For many years there has lain dormant in the minds of many marine officers the hope that some one would some time be courageous enough to bring forth and push through a scheme for organizing the Marine Corps on a basis of regiments, battalions and companies.
I would not presume to offer such a scheme while there are so many officers of higher rank who are so much more capable of doing it, yet I have such a scheme in mind and I am one of those who some day hope to see such an organization.
The idea of this article is to point out what, to my mind, are some of the advantages of such an organization, with the hope that it may awaken serious thought on the subject throughout the Marine Corps. I do not think I am exaggerating when I say that the esprit de corps in the Marine Corps is higher than m any other branch of the United States service, both among officers and the enlisted force.
How much higher then could this esprit de corps be brought When men have the traditions of their companies, battalions and regiments to look back on.
Nothing so stimulates efficiency as a keen rivalry between men working for the same object. The efficiency of the Marine Corps could in my opinion be vastly increased where the permanent company formation would give men the chance to serve always under the same officers and non-commissioned officers, and to work with these officers for the perfection of their immediate organization.
While I was on duty at the barracks at Mare Island, one of my commanding officers allowed me to form the command into a four company battalion with the view of a permanent company formation, as far as possible. The rooms of the barracks were apportioned to the four companies and the experiment formed a source of great gratification to me, for it had hardly been in operation twenty-four hours when the good effects began to be felt. In fact, while the change was being made it was necessary to move nearly every man in the barracks; the men could be heard hustling so and so in order that "B" Co. could get into its new quarters. The whole spirit of the men was thrown into the experiment and every day when company drill was held by the company officers, a function which the officer of the day had previously been called on to perform, the men could be heard chaffing each other about the poor drill of some company and hoping that some day the poor company would drill as well as "A," " B," " C" or " D " Co., according to the one in which the joker was.
Thus I contend that the spirit of striving to bring up the standard of their own company is keener where men know that they will always be with that company, than when they do not know what day they may be individually sent to the ends of the earth.
This experiment proved itself eminently successful and I mention it to show how the men were anxious to do their best for their companies even though, as they knew, it was only a formation which held in that barracks and that alone.
Take the example of the column led by Major Waller across Samar; it is an evident fact to my mind that those men who suffered together and saw their comrades die and their officers sick and wounded, were drawn closer together by that experience than troops that had never had such an one. Then if those men could know that they would always be known as belonging to such and such company—"One that Waller led across Samar"—I maintain that their morale is raised and the tradition of the way they faced that grave danger would become a heritage of the company and one which would be carefully guarded that it might not be smirched. Such traditions handed down from time to time would make every man feel proud of his organization and its record and when men are made to feel pride in something which affects them very closely, that something is in good hands and care will be taken that the record is not sullied. And consequently their best efforts will be put forth for the advancement and increased efficiency of that organization.
What man of the Marine Corps is there to-day who would not be proud to point to the battalion which landed at Guantanamo Bay and fought off vastly superior numbers of the enemy for one hundred hours, if that battalion were to-day a permanent organization and had most of those men in its ranks, instead of being scattered from Manila to Porto Rico and from Bremerton to Dry Tortugas? We still love to think of that battalion, but it is only a memory of a brave band who did their duty well and their tradition is held sacred by the Marine Corps, but how much better it would be to see those stalwart men, brought closer together by their baptism of fire, marching along and be able to point to them as a tangible something and tell their record?
It has been my experience, on the two ships in which I have cruised, that the guards of ships are better drilled and more efficient in their duties than marines ashore, and I earnestly believe that it is due to nothing more or less than the fact that they are thrown together for three years with the same officers and the only changes which occur are those which would happen in any company due to sickness, desertion, etc. These men get to know their officers and the officers get to know their men, and this is responsible for much good, for when an officer does not get a chance to know his men he cannot hope for the results which would be obtained if he did.
Now if we take the examples of regiments of our own and foreign armies where men look with great pride upon their regimental badges and their regimental traditions, where men look forward, when about to "take on" again, to being with old comrades and the same officers, why should we not have a similar organization, which is quite possible, where a similar spirit would be fostered?
I do not mean to say that the men do not take just as much Pride in being in the Marine Corps as other soldiers do in being in their different regiments, but to my mind many men who do not re-enlist in the Marine Corps would do so if they knew that they were going back to the same bunkie, the same officers and the same company, battalion and regiment.
It is hoped that the above remarks may start serious thought going to the consummation of such an organization and it is hoped that such a scheme will be discussed, for nothing is so good as discussion for the stimulation of effort. If a chain of thought is started in the minds of men capable of perfecting such organization the writer will feel himself amply repaid and highly flattered, and if such a change is made he will have that pleasant feeling of a hope realized.