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History

Origins

The history of American Marines traces back to Gooch's Marines, the 61st Foot, raised in the American colonies for the War of Jenkins Ear in 1739. This was an American regiment of the British Army that served alongside British Marines. Other Marines were raised for the various state navies shortly before the Revolutionary War.

The United States Marine Corps traces its institutional roots to the Continental Marines of the American Revolutionary War, formed by a resolution of the Continental Congress on November 10, 1775. This date is celebrated as the birthday of the Marine Corps. At the end of the Revolution in 1783, both the Continental Navy and Marines were disbanded. Though individual Marines were enlisted for the few American naval vessels, the organization would not be re-created until 1798, when in preparation for the Naval War with France, Congress created the United States Navy and Marine Corps.

The Marines' most famous action of this period occured in the First Barbary War (1801–1805) when William Eaton and First Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon led a group of eight Marines and 300 Arab and European mercenaries in an attempt to capture Tripoli. Though they only made it as far as Derna, Tripoli has been immortalized in the Marines Hymn and the Mameluke sword carried by Marine officers.

In the War of 1812, Marine ship detachments took part in the great frigate duels of the war, the first American victories of the war. Their most significant contributions came at the Battle of Bladensburg and the defense of New Orleans. At Bladensburg, they held the line after the Army and militia retreated, and although eventually overrun, inflicted heavy casualties on the British and delayed their march to Washington. At New Orleans, they held the center of Gen. Andrew Jackson's defensive line, which earned him the nickname "Stonewall Jackson". By the end of the war Marines acquired a reputation as marksmen, especially in ship to ship actions.

After the war, the Marine Corps fell into an ill state. The third and fourth commandants were court-martialed. However, the appointment of Archibald Henderson as its fifth commandant in 1820 breathed new life into the Corps. He would go on to be the longest-serving commandant, commonly referred to as the "Grand old man of the Marine Corps". Under his tenure, the Marine Corps took on a number of expeditionary duties in the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, Key West, West Africa, the Falkland Islands, and Sumatra. Commandant Henderson is also credited with thwarting attempts by President Andrew Jackson to combine the Marine Corps with the Army. Instead, Congress passed the Act for the Better Organization of the Marine Corps in 1834, stipulating that the Corps was part of the Department of the Navy, as a sister service to the U.S. Navy. This would be the first of many times that Congress came to the aid of the Marines.

When the Seminole Wars (1835) broke out, Commandant Henderson volunteered the Marines for service, leading 2 battalions to war - half the strength of the Marine Corps. A decade later, in the Mexican-American War (1846–1848), the Marines made their famed assault on Chapultepec Palace, which overlooked Mexico City. The Marines were placed on guard duty at the Mexican Presidential Palace, "The Halls of Montezuma". In the 1850's, the Marines would further see service in Panama, and in Asia, escorting Matthew Perry's East India Squadron on its historic trip to the East.

Despite their stellar service in foreign engagements, the Marine Corps played a minor role during the Civil War (1861–1865); their most important task was blockade duty. The battalion of recruits formed for the First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas) performed poorly, running away like the rest of the Union forces. On the opposite side of the lines, the Confederate Congress authorized a marine corps of 10 companies, which played little role in the war.

Formative Years

The remainder of the 19th century would be a period of declining strength and introspection about the mission of the Marine Corps. The Navy's transition from sail to steam put into question the need for Marines on naval ships. Meanwhile, the Marines would serve as a convenient resource for interventions and landings to protect American lives and property in foreign countries. Altogether, the Marines were involved in over 28 separate interventions in the 30 years from the end of the civil war to the end of the 19th century, including China, Formosa, Japan, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Mexico, Korea, Panama, Hawaii, Egypt, Haiti, Samoa, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia. They would also be called upon to stem political and labor unrest within the United States. Sometime during this period, war correspondent Richard Harding Davis coined the phrase "The Marines have landed and have the situation well in hand".

Under Commandant Jacob Zeilin's term, Marine customs and traditions took shape. The Corps adopted the Marine Corps emblem in essentially its modern form on 19 November 1868, borrowing the globe from the Royal Marines, but introducing the fouled anchor and an American bald eagle. In 1869, the Corps adopted a blue-black evening jacket and trousers encrusted with gold braid, that survives today as officers's mess dress. It was also during this time that "The Marines' Hymn" was first heard. Around 1883, the Marines adopted their current motto "Semper Fidelis".

During the Spanish-American War (1898), Marines would lead U.S. forces ashore in the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, demonstrating their readiness for deployment. At Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Marines seized an advanced naval base that remains in use to this day. Between 1899 and 1916, the Marine Corps continued its record of participation in foreign expeditions, including the Philippine Insurrection, the Boxer Rebellion(1899-1901), Panama, the Cuban Pacifications, Veracruz, Haiti, Santo Domingo, and Nicaragua. In 1900's and 1910's, the seizure of advance naval bases entered Marine Corps doctrine, with the formation of the Marine Corps Advanced Base School and the Advance Base Force, the prototype of the Fleet Marine Force.

Throughout the first half of the 20th century, before and after World War I, the Marines saw action in other places throughout the Caribbean such as Haiti and Nicaragua. These actions became known as "The Banana Wars", and the experiences gained in counter-insurgency and guerrilla operations during this period were consolidated into the Small Wars Manual.

World War I

In World War I, battle-tested, veteran Marines served a central role in the U.S. entry into the conflict. Unlike the U.S. and British armies, the Marine Corps had a deep pool of officers and NCO's with battle experience, and experienced a relatively smaller expansion. It is here that Marines fought their celebrated battle at Belleau Wood, then the largest in the history of the Corps. There, the Marines' reputation in modern history was created. Rallying under the battle cries of "Retreat? Hell, we just got here!" (Captain Lloyd Williams) and "Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?" (GySgt. Dan Daly), the Marines drove German forces from the area. While its previous expeditionary experience had not earned it much acclaim in the Western world, the Marines' fierceness and toughness earned them the respect of the Germans, who rated them of storm-trooper quality. Though Marines and American media reported that Germans had nicked named them "Teufelhunden" or "Devil Dogs", there is no evidence of this in German records. Nevertheless, the name stuck.

The Marine Corps had entered the war with 511 officers and 13,214 enlisted personnel and, by November 11, 1918, had reached a strength of 2,400 officers and 70,000 men.

Between the wars, the Marine Corps was headed by Commandant John A. Lejeune, another well-beloved commandant. Under his leadership, the Marine Corps presciently studied and developed amphibious techniques that would be of great use in WWII. Many officers, including LtCol Earl Hancock "Pete Ellis forsaw a pacific war with Japan and took preparations for such a conflict. While stationed in China, then LtCol. Victor H. Krulak observed Japanese amphibious techniques in 1937. Through 1941, as the prospect of war grew, the Marine Corps pushed urgently for joint amphibious exercises, and acquired amphibious equipment such as the Higgins boat which would prove of great use in the upcoming conflict.

World War II

In World War II, the Marines played a central role in the Pacific War; the Corps expanded from two brigades to two corps with six divisions, and five air wings with 132 squadrons. In addition, 20 Defense Battalions were also set up, as well as a Parachute Battalion. . The battles of Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa saw fierce fighting between U.S. Marines and the Imperial Japanese Army.

During the battle of Iwo Jima, photographer Joe Rosenthal took the famous photo Raising of the Flag on Iwo Jima of five Marines and one Navy corpsman raising the American flag on Mt. Suribachi. Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, who had come ashore earlier that day to observe the progress of the troops, said of the flag raising on Iwo Jima, "...the raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next five hundred years." The acts of the Marines during the war added to their already significant popular reputation, and the USMC War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia was dedicated in 1954.

By the war’s end, the Corps had grown to include six divisions, five air wings and supporting troops totaling about 485,000 Marines. Nearly 87,000 Marines were killed or wounded during WWII and 82 received the Medal of Honor.

Despite Secretary Forrestal's prediction, the Corps faced an immediate institutional crisis following the war. Army brass pushing for a strengthened and reorganized defense establishment also attempted to fold the Marine mission and assets into the Navy and Army. Drawing on hastily assembled Congressional support, the Marine Corps rebuffed such efforts to legislatively dismantle the Corps, resulting in statutory protection of the Marine Corps in the National Security Act of 1947.

Shortly after, in 1952, the Douglas-Manfield Bill afforded the Commandant an equal voice with the Joint Chiefs of Staff on matters relating to the Marines, and established the structure of three divisions and air wings that remains today. This allowed the Corps to permanently maintain a division and air wing in the Far East and participate in various small wars in Southeast Asia - in the Tachen Islands, Taiwan, Laos, Thailand, and South Vietnam.

In Korea

Lt. Lopez leading his men over the seawall at Inchon.

The Korean War (1950 - 1953) saw the hastily formed Provisional Marine Brigade holding the line at the Pusan Perimeter. To execute a flanking maneuver, General Douglas McArthur called on Marine air and ground forces to make an amphibious landing at the Inchon. The successful landing resulted in the collapse of North Korean lines and the pursuit of North Korean forces north near the Yalu River until the entrance of the People's Republic of China into the war. Chinese troops surrounded, suprised and overwhelmed the overextended and outnumbered American forces. However, unlike the Eighth Army, which retreated in disarray, the 1st Marine Division regrouped and inflicted heavy casualties during their fighting withdrawl to the coast. Now known as the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, it entered Marine lore as an example of the toughness and resolve of the Marine. Marines would continue a battle of attrition around the 38th Parallel until the 1953 armistice.

The Korean War saw the Marine Corps expand from 75,000 regulars to a force, by the end of the conflict in 1953, of 261,000 Marines, most of whom were Reservists. 30,544 Marines were killed or wounded during the war and 42 were awarded the Medal of Honor. .

Vietnam War

Dong Ha, Vietnam. Operation Hastings - Marines of Company H, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment take to the water as they move to join up with other elements of their battalion., 07/1966

The Marines also played an important role in the Vietnam War at battles such as Da Nang, Hué City, and Khe Sanh. The Marines operated in the northern I Corps regions of South Vietnam and fought both a constant guerilla war against the NLF and an off and on conventional war against NVA regulars. Marines also conducted the less well-known Combined Action Program that implemented unconventional techniques for counterinsurgency warfare. The Marine presence was withdrawn in 1971, but returned briefly in 1975 to evacuate Saigon and attempt to rescue the crew of the Mayagüez.

Returning from Vietnam, the Marine Corps hit one of the lowest points in its history with high rates of courts-martial, non-judicial punishments, unauthorized absences, and outright desertions.The re-making of the Marine Corps began in the late 1970s when policies for discharging inadequate Marines were relaxed leading to the removal of the worst performing ones. Once the quality of new recruits started to improve, the Marines began reforming their NCO corps, an absolutely vital element in the functioning of the Marine Corps.

After Vietnam, Marines resumed their expeditionary role, participating in Operation Urgent Fury and Operation Just Cause. On October 23, 1983, a Marine barracks in Lebanon was bombed, causing the highest peacetime losses to the Corps in its history (220 Marines of the 24th MAU were killed) and leading to the American withdrawal from Lebanon. Marines were also responsible for liberating Kuwait during the Persian Gulf War (1990–1991).

U.S. Marines participated in combat operations in Somalia (1992–1995) during Operations Restore Hope , Restore Hope II, and United Shield to provide humanitarian relief.

Global War on Terror

Marines of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit and 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit were the first conventional forces into Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in November of 2001. Since then Marine battalions and squadrons have been rotating through, engaging leftover Taliban and Al Queda forces and helping to rebuild the war torn country.

Most recently, the Marines have served prominently in Operation Iraqi Freedom. I MEF along with the Army's 3rd Infantry Division spearheaded the 2003 invasion of Iraq. During the occupation of Iraq, Marines spearheaded both assaults on the city of Fallujah in April and November 2004.