Det 1 deployed to Iraq with Navy SEALs from Naval Special Warfare Group 1 in 2004, and Marines from the detachment took part in the Second Battle of Fallujah.

[11] In February 2006, the Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC) was created at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

The majority of the combat personnel assigned to the two battalions were drawn from the Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance community.

The incident, that resulted in as many as 19 civilians killed, involved a complex ambush by insurgents that included a suicide VBIED and small arms fire.

In September 2009 the 1st MSOB returned to Afghanistan, this time in command of a joint special operations task force in the northwest of the country.

On 29 July 2012, a patrol of Afghan Army Commandos was ambushed by insurgents from a number of buildings in Badghis Province, three Afghans were wounded by small arms fire, Gunnery Sergeants Jonathan Gifford of 2nd MSOB and Daniel Price of 1st MSOB raced forward on an ATV to retrieve the wounded under direct fire from the enemy.

After evacuating the wounded to an emergency HLZ (Helicopter Landing Zone) from where they were safely medevaced, they returned to the firefight and assaulted the enemy positions in a fierce close-quarter battle.

While throwing grenades down the chimney of an insurgent-occupied building, they were struck and killed by PKM fire, for his actions that day Price was awarded the Silver Star.

[23] Marine Corps Times reported that during 2017, Raiders assisted in liberating Marawi in Philippines from ISIS-P militants.

[24] A master sergeant from 2nd Marine Raider Battalion was awarded the Silver Star for his actions in a firefight while leading a joint US-Afghan team during a raid on a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan in 2019.