•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
CIRF was built on the foundations of the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM)'s Force Reconnaissance Operational Detachment [FROD]. FROD was began initially as an elite United States Marine Corps unit based off-world. The Commandant of the Marine Corps decided after some time of considering candidates that the best Marine to head this unit up was (at that time Sergeant Major) Jax Nikolai Connolly. Sergeant Major Connolly was at the time a highly experienced Force Reconnaissance member and one of the most decorated non-commissioned officers in the Marine Corps. The Commandant submitted a recommendation for immediate commission to officer grade O-2, First Lieutenant. When the finalizations were made and FROD went operational, Lieutenant Connolly was posted off-world. After six months, he was promoted again to the rank of Captain (O-3).
Soon thereafter, due to the nature of FROD, other USSOCOM units began sending members of their teams to FROD. While it remained with a USMC name, FROD soon had many members from the US Navy SEALs, US Army Green Berets, US Army Delta Force, US Air Force's Search & Rescue / Special Operations Command, and other members of the US service branches.
Word spread quickly of the success of FROD. When the British government was briefed on FROD, they also wanted to send team members off-world to join in the unit. When the Grande Schuetz Gruppe 9 (GSG-9), the Republic of Germany's counterterrorism team, decided to join up, USSOCOM was faced with a dilemma. Having foreign team members working as a joint venture within a United States unit worked, but when it came down to it, the chain of command was a mile long. The Commanding Officer of USSOCOM called a meeting with recently promoted Major Connolly to discuss this issue. Seven months later, Major Connolly presented his proposal to a group of 29 delegates from militaries and governments of the United Nations.
To see the original proposal to the UNSEPD by Major Connolly, view PDP081103.
The response was unprecedented. Every representative present wanted their country to be a part of this venture. Everything seemed like it was going quite smoothly. Then, the bureaucratic problems began. We shall start with the United States. The US wanted CIRF to be headquartered at USSOCOM Headquarters. Some delegates from Germany and Australia agreed, but the British Representatives and many others argued that because it was a joint venture, it should be headquartered on neutral ground. The only location for that was the Off-World Command Site. That was settled on, with much reluctance from the CO of USSOCOM.
Next issue was the chain of command. The original plan provided a representative from each country participating in CIRF, as liaisons stationed on Earth. This was debated as well. The German envoy wanted 2 representatives to be sent off-world, but that plan was deemed too expensive and too dangerous. What was agreed upon was that there would be a council on Earth that the off-world Headquarters would report to. Every four months, two members would return to Earth to brief UNSEPD. One would be the CO of CIRF, who would be designated as the United Nations Special Envoy (UNSE). The other would be appointed by the UNSE and approved by UNSEPD. This representative would be titled the United Nations Deputy Liaison. That summed up the Chain of Command for Earth.
The next order of business was how the unit should be structured and ran off-world. This part of the process took by far the longest. The US made it quite clear that because it was Major Connolly's idea that started the talks about CIRF and because of his vast military expertise both on and off-world, he was the person to head up CIRF. The British representatives disagreed strongly. They believed since the British Special Air Service was known on Earth as the allegedly best counter-terrorism team in the world, that a seasoned veteran of the SAS should head up CIRF.