USMC Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force Crisis Response (SPMAGTF-CR) finally gets a real test.

Note this chart is somewhat dated but gives an indication of manning and missions.

via FoxNews.

Defense officials say the U.S. is moving additional Marines and aircraft from Spain to the Horn of Africa to provide embassy security and help with evacuations from violence-wracked South Sudan.
Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, says the commander in Africa is getting the forces ready for any request that may come from the U.S. State Department.
A defense official says the extra forces moving to Djibouti will bring the total U.S. troops there to 150, with 10 aircraft, including Osprey helicopters and C-130 transport planes. The official was not authorized to speak publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.
Troops deployed last week helped evacuate Americans and other foreign nationals and provided security at the U.S. Embassy in Juba. Another couple hundred Americans remain in the country.

Read it all here.

First.  Let me be clear.  We shouldn't be doing this and it will end badly.  For an administration that declared that they wouldn't be engaging in the "wrong" wars this is remarkably short sighted.  Quite honestly it reminds me of Bush and Somalia.  We're doing it for all the right reasons but that means little in the world we live in.  Marines will die, civilians will be slaughtered and on the ground the status quo will remain.

Second.  This is going to be the first real test of Amos' SPMAGTF-CR.  The idea of sending Marines into combat without the full power of at least a MEU supporting them chills me to the bones.  This is not how we fight.  Putting our forces at the mercy of deliveries, resupply and evacuation by MV-22s and the wing (though they will act bravely) is not something we need to be doing.   Sending an enhanced Infantry Company into the mess that is Africa is unsettling disturbing.

Last.  Despite my misgivings I hope this works.  This is definitely one time that I don't want to be proven right.  State, the DoD and the Marine Corps is once again sending young Marines into a hotspot at Christmas time.  Its a tradition but one that I'd love to see end.