3rd Marine Divisions), an

aviation combat element In the United States Marine Corps, the aviation combat element or air combat element (ACE) is the aviation component of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF). The ACE is task organized to perform the six functions of Marine Corps aviation in ...

(ACE) (1st and 3rd Marine Aircraft Wings), and a logistics combat element (LCE) (1st and 3rd Marine Logistics Groups).

History

Although the U.S. Marine Corps has had units stationed in the Pacific region since

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Marine Corps Forces Pacific (MARFORPAC) was not established as a service component of Pacific Command until 31 July 1992. The Commander, Marine Forces Pacific, is dual-hatted as Commanding General, Fleet Marine Force Pacific, a position that existed since 1944. General

Holland Smith Holland McTyeire "Howlin' Mad" Smith, Order of the Bath, KCB (April 20, 1882 – January 12, 1967) was a General officer, general in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. He is sometimes called the "father" of modern United St ...

, the first commander of Fleet Marine Force Pacific, established its headquarters in the summer of 1944 to lead over 500,000 Marines in the

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communi ...

that were subordinated to the U.S. Pacific Fleet. After its creation in 1992, MARFORPAC was initially one of only two Marine service component commands, along with Marine Corps Forces Atlantic. During the 1990s MARFORPAC commanded two-thirds of the combat units in the Marine Corps, totaling to over 80,000 Marines, and was responsible for providing forces to not only Pacific Command, but also to Central Command and the

United States Forces Korea The United States Forces Korea (USFK) is a Unified Combatant Command#Subordinate Unified Command, sub-unified command of United States Indo-Pacific Command, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM). USFK was initially established in 1957, and e ...

. Accordingly, the Commander of MARFORPAC was also the Commander of Marine Corps Forces Central Command (MARCENT) from the 1990s until it became a completely separate headquarters in 2005. In 2002, then-commander of Marine Forces Pacific, Earl B. Hailston, temporarily moved from Hawaii to the

Arab states of the Persian Gulf The Arab states of the Persian Gulf, also known as the Gulf Arab states (), refers to a group of Arab states bordering the Persian Gulf. There are seven member states of the Arab League in the region: Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Saudi ...

to oversee operations in the Middle East. The expansion of MARCENT during the War on Terror led to it being made a free standing headquarters under Central Command. Even after the removal of MARCENT from its area of responsibility, MARFORPAC remains the largest field command in the Marine Corps. A subordinate command for Marines in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

( Marine Corps Forces Korea or MARFORK) was also created in 1995, answering to MARFORPAC and U.S. Forces Korea.

Mission

As the assigned service component to

United States Indo-Pacific Command The United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) is the unified combatant command of the United States Armed Forces responsible for the Indo-Pacific, Indo-Pacific region. It is the oldest and largest of the unified combatant commands. Lead ...

area of responsibility Area of responsibility (AOR) is a pre-defined geographic region assigned to Combatant commanders of the Unified Command Plan (UCP), that are used to define an area with specific geographic boundaries where they have the authority to plan and c ...

, Marine Forces Pacific is responsible for the support, planning, and provision of forces in the INDOPACOM AOR or elsewhere as required and may be designated as an executive agent for standing responsibilities or named operations. Longstanding missions for MARFORPAC include building partner capacity in support of regional cooperation and capacity-building efforts, as well as the defense of

(via subordinate command MARFORK) and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. Marine Forces Pacific also provided combat units to support

Operation Iraqi Freedom The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with the invasion by a United States-led coalition, which resulted in the overthrow of the Ba'athist governm ...

and

Operation Enduring Freedom Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) was the official name used by the U.S. government for both the first stage (2001–2014) of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) and the larger-scale Global War on Terrorism. On 7 October 2001, in response ...

Organization

Marine Corps Forces Pacific consists of

(I MEF) and

(III MEF). According to the Commandant's Planning Guidance from 2019, I MEF will be designed to provide support to the

U.S. Third Fleet The United States Third Fleet is one of the numbered fleets in the United States Navy. Third Fleet's area of responsibility includes approximately fifty million square miles of the eastern and northern Pacific Ocean areas including the Bering S ...

while III MEF will provide support to the U.S. Seventh Fleet. U.S. Marines in South Korea have their own subordinate command, Marine Corps Forces Korea, that also answers to MARFORPAC, though it has no combat units assigned to it.

List of commanders

Notes

External links