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'Failure in preparation leads to disaster on the battlefield,' according to MCDP 1, yet the U. S. Marine Corps routinely sets up its security force guards for failure. Marine Corps Order P1326.6D W/CH 1, 'Selecting, Screening, and Preparing Enlisted Marines for Special Duty Assignments and Independent Duties' states that NCOs 'are selected from a wide range of military occupational specialty's MOS's.' 1 While serving in Marine Corps Security Force (MCSF) Regiment as a platoon commander and operations officer for the Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team (FAST) Company Europe and 2nd FAST Company, the author had squad leaders who were not infantrymen by trade. Marines selected are responsible for carrying out security missions and leading 13 to 15 infantrymen, yet ninety percent of the non-infantry non-commissioned officers (NCOs) the author received had never led in this capacity before or had never served in an infantry-based unit. Receiving inexperienced personnel created an additional training burden. Consequently, the Marine Corps should staff its FAST platoon squad leader billets with only infantry NCOs in order to accomplish mission objectives, to prevent micro-management, and normalize NCO career progression.