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), a battalion-sized organization of U.S. Marines whose detachments provide security at American embassies, American consulates and other official United States Government offices such as the United States Mission to NATO in Brussels, Belgium. The Marine Security Guard was designated MOS 8151, this has changed to MOS 8156.
The U.S. Marine Corps has a long history of cooperation with the U.S. State Department, going back to the early days of the country. From the raising of the American flag at Derna, Tripoli, and the secret mission of Archibald H. Gillespie in California, to the Boxer Rebellion at Peking, Marines have served many times on special missions as couriers, as guards for embassies and legations, and to protect American citizens in unsettled areas.
The formal and permanent use of Marines as security guards began with the Foreign Service Act of 1946, which authorized the Secretary of Navy to, upon the request of the Secretary of State, assign Marines to serve as custodians under the supervision of the senior diplomatic officer at a diplomatic post. The first joint Memorandum of Agreement was signed on 15 December 1948 regarding the provisions of assigning Marines overseas. Trained at the Foreign Service Institute, the first Marines arrived at Tangier and Bangkok in early 1949. The Marine Corps assumed the primary training responsibility in November 1954. The authority granted in the Foreign Service Act of 1946 has since been replaced by 10 U.S.C. § 5983 and the most recent Memorandum of Agreement was signed in August 2008. Although embassy duty is a crucial aspect of the Marines’ mission with a long tradition, the Corps is only budgeted to train and maintain a limited cadre of guards to cover over 100 embassies worldwide. 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. The USMC has responded by redeploying one company from 1st Battalion 1st Marines while additional guards are trained
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18 July 1924 Tehran, Sublime State of Persia An angry mob of led by members of the Muslim clergy and including many members of the Iranian Army beat Robert W. Imbrie, United States Consul in Tehran, to death. The mob blamed America for poisoning a well.
May 1957 Taipei, Taiwan Mob attack on embassy chancery (see May 24 Incident) mob 27 January 1958 Ankara, Turkey Bombing in embassy compound
January 31, 1968 Saigon, Vietnam As part of the Tet Offensive, Viet Cong commandos forced their way onto the US Embassy grounds and surrounded the building until US reinforcements arrived. armed assault
26 September 1971 Phnom Penh, Cambodia Attack on embassy softball game
1972 Manila, Philippines Attack by communist group, Marine guard wounded
19 August 1974 Nicosia, Cyprus Riot outside embassy; ambassador and assistant shot by sniper
4 August 1975 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Japanese Red Army gunmen raid Embassy
1979 Tehran, Iran Iran hostage crisis 21 November 1979 Islamabad, Pakistan Islamist riots destroy Embassy (see 1979 U.S. Embassy Burning in Islamabad)
2 December 1979 Tripoli, Libya Islamist riots destroy Embassy (see 1979 U.S. Embassy Burning in Libya)
18 April 1983 Beirut, Lebanon Islamic Jihad car bomb destroys Embassy (see April 1983 U.S. Embassy bombing)
12 December 1983 Kuwait City, Kuwait al-Dawa truck bomb outside Embassy bombing 6 20 September 1984 Beirut, Lebanon Hezbollah car bomb outside embassy (see 1984 United States embassy annex bombing)
November 1984 Bogota, Colombia Car bomb outside Embassy planted by drug cartel bombing
February 1986 Lisbon, Portugal Popular Forces of 25 April car bomb outside Embassy bombing
14 May 1986 Jakarta, Indonesia Japanese Red Army mortar barrage bombing
9 June 1987 Rome, Italy Japanese Red Army mortar barrage bombing
17 September 1989 Bogota, Colombia RPG fired on Embassy by unknown assailant bombing
27 July 1993 Lima, Peru Car bomb outside Embassy planted by Shining Path bombing
13 September 1995 Moscow, Russia RPG fired on Embassy by unknown assailant bombing
21 June 1998 Beirut, Lebanon RPGs fired at Embassy by Hezbollah an Iran-supported religious organization bombing
7 August 1998 Nairobi, Kenya al-Qaeda simultaneously attacked both Embassies with truck bombs (more details) bombing
22 January 2002 Calcutta, India Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami gunmen attacked American cultural centre, which included public affairs office of nearby US Consulate (more details) armed assault
12 October 2002 Denpasar, Indonesia Consular Office bombed by Jemaah Islamiyah as part of the Bali bombings bombing
28 February 2003 Karachi, Pakistan Unknown gunmen attack US Consulate (more details) armed assault
30 June 2004 Tashkent, Uzbekistan Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan bombs US Embassy bombing
6 December 2004 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia al-Qaeda gunmen raid diplomatic compound armed assault
2 March 2006 Karachi, Pakistan Car bomb explodes outside Consulate, killing a US diplomat (more details) bombing
12 September 2006 Damascus, Syria Gunmen raid US Embassy armed assault 1 Syrian security
12 January 2007 Athens, Greece RPG Fired at Embassy by Revolutionary Struggle bombing
18 March 2008 Sana'a, Yemen Mortar rounds missed US Embassy, hitting nearby school bombing
9 July 2008 Istanbul, Turkey Armed attack against Consulate (more details) armed assault
17 September 2008 Sana'a, Yemen A coordinated attack resulted in a 20-minute battle with security (more details) armed assault
5 April 2010 Peshawar, Pakistan An attack near the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar, Pakistan, kills two consulate security guards and at least six others (more details) armed assault
28 October 2011 Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina A gunman, a Wahhabi Islamist, fired on the embassy on 28 October 2011, resulting in one local policeman guarding the embassy being wounded in the arm by the gunman, while the shooter was wounded by a police sniper. armed assault
11 September 2012 Cairo, Egypt Protestors scaled the walls of the Consulate and replaced the US flag with an Islamist banner before being driven back by Egyptian security (more details) mob
Benghazi, Libya A group of terrorists storm the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya killing the U.S. Ambassador, one staff member, and two security contractors (more details) armed assault
14 September 2012 Sana'a, Yemen Protestors stormed the US Embassy and set fire to several vehicles before being driven back by Yemeni security (more details) mob
Tunis, Tunisia Tunisian police fought back protestors who attacked the US Embassy in Tunis (more details) mob
1 February 2013 Ankara, Turkey A suicide bomber attacked the US Embassy in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Friday, detonating himself inside a security entrance to the compound (more details) bombing
13 September 2013 Herat, Afghanistan A group of 7 Taliban militants attacked the US Consulate in Herat, Afghanistan using truck bombs, assault rifles, and rocket-propelled grenades, killing 2 Afghan security guards and wounding 20 others (more details) armed assault 2
28 September 2015 Tashkent, Uzbekistan Unidentified man threw two molotov cocktails or similar improvised explosives over the wall of the US Embassy Tashkent Hit and Run None
