Week 7: Air Warfare

Week 8: USMC History

I. Necessity of USMC

A. 1954 – LtCol Heinl, USMC: Thought efforts to abolish the USMC had occurred about every 11 years since 1829

1. Struggle for survival is the most profound factor on USMC history

B. 1957 – Commandant USMC Pate: Asked his Gen Krulak why the US needed a USMC

1. Gen Krulak replied that the US didn’t need a USMC, but wanted it for “good reasons which transcend cold logic”

C. USMC History has four function related phases: soldiers at sea, colonial infantry, amphib assault force, and force in readiness

II. Soldiers at Sea (1775 – 1909)

A. Formation

1. Marine – soldier who serves with a naval force

2. Greek and Romans used them temporarily

3. Then used in the Age of Sail

4. Continental Marines patterned after the British Royal Marines

5. Birthday – 10 Nov 1775

6. Birthplace – Tun Tavern, Philadelphia, PA

7. 28 Nov 1775 – Capt Nicholas, USMC commissioned; now seen as 1^st USMC Commandant

8. Functions

a. Ship: guards (enforcers)

b. Port: protect naval installations (in port)

c. Combat: sharpshooters, lead boarding parties, core of landing parties

B. American Revolution

1. 1776 – Marines and sailors conduct first American amphibious raid on Fort Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas. Capture cannon, mortars, and ammo for the Continental Army

2. Disbanded at the conclusion of the revolution

C. Quasi-War (1798 – 1800)

1. 1790s – Congress rebuilds Navy to handle Barbary States and French

2. July 1798 – Congress resurrects USMC

3. 1^st LT Bannon – 600mi march across Libyan desert with 7 marines, 1 midn, and mameluke rebels to capture Derna

a. Presented with Mameluke sword by Prince Hamet, brother of Tripoli’s king (scimitar blade)

b. Virginia presents Bannon with a copy with a straighter blade which is now the official USMC officers’ sword

D. Col. Archibald Henderson (Commandant 1820 – 1859)

1. Faced 1^st serious attempt to disband USMC

2. 1829 – Pres. Jackson wanted USA to absorb USMC

3. Congress passes “Act for the Better Organization of the Marine Corps” putting USMC as its own service under SecNav

4. Focused on making positive public USMC image and expanding USMC

5. Seminole War (1836 – 1842) – Marines fought against Osceola and his warriors in the Everglades

6. Mexican War (1846 – 1848) – Marines fought Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City and guarded the Halls of Montezuma

E. Age of Steam

1. 1880s – 1890s: Navy now a steam navy

2. Higher quality recruits decreased need for officer protection from crew

3. Improved gunnery (1000-1200yd range) negated sharpshooter and boarding party needs

4. 1908 – Roosevelt orders all Marines off ships

5. 1909 – Congress mandates all crews have a certain percentage of marines

III. Colonial Infantry (1899-1941)

A. 1904 – Roosevelt Corollary: established US as international police power

1. Army did not want the job, so the marines got it

2. Marines looked at as expeditionary (temporary) troops and Army as longer-term occupiers

a. Most interventions were not temporary and required prolonged occupation

B. USMC Operations

1. 1899 – 1902: Philippine Insurrection

2. 1900 – Chinese Boxer Rebellion

a. Rescued American and European diplomats and missionaries besieged in Peking by Chinese nationalists

b. Stationed in China from 1905 – WWII

3. 1902 – 1934: involved in most Latin America at some point including Cuba, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, and Venezuela

4. Native Constabularies – Marines led forces of locals; effective at pacifying countryside and establishing stability

a. 1915 – 1924: Dominican Republic

b. 1915 – 1934: Haiti

c. 1909 – 1933: Nicaragua à Marines here 1^st to fly dive-bombing missions in support of ground troops

C. Internal

1. Appeal of combat and adventure brought in recruits (size 5,000 to 25,000)

2. Gained experience in small-unit tactics

3. Drawbacks

a. Nation tired of imperialistic foreign policies of Roosevelt (“Big Stick Policy”) and Taft (“Dollar Diplomacy”)

· Marines implement these policies which hurt their image

D. Hoover / Roosevelt: “Good Neighbor Policy” à colonial inf. defunct but Marines’ amphib role spared them another challenge to their existence

IV. Amphibious Assault Force (1900 – 1945)

A. Age of Steam – Navy needed bases for coal: marines tasked with creating temporary advanced naval bases

B. Advanced Base Force (1900 – 1916)

1. Marines initially fought being amphibious forces (thought they’d begin to resemble the Army too much)

2. Est. and defend adv. naval bases (go ashore lightly defended beaches at worst); not yet trained in amphibious assault

3. Organized into units of infantry, artillery, engineer assets, and a logistical infrastructure

C. World War I (1917 – 1919)

1. 10,000 à 75,000

2. USMC Recruiting Motto: “First to Fight” got marines in the first wave of attack

3. 4^th Marine Brigade, 5^th / 6^th Regiments – routed defending elite German shocktroops in the Battle of Belleau Wood

a. Earned Tueffelhunden (“Devil Dogs”) nickname

4. Major Gen. Lejeune – commanded 2^nd American Expeditionary Forces Division; 1^st marine to command an Army Division

5. Soissons, Saint-Mihiel, Blanc Mont, Meuse-Argonne

D. Amphibious Warfare Doctrine (1920 – 1941)

1. Marines had served duplicate role of Army during WWI; had to evolve to survive

2. 1920 –General Lejeune became Commandant. Began USMC transformation into an amphibious assault force

3. LtCol Ellis – “Amphibious Warfare Prophet”: researched island-hopping à Operation Plan 712: Advance Base Ops in Micronesia (1921)

4. USMC codified doctrine on amphibious operations – Tentative Manual for Landing Operations (1933)

E. World War II (1942 – 1945)

1. Most defining period of USMC history

2. “Bushwhacking” in Caribbean prior to WWII was by USMC and distinguished it from USA

3. Guadalcanal

a. 1^st Offensive against Japanese

b. Spearheaded by USMC, 1^st Division (under MacArthur)

c. Shattered “superman” myth about Japanese in jungles

4. 2^nd Marine Division (under Nimitz) assault what becomes “Bloody Tarawa”

a. 20 Nov 1943 – Tarawa (first significant amphibious assault by USMC)

b. Japanese commander claimed it was invincible

c. Costly

· Reefs halted landing craft forcing Marines to wade 800 yards to the beach under heavy fire

· Naval Gunfire Support was sporadic and inaccurate

· Ineffective ship-to-shore communication

5. Leap-frogging

a. USMC leap-frogged over unessential and heavily defended islands

b. Successful amphibious assaults – Marshalls, Kwajalein, Eniwetok

c. Fierce fights with high casualties – Marianas, Saipan, Tinian, Guam

6. Japanese shift to attrition-style defense; defend inland only, not beachheads vulnerable to naval gunfire

a. Caused very high casualties

b. Shift first occurs on Peleliu

c. Iwo Jima – most highly glorified USMC battle; 70,000 marines (3^rd – 5^th divisions) vs. 21,000 Japanese

· Feb 1945; 5 weeks of fierce fighting

· Rosenthal photographed raising of US flag on Mt. Suribachi

d. Okinawa – final and most costly Pacific campaign

· 110,000 Japanese defenders died

· 90,000 US casualties

7. Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 to end WWII

V. Force in Readiness (1945 – Present)

A. Post WWII Unification Threat

1. SecNav Forestall said “the raising of that flag on Surbachi means there will be a Marine Corps for the next 500 years”

2. Truman Administration offered quick opposition – believed amphibious assaults suicidal against nuclear-armed enemies

3. Avoided unification by changing itself into a specialized, rapid-deployment force

B. Korean War (1950 – 1952): North Korean’s attacked over 38^th parallel

1. USMC defended the Pusan Perimeter and spearheaded amphibious assault at Inchon

2. 260,000 Chinese reinforced NK after NK troops driven back across the 38^th parallel

3. Eight Chinese Divisions surrounded 1^st Marine Div near Chosin Reservoir but with the help of Close Air Support decimated 7 of 8 of them

4. National Security Act of 1947 (amended 1952) put Commandant on JCS and called for USMC to have 3 div, 3 air wings and one reserve div of ea.

C. Vietnam (1965 – 1971)

1. USMC had more casualties that in WWII

2. 1^st conventional ground troops: 9^th Marine Expeditionary Brigade landed in April 1965 in Da Nang

3. USMC responsible for 5 northmost South Vietnamese provinces

4. USA wanted a conventional attrition style war

5. USMC wanted a “people’s war” (est. Combined Action Program [CAP]; like Naval Constabularies)

6. Jan 1968 – Tet Offensive

a. USMC reg. held Khe Sanh for 77 days against two NV regiments with the aid of CAS, indirect fire, and aerial resupply

b. USMC assault Hue City with small arms house-to-house fighting; eventually call in massive bombardment and artillery

c. President Johnson opens negotiations and Americans withdraw by 1973

D. Contingency Operations

1. 1982 – Lebanon peacekeeping

2. 1983 – Hezbollah terrorist bombs USMC HQ in Beirut killing 241 serviceman

3. 1983 – USMC sent by Pres. Reagan to quell riots and looting in Grenada and ensure safety of 1,000 US med students there

4. 1991 – Saudi Arabia as part of Allied Coalition to eject Hussein from Kuwait

5. 1992 – Humanitarian Assistance Operation in Somalia distributing food, medical supplies; securing the area

6. 2002 / 2003 – USMC led initial offensive attacks in Operation Enduring Freedom / Operation Iraqi Freedom

VI. USMC Future – The future of the Marine Corps depends on two factors: first, an efficient performance of all the duties to which its officers and men may be assigned; second, promptly bringing this efficiency to the attention of the proper officials of the Government and the American People

2002 Pro Quiz on USMC History

1. What is the most profound factor impacting the history of the USMC?

2. Name the four function-related phases of USMC history w/dates.

3. What is the birthday of the USMC?

4. What 5 missions did the USMC perform during the Soldiers at Sea ear?

5. In the eyes of other countries, why was it better for the US to us USMC instead of USA to fulfill the role of Colonial Infantry?

6. What is a Naval Constabulary?

7. Why was an Advanced Base Force needed?

8. Name two Marines who played a crucial role in transforming the USMC into an Amphibious Assault Force.

9. After WWII, the USMC faced one of the most determined threats to its existance, why?

10. Name two places where Marines landed in the 1980s and 1990s.

11. What is the M2’s cyclic rate of fire? max effective range? max range?

12. When heading into combat, what weapon would an Infantry Marine carry on foot, the M2 or M240G? Why?

13. What is the speed of a UH-1N Huey? Crew?

1. USMC has had to constantly reinvent itself

2. a. Soldiers of the Sea (1775 – 1909)

b. Colonial Infantry (1899 – 1941)

c. Amphibious Assault Force (1900 – 1945)

d. Force in Readiness (1945 – Present)

3. 10 Nov 1775

4. 1) Sharpshooters, 2) Ship Guards, 3/4) Protect Officers / Naval Installations, 5) Policy Enforcers

5. Seen as superior warriors and expeditionary (temporary) troops

6. US Marines in foreign countries leading locals to tame the countryside and maintain stability

7. To secure strength in an areas that offered little resistance in order to provide refueling / repair stations abroad to the US Navy

8. Gen Lejeune (ordered transformation), LtCol Ellis (researched island-hopping tactics)

9. Nuclear weapons threatened USMC ability to conduct amphibious assaults

10. a. Lebanon ('82, peacekeeping)

b. Grenada ('83 prot US med students, halt looting/riots)

c. Saudi Arabia ('91, Gulf War)

d. Somalia ('92, Humanitarian Asst. Op)

11. 90rpm, 550yd (effective), 1000yd (max)

12. M240G – lighter weight

13. 121 knots; 2 pilots