Content area
Full Text
Their motto is the Latin phrase, Nemo Resideo, which means "No One Left Behind." The logo on their unit emblem is, appropriately, an M16 service rifle crossed with an E-tool overlaid with a triangular funeral flag. Their job, largely unheralded, is the consummate expression of Marines taking care of their own; expeditious, proper and respectful retrieval of Marines killed in action.
Among the hundreds of primary Marine Corps military occupational specialties (MOSs), there is one in the logistics family identified as Personnel Retrieval and Processing (PRP) Specialist, 0471. There also is a secondary MOS of 0472, PRP Technician, which can be acquired by Marines of PRP Company who have other primary duties.
"Not everybody can do this job," said Corporal Thomas Duckett, 23, from Loganville, Ga., who has served in the MOS for five years, deploying once to Afghanistan. "We have the capability to do it, and it is an honor to provide the final measure of utmost respect to our fallen."
Marines who perform this mission frequently use words such as "honor," "respect" and "dignity" when discussing what they do. They perform a seriously difficult mission, and they are diligently serious about it.
There are only about 21 5 PRP Marines Corps-wide, and they are all in Marine Forces Reserve. There is only one Personnel Retrieval and Co. It's part of Headquarters and Service Battalion, Fourth Marine Logistics Group, Marine Forces Reserve, and it is split into elements in the two Reserve centers: PRP Co (-) in Washington, D.C., and Det PRP Co in Smyrna, Ga.
Company-grade officers can attain an 0407 MOS (PRP Officer) by going to the two- week officers' course at the U.S. Army Mortuary Affairs (MA) School at Fort Lee, Va. Enlisted Marines complete a six-week course there. The Army is the executive agent for mortuary affairs in the U.S. Department of Defense.
The training prepares them for the technical aspects of the job: how to approach a recovery site, properly document it and process what they find for further transport. It is, technically, a logistical process of retrieving and moving materials from one point to another. But it obviously is much deeper than that.
"You have to get past the psychological aspect that these are fallen Marines and accept...