Ranking British & US Tier One Units

About this video

Mike Ritland interviews a former Marine Force Recon officer who shares his experiences across 27 years of service. The guest recounts working with various U.S. and foreign special operations units, discusses differences between East and West Coast Marine units, and describes multiple combat deployments to Iraq. He attributes his platoon’s survival across multiple deployments to deliberate tactics focused on stealth over direct confrontation.

Key takeaways

• The guest credits tier-one Army units and British/Australian commandos as the most competent forces he worked with, praising the latter’s leadership trait of optimism during adversity despite having fewer resources
• According to the guest, his Force Recon platoon avoided casualties by prioritizing stealthy infiltration methods over aggressive tactics, using aviation assets and intelligence to prevent compromise rather than seeking firefights
• The guest attributes performance differences between Marine units partly to socioeconomic factors, claiming East Coast Marines had more home distractions (wives, houses) that reduced field training time compared to West Coast units

Episode details: published May 15, 2026 · 68.7K views · 23:58 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Stories told by Mike Ritland’s podcast guests are the guests’ own accounts, attributed to them — not independently verified. Commentary is Ritland’s, presented as his analysis.

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