History of the Starfleet Marine Corps
From Obsidian Fleet Database
The Starfleet Marine Corp, although only established after the creation of the Federation of Planets and Starfleet, traces it’s history to pre-space armed forces of many of the founding members of the Federation, including Earth, Vulcan and Andoria. Below is a summary of the history of what was to grow into the Starfleet Marine Corp.
Jan. 1, 2113: United Earth Government founded.
Mar. 9, 2119: Manchester Conference, members of the United Earth Government sign the Military Integration Treaty, all agree to begin integration of Military forces over the next ten years
Jun. 12, 2129: Treaty of Tranquillity City signed, Earth Starfleet Formed, Earth Military Forces unified under Military Assault Command Operations (MACO).
Nov. 23, 2136: San Francisco Agreement, Starfleet Command and MACO agree that no Starfleet Officer may Command a MACO unit and nor shall a MACO command a Starfleet ship.
Dec. 12, 2137: Following from the San Francisco Agreement the Beijing Conference establishes that Starfleet’s primary purpose is exploration and as such, MACO personnel should only be present by the direct request of the Commanding Officer of a Starfleet vessel.
Apr. 25, 2153: The first ever MACO Starfleet Assistance team is deployed aboard the USS Enterprise, under the command of Major Hayes.
Sept. 19, 2159: Earth - Romulan War breaks out, MACO’s are largely redundant, since very few Romulan planets can be located, nor can sufficient transport ships be located to transport Marines.
Jan. 3, 2161: Earth - Romulan War ends with the signing of the Romulan Neutral Zone Treaty, the Romulan Neutral Zone (RNZ) is established and the SFMC begins constructing bases on planets along the RNZ to secure the border.
Feb. 8, 2161: Federation founded, moves are made to integrate military forces of the signatories
Jul. 9, 2176: Most MACO teams are withdrawn from Starfleet ships after a number of Federation members objected to military personnel being present on vessels whose primary purpose is exploration.
Oct. 14, 2180: Earth MACO’s are combined with the Vulcan Armed Forces, Andorian Imperial Guards and the Tellarite Defence Force into the Starfleet Marine Corps.
Jan. 3, 2181: The SFMC begins to demobilise unnecessary forces.
Mar. 9, 2189: The SFMC reorganises training establishments. Whitehall on Earth is chosen to be the headquarters of the SFMC. The Wall of Heroes on Andoria is chosen to be the main memorial site for casualties of the SFMC. The Federation Military Cemetery is founded.
Jun. 4, 2201: SFMC decides to remove Marines from Starfleet vessels in light of poor recruitment from Federation member worlds, the SFMC focuses on the defence of colonies, outposts and starbases.
May 18, 2266: Romulan re-emergence occurs, the SFMC begins recruiting more marines and updating it’s outposts as well as garrisons on Federation worlds in preparation for a possible war with the Romulans.
Sept. 3, 2347: The Cardassian War begins, the SFMC begins attempting to deploy its troops in an offensive role on a scale which has not occurred since the end of World War III. Massive casualties are incurred initially resulting in the almost total loss of several Marine Divisions at the hands of the massively more experienced Cardassian Military.
Oct. 28, 2351: Talarain ships begin small scale skirmishes with the Federation during what will become known as the Galen border conflicts. The SFMC is forced to stretch it’s already massively undermanned forces to garrison this new hostile border zone.
Feb. 14, 2352: Federation Council votes by a slim margin to increase the funding available to the SFMC in light of its recent difficulties in manning her ever increasing military commitments. During this time the Marine Corps is still far too small to deploy any of its personnel aboard Starships.
May 17, 2353: After a Tholian attack on a Federation Starbase, the Federation Council orders the now catastrophically overstretched SFMC to increase garrisons on the Tholian border, unable to comply the SFMC requests to hand over security on Starbases to Starfleet Security. The Federation Council acquiesces, freeing up more Marines for border regions.
Nov. 3, 2353: The SFMC begins to create a Marine Corps Air Arm specifically to support Marine operations.
Jul. 18, 2361: The SFMC creates MSOG, and elite troop formations within the Federation for dealing with specific occurrences, such as Covert Operations in a time of war, Hostage Rescue, VIP protection and many more, it is estimated that these formations will be ready for combat by 2370.
Apr. 13, 2370: In the aftermath of the Rio Grande Incident the Marine Corps begins secret preparations for a potential war with the Dominion, these preparations include the conversion of several Curry Class ships to Marine use, as troop transports and fighter carriers. Requests are also put in to Starfleet R&D for new Marine equipment.
Dec. 10, 2372: In the aftermath of the surprise Klingon attacks during the beginning of the 2nd Klingon Federation War, the SFMC scrambles to located transport ships to deploy troops to affected regions.
Feb. 19, 2373: As a response to the crippling lack of transport ships available to the SFMC the Federation council by allowing Cargo ships and Passenger ships to be co-opted in the event of a war to transport Marines to war zones.
Nov. 13, 2375: With the aftermath of the Dominion War upon it, the SFMC decided not to scale back the size of the Marine Corps, but instead increase it allowing it to place Marine units aboard Federation vessel and bases. In addition to this it was reaffirmed that no Marine Officer could be the XO or CO of a Starfleet vessel, except in extreme circumstances, it was also decided likewise that when Marine units were deployed on Starfleet vessel that no Starfleet Officer except the XO or CO, acting or appointed, could countermand the orders of the Marine CO given to their personnel. Furthermore, it was also decided that no Starfleet Officer would command a Marine Installation.
