Air-Naval Gunfire Liaison Company

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An ANGLICO team on a rooftop in Iraq

ANGLICO (Air-Naval Gunfire Liaison COmpany) refers to several small units of the United States Marine Corps who specialize in coordinating artillery, naval gunfire and close air support between the Marine Corps and U.S. Navy, and U.S. Army units and the armed forces of US allies. They serve as liaison units by providing capabilities normally contained in Marine Corps units to direct and control naval air support and shore bombardment to Army and foreign units which lack this capability; and in coordinating the fire support assets between Marine Corps and other US or allied units in the field.

1 Motto
2 Training
3 History
4 Current Units
5 See also

[edit] Motto

A motto common to ANGLICO units is "Lightning from the Sky, Thunder from the Sea".

"Non Multa Sed Multum" not many but much

[edit] Training

ANGLICO units require Marines who are proficient in a wide variety of specialized military skills. In addition to their primary MOS training necessary to coordinate fire support, such as artillery fire support, field radio operations, direct air support operations, and naval gunfire spotting; all ANGLICO Marines receive airborne training and jump qualification at the Army's Airborne School at Fort Benning, making ANGLICO one of the few Marine Corps units in which all Marines are jump-qualified. ANGLICO Marines regularly receive further advanced training in other insertion methods, fieldcraft, SERE, and other specialized and demanding activities. This, combined with the fact that ANGLICO Marines routinely serve with and must cross-train with a wide variety of US and Allied units around the world such as the British Army's 148th FOB, including Recon and Special Operations units and foreign services, makes ANGLICO units among the toughest and most highly regarded in the Marine Corps.

ANGLICO units can deploy as an entire company of 150 to support the large-scale operations of an entire Marine Expeditionary Force, or, more commonly, deploy in 4 to 7 man teams to support the activities of non-Marine units.

[edit] History

The History of ANGLICO dates back to the formation of JASCO (Joint Assault Signals Company) units who fought in the Pacific theatre of World War II. At the time, the JASCO units were used to coordinate air, artillery and naval gunfire support between the Marines, Army and US Navy during the Pacific "island hopping" campaign. Following the reorganization of the US Armed Forces under the Department of Defense in 1947, the JASCO units were disbanded and their responsibility transferred to the US Navy. In 1949, the Marine Corps began the process of recreating the JASCO capability under the new ANGLICO designation, and 1st ANGLICO was activated on 2 March 1951 at Pearl Harbor.

During the mid-to-late 1980s, under Lieutenant Colonel J.M. Wills and Lieutenant General A.M. Gray (later Commandant of the Marine Corps) 2nd ANGLICO went through a period of refocusing on core skills including regular live Naval Gunfire training with the USS Iowa battleship, and more frequent mass tactical exercises with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division. Additionally, the 2d ANGLICO began to delve in Low Intensity Confilict response with weapon systems such as the Air Force SPECTRE gunship, Special Patrol Insertion/Extraction and Fast Rope insertion methods.

In 1999, 1st and 2nd ANGLICO were deactivated, their responsibilities transferred to Marine Expeditionary Force Liaison elements, and the two reserve units, 3rd and 4th ANGLICO were the only ANGLICO units left in the Corps. In 2003, amidst the US war in Iraq and global war on terror and a high operational tempo being demanded of the reserve ANGLICO units, 1st and 2nd ANGLICO were reactivated, followed by the new 5th ANGLICO in 2004.