Tough Rugged Bastards: A Memoir of a Life in Marine Special Operations

Tough, Rugged Bastards is the memoir of an ordinary guy who seized an extraordinary opportunity to become one of the most elite warfighters in America during the most volatile times in the Global War on Terror.

Following the 9/11 attacks, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld directed the Marine Corps to establish a unit that would answer to US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). The eighty-six-man ＂Detachment One＂ was formed with a two-year charter to train and deploy as a ＂proof-of-concept＂ to assess the viability of a larger Marine Special Operations contribution in support of the Global War on Terror.

For such a departure from the norm, a special leader was needed. The Commanding Officer--Colonel Robert J. Coates, a Marine Force Recon legend--was given his pick of personnel. One of the four team leaders he selected was Gunnery Sergeant John A. Dailey. Coates gave Dailey and the others free rein to select their men from a crew of proven Force Recon Marines with the sole stipulation that they be: ＂Tough, rugged bastards with strong backs and hard feet.＂

These men built a unit from nothing, trained for unknown missions in an unknown location, and deployed amid controversy and skepticism. Once in Iraq, they were dubbed ＂Task Unit Raider＂ and quickly won over the naysayers who doubted the Marine’s ability to operate successfully in the fluid and unconventional special operations environment.

This book tells Dailey’s story of the creation, training, and volatile 2004 Iraq deployment of Task Unit Raider that led to the creation of the Marine Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC). Det-1 served as the bridge between the Raiders of WWII and the Marine Raiders of today.

John Dailey left his home in West Virginia at seventeen to join the Marines, which led to a career of over twenty years. As a Platoon Sergeant in the Marine Corps’ 1st Force Reconnaissance Company on deployment in Australia on September 11th, 2001, he and his men soon found themselves in Afghanistan battling the Taliban. In 2003 he was selected to serve as a team leader in the first Marine Corps unit assigned to US Special Operations Command--Detachment-1. Det-1’s 2004 Iraq deployment solidified the Marine Corps’ place in special operations and led to the formation of the Marine Special Operations Command (MARSOC). John received his MFA in creative writing from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington in 2018. John continues to train Marine Raiders and provides leadership training and performance coaching through his company, Walking Point LLC. He lives in Hubert, North Carolina, with his wife, Tracy.