Unit Designator	263rd Marine Strike Group (Military Police)
Battalion	2nd Battalion (Illinois)
Brigade	12th Brigade (Mississippi Valley)
Division	Second Marine Division (Central United States)
Nickname (Call-sign)	The Hawk's Talons
Branch	Marine Support Command
Officer-in-Charge	Marine Captain William Hof, SFMC
Deputy Officer-in-Charge	Major James Craig, SFMC(reserve)
Non Commissioned Officer-in-Charge	Master Gunnery Sergeant Glenn Hicks, Jr., SFMC
Official Motto	"We are the Bold"
Unofficial Motto	"License, Registration, and Proof of Insurance Please."

History

The 263rd traces its lineage back to the 163rd Marine Strike Group assigned to the USS Shiloh, NCC-74683 out of Henderson, Tennessee. The 163rd was was short-lived, however, stationed aboard from only mid 1995 till late 1996. The 163rd was reactivated in December of 1999 as the 263rd aboard the USS Black Hawk, NCC-75004 out of Rockford, Illinois, the reassigned and recommissioned USS Shiloh. During a Recruiting Drive the Starship Captain, then Fleet Captain Jeffery Higdon, saw interest in reestablishing a STARFLEET Marine Corps unit aboard. After requesting assignment from the 12th Brigade's Officer-in-Charge, the 263rd was mustered up and stationed aboard the USS Black Hawk. Originally assigned as a Special Operations unit, it was redesignated as a Support unit in 2002.

Until mid 2008 the roster of the 263rd consisted almost exclusively of Marine Corps Reservists; Star Fleet officers holding a duel commission with the Corps. When more active duty Marines began to join the Ship, the Command Staff of the USS Black Hawk and the new leadership of the 263rd decided to increase the role of the Marines and began to flush out the details of organizing the MSG as a Military Police unit.

Unit Insignia

With the resergence of the Marines aboard the Black Hawk, it was decided to give the 263rd a distinctive insignia to make their own. However, when designing the insignia it was decided to pay the proper amount of respect to the officers and crew of the ship that supports and kept the idea of the 263rd alive. The bird was used as the primary symbol of the 263rd for two reasons. The first reason was to reuse the core feature of the USS Black Hawk's insignia; and the second was that the bird is a loose reproduction of the symbol of the Sux and Fox Nation of Oklahoma, the historical Chief Black Hawk's Native American Tribe. The combadge on the chest of the bird is the combadge symbol of the USS Shiloh, to represent the full history of the 263rd and its mother ship. If course it also bears the Unit Designation, Unit Motto, and the Insignia of the SFMC.