"Embassy Defence Forces" Topic

Hello guys. Just a quick question here.

I want to do a "what if" as in loosely accurate game set in a third world country (think somalia-ish) where local militia/what have you are attacking a us embassy, triggering an evacuation.

All the players will be the US forces, and I'll be pushing all the militia types. I can't seem to find what the standard embassy garrison would be. Any help would be appreciated.

What's the standard garrison (if such a thing exists) for a US embassy on potentially hostile foreign soil?

5 or 6 marines? Many embassies and consulates have no marine security detachment at all, like Benghazi when it was attacked.

No Idea but just make sure you have Commander Van Damme in charge :)

link

Marine Corps Embassy Security Group

link

link

What you want to do, is to assume that a U.S. Marine FAST team has been deployed to the Embassy to help protect it:

link

This is their normal mission, and they deploy often, so it's not a stretch.

God bless the Marines who are usually present at Embassies (7-8), but they aren't going to make for much of a scenario. I don't think it would be appropriate to discuss in detail here what they are armed with and how they would respond…

But, for a FAST team you can count on about a platoon of appropriately armed Marines. And defending some Embassy perimeters would make for quite an interesting scenario.

A good read is 13 hours – the Benghazi story as told by the PMC's that were detailed there. Even has layouts of both the Embassy compound and the Annex where the PMCs were quartered.

Note, that's marines, but as in Benghazi, there may also be some contractors too.

Benghazi was supposed to also be protected by local militia troops, but as we saw, the either ran away, or flipped sides, so you may want to consider that as well.

Supposedly, at least one of the militiamen stepped off the ranges to the various buildings inside the compound, so the attackers could conduct their mortar attack on the buildings more effectively. Apparently, their rounds were on target almost immediately, sadly.

The Dept. of State also has agents actively involved in embassy security. The embassy's Regional Security Officer is going to be a Dept. of State special agent.

The Marines work for the RSO.

About 8 years ago I replied to a similar question. The embassy may or may have a specially deployed team of US military personnel, the Marine FAST being one example, ranging in size from platoon to company possible augmented with HMMWV (armored or not) but most likely using the embassy's armored SUVs. However, in most cases US embassies except for ones in places like Baghdad and Kabul are not "guarded" by US Marines. The Marines there control one or two access points and are responsible for securing classified material. There are only 7 – 15 in most cases but varies depending the number of posts they are expected to man. Those Marines are just one part of a security plan that uses specially trained Department of State personnel, contracted locals, host military/security personnel, and a lot of technology, barriers, and so on.
There could be other military personnel from the Defense Attache and the Military Cooperation offices. Maybe visiting military trainers for the host nation military and maybe a visiting Special Forces or Civil Affairs team for some local training or exercise. There could even be regular Army (or other service) personnel in country in support of a major exercise going on elsewhere in the region.
There would also be various retired military personnel now working for contractors in defense, security or some other industry who may be at the embassy for business or pleasure.
Finally there are the agents of other US agencies, some covert but many not, working on the compound as well.
The point is that there are a lot of people who could be (emphasis on the "could be" here) carrying or at least able to use weapons in an Embassy and most are not wearing the Globe and Anchor.

Thanks for all the responses guys. I appreciate it. I was planning on using my preferred squad level rules, with each player having a fire team to control.

From what you excellent folks have given me, how does this breakdown sound?

Player 1

Embassy Stationed Marines

6-7 men organized as two 3-4 man fire teams.

Player 2 – 5

Marine FAST Platoon

Each pushing one squad appropriately armed.

Two squads nearby on foot (within a block)

two other squads returning from patrol in humvees

Player 6

Private Security / Contractors

6-7 guys kitted out and on the embassy premises.

The idea I'm trying to achieve is that the contractors/organic embassy marines will be hard pressed to hold off the attackers, and will primarily be providing cover while the civilians evacuate to safety (I'm going to go on a limb here and say helicopter pickup?)

The FAST Platoon will be attempting to break through the militia or just cause enough headache to relieve pressure on the evac.

As always, in my player vs gm games the good guys always win, it's just a matter of making it enough of a challenge with enough plausibility to make for a fun game.

I try to keep it real but I try to also avoid things like civilian deaths / having the helicopter blown from the sky full of desk workers.

Thanks for the responses so far guys!

Ethanjt, I think your planned scenario makes sense and is plausible enough.

One minor change I would consider, is instead of having some FAST squads returning from a humvee patrol (an unlikely event from an Embassy), have them return from assisting a vehicle movement (like the Ambassador returning from a meeting), so they have 2-3 [estimate for scenario purposes, in no way a comment on actual ambassadorial security] armored SUVs or limousines with an Ambo who has to protected as well.

By the way, if you're interested in this sort of thing, an event which I've always thought would make a neat scenario was the 1995 assassination attempt on Hosni Mubarak, when he had just arrived on a state visit to Ethiopia. His motorcade from the airport was ambushed by jihadists (probably Sudanese) and it was a big firefight with lots of players.

link

Thanks for the advice! That was a really interesting story.

So maybe Fast Platoon is escorting officials to the embassy when they are ambushed by militia and technicals, their primary objective being to get the VIPs to the embassy for evac on waiting helicopter? Embassy forces must hold embassy and assist by keeping a lane clear?

Sounds like it could be a fun game. Thanks for the help everyone.