On Its 186th Anniversary, the Marine Corps Stands Poised With a Combat-Ready Force
In 1834, Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Henderson, Commandant of the Marine Corps, tacked a sign on his office door which read:
Have gone to Florida to fight the Indians. Will be back when the war is over.
A. Henderson
Col. Commandant
His force, numbering 39 officers and 424 enlisted men, had been mustered by stripping shore establishments and leaving only a sergeants’ guard and those Marines unfit for duty in the field. Mobilization had been haphazard and time-consuming. The Marine Corps, in those early days, could hardly have been properly called a “force in readiness.”
Change came slowly, but surely, through the next century. Doctrine was developed and techniques were evolved and tested. Then, in 1933, Commandant John H. Russell put the concept of a ready force into definite form. He requested that that part of the Corps designated to support the Fleet be given a new title—Fleet Marine Force. Admiral Standley, Chief of Naval Operations at the time, concurred, and thus the FMF was born.
The rest is a matter of record.
In June of 1941, at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the First Marine Brigade (Provisional) was formed and sailed to occupy Iceland one week later. No other military organization was prepared to carry out such a movement in the time allotted.
A little more than a year later, the First Marine Division was given the honor of starting the offensive against Japan. It mounted out, combat ready, a month after the order was given.
During the economy move that followed the lull after World War II, the Corps’ strength was slashed, but it remained the only effective ready force. In July 1950, when the Chief of Naval Operations asked when a Marine Regimental Combat Team could be made ready, the reply came back: ten days, if shipping was ready. Marines landed to bolster up the Pusan Perimeter on 2 August and were in action five days later.
Then General MacArthur requested a full- strength Marine Division with supporting air components by 15 September. It didn’t seem possible that the Corps, already drained by the Brigade fighting in Korea, could turn the trick, but the Inchon landing is now history.
The Marines were on the move again during the Lebanon crisis in July 1958 and have been alerted for other moves many times since.
Today, the Corps’ two Fleet Marine Forces are poised to strike the instant an enemy attacks. In the Pacific, FMF Pac, the larger of the two forces, monitors the Far East regions. In the Atlantic, FMF Lant is the watchdog of the Atlantic-Caribbean-Mediterranean areas. FMF Pac has, roughly, two divisions (the First and the Third), two Air Wings, and one Force Troops. It also has the First Brigade, which will eventually become the Fourth Division. FMF Lant has one division (the Second), one Air Wing, and one Force Troops.
The First Division furnishes the “Floating Battalion,” an 1,800-man, combat-ready force stationed aboard the ships of the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. Complete with their supporting weapons, these troops constitute a floating deterrent to aggressive action. They are rotated with fresh troops from the Division about every six months.
In the Pacific, the Third Division, the “Bachelors of Okinawa,” provide a powerful, fast-striking force ready to deploy at a moment in any direction. As a “Ready Force,” they have no dependents with them and no excess gear to slow them down if a fast move is required.
But ready troops are not born ready. The readiness of the Marine Corps is a product of intensive and everlasting training. Boot camps at Parris Island or San Diego turns the boy into a man; Advanced Infantry Training at Lejeune or Pendleton turns the man into a combat Marine. But he remains a combat Marine only because the Corps maintains a constant training program throughout his Marine Corps career. Basically a rifleman, every Marine fires the rifle range annually for qualification. Physical fitness tests are rugged and every man must be in condition to pass them. Maneuvers are realistic and rampant. Portions of the Island of Vieques are attacked and taken many times every year. There, the Corps’ new doctrine—vertical envelopment—is exercised, developed, and perfected. There, Boxer, an amphibious assault carrier, swarming with troops and helicopters, stands offshore and sends her men and machines, by air, to a theoretical city, held by aggressors. There, Marines learn the newest techniques of modern brush fire warfare.
At the Marine Corps School, Quantico, Virginia, the officers go through their moment of truth. The Platoon Leaders’ Classes, made up of college students who come to Quantico for two six-week intensive training periods before they get their commissions, are led through their paces by lean, hard-bitten, non-commissioned officers.
After receiving their college degree they go to Basic School where they join the U. S. Naval Academy graduates, the Marine Option Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps students, and the Officers’ Candidate School graduates for another six months of hard work before they move out to regular establishments.
Senior officers also face tough schooling. At the Junior School and Senior Schools, officers from the ranks of captain through lieutenant colonel are given advanced courses in tactics and staff work.
Marine Reservists, too, are ready. Every man is a well-oiled cog in a smoothly running machine—a machine which will fit into the scheme of the Marine Corps organization when mobilization is necessary.
Today, on its 186th Anniversary, the Corps is ready—ready to carry out its mission, as defined by the Navy Department: “ a balanced force of land, sea, air and service elements of the U. S. Marine Corps which is .. . organized, trained and equipped for the seizure or defense of advance Naval bases, and for the conduct or limited amphibious or land operations essential to the Prosecution of a Naval campaign.”