United States Marine Corps

• 1. Founding And Revolutionary Origins

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  On the 10th of November 1775, the Second Continental Congress passed a resolution to raise two battalions of marines in Philadelphia. Captain Samuel Nicholas received his commission from John Adams to lead these new troops. By December 1775, Nicholas had recruited one battalion of 300 men within his home city. The first amphibious landing occurred on the 3rd of March 1776 during the Battle of Nassau in the Bahamas. Marines under Commodore Esek Hopkins seized Fort Montagu and Fort Nassau for two weeks. This operation targeted a British ammunition depot and naval port in New Providence. General George Washington later ordered the Marines to attach themselves to the Continental Army in January 1777. They fought at the Battle of Princeton where an estimated 130 marines were present. The institution disbanded in April 1783 after the American Revolution ended. Congress resurrected the Marine Corps on the 11th of July 1798 to prepare for the Quasi-War with France.

• 2. Evolution Of Expeditionary Doctrine

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  The Advanced Base Doctrine codified combat duties ashore in the early 20th century. Commandant Archibald Henderson took office in 1820 and shifted focus toward expeditionary duties overseas. He personally led nearly half of the entire Corps into the Seminole Wars of 1835. The Act for the Better Organization of the Marine Corps passed in 1834 made the Corps part of the Department of the Navy as a sister service. Marines developed tactics for amphibious assault on defended coastlines by World War II. Lieutenant Colonel Earl Hancock Pete Ellis foresaw a war in the Pacific with Japan before 1941. The Corps pushed urgently for joint amphibious exercises with the Army during that period. The Small Wars Manual laid the framework for counterinsurgency operations from Vietnam to Iraq. The Tentative Landing Operations Manual established doctrine for World War II amphibious operations. Operational Maneuver from the Sea became the power projection doctrine in 2006. The Maritime Pre-Positioning System allows fleets of container ships to deploy equipment for 30 days worldwide. In 1998, all Marine detachments aboard ships were disbanded after serving since the late 19th century.

• 3. Pacific Theater Campaigns In World War Two

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  Six hundred thousand Americans served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II. The Battle of Iwo Jima began on the 19th of February 1945 and remains the most famous engagement of the war. Japanese forces prepared fortified positions including pillboxes and tunnels across the island. American forces reached the summit of Mount Suribachi on the 23rd of February. The mission cost 26,000 American casualties and 22,000 Japanese lives. Eighty-two Marines received the Medal of Honor during the conflict. Nearly 87,000 marines were casualties overall including nearly 20,000 killed. Battles at Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Tarawa, Guam, Tinian, Saipan, Peleliu, and Okinawa saw fierce fighting against the Imperial Japanese Army. The Corps expanded from two brigades to six divisions and five air wings by the end of the war. Twenty defense battalions and a parachute battalion were also raised. Some 600,000 Americans served in total while the Corps performed a central role in the Pacific War alongside the U.S. Army.

• 4. Postwar Survival And Institutional Identity

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  President Harry Truman wrote a letter dated the 29th of August 1950 calling the Marine Corps the Navy's police force. He stated that as long as he was President that is what it would remain. Congressman Gordon L. McDonough inserted this letter into the Congressional Record after urging Truman to add Marine representation on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Congressmen and Marine organizations reacted with outrage and demanded an apology. Truman apologized to the Marine commandant for his unfortunate choice of language but did not alter his position that the Corps should report to the Navy secretary. The National Security Act of 1947 provided statutory protection for the Marine Corps following the war. Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal predicted the flag raising at Iwo Jima meant a Marine Corps for the next five hundred years. The Douglas-Mansfield Act passed in 1952 gave the commandant an equal voice with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This established the structure of three active divisions and air wings that remain today. The Corps rebuffed efforts by Army generals to fold its mission and assets into the Navy and Army during the institutional crisis.

• 5. Modern Conflicts From Korea To Afghanistan

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  The Korean War began in 1950 with the Provisional Marine Brigade holding the defensive line at the Pusan Perimeter. General Douglas MacArthur called on United Nations forces to make an amphibious landing at Inchon. The Battle of Chosin Reservoir saw the 1st Marine Division inflict heavy casualties during its fighting withdrawal to Hungnam. Thirty thousand five hundred forty-four Marines were killed or wounded during the war. Forty-two received the Medal of Honor while the force expanded from 75,000 regulars to 261,000 marines mostly reservists. In Vietnam, Marines fought battles at Hue and Khe Sanh in 1968 within the Northern I Corps Regions. Thirteen thousand ninety-one Marines died in action during the longest war up to that time for the service. Fifty-one thousand three hundred ninety-two had been wounded and 57 Medals of Honor awarded. The Beirut barracks bombing on the 23rd of October 1983 caused 220 Marines and 21 other service members to die. This was the highest peacetime losses to the Corps in its history. Marines deployed to Afghanistan starting in November 2001 as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit flooded into Garmsir on the 29th of April 2008 in the first major American operation there in years.

• 6. Organizational Structure And Force Design

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  The basic framework for deployable units is the Marine Air-Ground Task Force integrating ground aviation and logistics elements under a common command element. A MAGTF can operate independently or as part of a larger coalition. Headquarters Marine Corps consists of the commandant assistant commandant director of staff deputy commandants sergeant major and special staff officers. Operating Forces are divided into Fleet Marine Forces Security Forces guarding high-risk naval installations and Security Guard detachments at embassies. Four principal bases host operating forces including Camp Pendleton Camp Lejeune and Camp Butler in Okinawa Japan. Camp Pendleton home to I Marine Expeditionary Force sits on the West Coast while Camp Lejeune home to II Marine Expeditionary Force is on the East Coast. Twentynine Palms California hosts the largest combined-arms live-fire training center. Quantico Virginia serves as the Crossroads of the Marine Corps housing Combat Development Command. In the 2020s the Corps strengthened firepower configuration in the Indo-Pacific region to defeat the Chinese People's Liberation Army. The service established a joint deployment with Australian military in Darwin starting with 200 Marines in 2011.

• 7. Demographic Integration And Personnel Policy

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  Opha May Johnson became the first woman to enlist in the Marines Reserve in 1918 during World War I. Three hundred five women enlisted from then until the end of that war. Howard P. Perry was the first black recruit accepted into the U.S. Marine Corps in 1942. From 1798 to 1942 the Corps followed a racially discriminatory policy denying African Americans the opportunity to serve. Black recruits trained at Montford Point from 1942 to 1949 where 20,000 African Americans were educated. The integration proceeded in stages from segregated battalions in 1942 to unified training in 1949 and full integration in 1960. Camp Gilbert H. Johnson renamed Montford Point honors one of the first Black marines. In January 2017 three women joined an infantry battalion at Camp Lejeune for the first time. Women make up 7.8% of personnel as of December 2020. A trial program began in December 2020 to integrate females into training companies at San Diego with 60 female recruits scheduled to begin in February 2021.