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United States Marine Corps seal
The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is a branch of the
U.S. military.
Originally organized as the
Continental Marines in 1775 for ship-to-ship
fighting, shipboard security and to assist in landing forces, by the early
20th century, the Marine Corps had grown both institutionally and
organizationally into the major advocate for
amphibious warfare as well as its key
component. With service in every war in U.S. history including on-going
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Marine Corps has evolved into a 21st
century force with a unique, multi-purpose role in the modern United States
military.
Marine Corps is the second smallest of the five branches (Army,
Navy,
Air Force, Marine Corps,
Coast Guard) of the
U.S. military, with 180,000 active and 40,000
reserve Marines
as of 2005. Only the
United States Coast Guard, part of the
Department of Homeland Security, is smaller.
In absolute terms, the U.S. Marine Corps is nonetheless larger than the armed
forces of many major nations; for example, it is larger than the
British Army or all of the
Canadian Forces put together.
Mission
Flag of the U.S. Marine Corps
The Marine Corps serves as a versatile combat element, and is adapted to a
wide variety of combat operations. The Marine Corps was initially composed of
infantry combat forces serving aboard naval vessels, responsible for security
of the ship, its captain and officers, offensive and defensive combat during
boarding actions, by acting as
sharpshooters, and carrying out amphibious
assaults. The Marines fully developed and used the tactics of amphibious
assault in
World War II, most notably in the
Pacific Island Campaign.
Since its creation in 1775, the Corps' role has expanded significantly. The
Marines have a unique mission statement, and, alone among the branches of the
U.S. armed forces, "shall, at any time, be liable to do duty in the forts and
garrisons of the United States, on the seacoast, or any other duty on shore,
as the President, at his discretion, shall direct." Because of this, the
Marine Corps is referred to as "The President's Own." In this special
capacity, charged with carrying out duties given to them directly by the
President of the United States, the Marine
Corps serves as an all-purpose, fast-response task force, capable of quick
action in areas requiring emergency intervention.
While the Marine Corps does not necessarily fill unique combat roles, only
when combined do the Army, Navy, and Air Force overlap every area that the
Marine Corps covers. As a force, the Marines consistently use all essential
elements of combat (air, ground, sea) together. While the creation of joint
commands under the
Goldwater-Nichols Act has improved
interservice coordination between the larger services, the Marine Corps'
ability to permanently maintain integrated multi-element task forces under a
single command provides a special ability to respond to flexibility and
urgency requirements.
The Marine Corps possesses
organic ground and air combat elements, and
relies upon the Navy to provide sea combat elements to fulfill its mission as
"America's
9-1-1 Force". Marine combat forces are
largely contained in three Marine Expeditionary Forces, or MEF's. The
1st MEF is based out of Camp Pendleton, California, the 2nd out of Camp
LeJeune, North Carolina, while the third is based on Okinawa, Japan. Within
the MEF's are the individual Marine Divisions (MARDIVS), Marine Logistics
Groups (MLG's) and Marine Aircraft Wings (MAWs).
Force Reconnaissance companies are composed
of Marines specially trained in covert insertion, reconnaissance, and
surveillance tactics, and some have even received special operations training.
The "Recon Marines" basic mission is to scout out the enemy and report what
they find.
The Marines also maintain an operational and training culture dedicated to
emphasizing the infantry combat abilities of every Marine. All Marines receive
training first and foremost as basic
riflemen, and thus the Marine Corps at heart
functions culturally as an
infantry corps. The Marine Corps is famous
for the saying "Every Marine a rifleman."
[1]
Marine tactics and doctrine emphasize aggressiveness and the offensive. The
Marines have been central in developing groundbreaking tactics for modern
amphibious assault and
maneuver warfare and they can be credited
with the development of
helicopter insertion doctrine.
The
amphibious assault is the most complex
military maneuver in all of
warfare. The doctrines that the U.S. Marines
developed for this maneuver are complex in their details. These doctrines
acknowledge the complexity of the maneuver and they rely on the twin spears of
instant obedience to given orders, and flexibility in execution. The
initiative of individuals in taking the fight to the enemy is valued and
exemplified. This initiative displayed by individual leaders is crucial to the
success of any amphibious assault.
The maneuver warfare doctrine upon which the Corps is organized and the
nature of the operations of which the Corps has traditionally been a part
causes it to place a premium on decentralized decision-making and the
individual abilities of leaders at all levels. This is accomplished through
the use of commander's intent as the guiding principle for leaders.
Commander's intent specifies the end state the commander wants achieved and
other certain parameters he may lay out. This allows the lowest possible
tactical units to determine how they wish to execute their mission to fulfill
this intent. As a result, a large degree of initiative and autonomy is
expected of junior Marines, particularly the
NCOs (Corporals
and
Sergeants) as compared to many other military
organizations. The Marine Corps pushes authority and responsibility downward
to a greater degree than the other services.
The Marines argue that they do not and should not take the place of the
other services, any more than an
ambulance takes the place of a
hospital. Nonetheless, when a pressing
emergency develops, the Marines essentially act as a stopgap, to get into and
hold an area until the larger machinery can be mobilized. The opinions of
other military men and politicians have, at times, differed, and President
Harry S. Truman considered abolishing the
Corps as part of the 1948 reorganization of the military. As Truman said, "The
only propaganda machine that rivals that of Stalin is that of the United
States Marine Corps." Truman, a former U.S. Army artillery captain in World
War I, held some resentment of the Marines for the high degree of praise
bestowed upon them after the war, mostly at the expense of Army units. He also
believed that the Army proved that they could do amphibious landings with the
actions in North Africa, Italy and Normandy, so there was no need for a
separate service to fulfill this function.
An example of this coordinated, time-sensitive capability could be seen in
1990, when the 22nd and 26th Marine Expeditionary Units conducted
Operation Sharp Edge, a noncombatant
evacuation operation, or NEO, in the west
African city of
Monrovia, Liberia.
Liberia suffered from civil war at the time,
and civilian citizens of the
United States and other countries could not
leave via conventional means. Sharp Edge ended in success. Only one
reconnaissance team came under fire, with no casualties incurred on either
side, and the Marines evacuated several hundred civilians within hours to U.S.
Navy vessels waiting offshore.
Another example of Marine Corps capabilities may be seen in
Operation Desert Storm during the
Gulf War. General
Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr., commander of
United States Central Command, landed in
Saudi Arabia to assess what was needed to
prevent forces from
Iraq under
Saddam Hussein from invading
Saudi Arabia. He was informed that a
Marine expeditionary unit was offshore and
could be in place for defensive combat operations within a day. General
Schwarzkopf inquired when significant
United States Army tank assets could be made
available, and he was told that deploying these units from the
United States would take six months. It is of
note that the
ground war started almost six months to the
day from the date of that assessment.
History
Creation
The Marine Corps, originally created as the "Continental
Marines" during the
American Revolutionary War, was formed by a
resolution of the
Continental Congress on
November 10,
1775, and first recruited at
Tun Tavern in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by
Samuel Nicholas. They served as
landing troops for the recently created
Continental Navy. The Continental Marines
were disbanded at the end of the war in April 1783 but re-formed on
July 11,
1798. Despite the gap, Marines worldwide
celebrate
November 10 as the Marine Corps Birthday.
Historically, the
United States Marine Corps has achieved fame
in several campaigns, as referenced in the first line of the
Marines' Hymn: "From the halls of Montezuma
to the shores of Tripoli". In the early 19th century, First Lieutenant
Presley O'Bannon led a group of eight Marines
and 300
Arab and
European mercenaries in an attempt to capture
Tripoli during America's first Barbary conflict. Though they only made it as
far as Derna, Tripoli has been immortalized in the hymn. Separately, the
Marines took part in the
Mexican-American War (18461848) and
assaulted the Castillo de Chapultepec, or the
Chapultepec Palace, which overlooked
Mexico City. The Marines were placed on guard
duty at the Mexican Presidential Palace, "The Halls of Montezuma".
After these early 19th-century engagements, the Marine Corps occupied a
small role in American military history. They saw little significant action in
the
American Civil War, but later became
prominent due to their deployment in small wars around the world. During the
latter half of the 19th century, the Marines saw action in
Korea (1871),
Cuba (1899), the
Philippines (18991913), and the
Boxer Rebellion (1900) in
China. During the years before and after
World War I, the Marines saw action throughout the Caribbean in places 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, the battle-tested, veteran
Marines served a central role in the U.S. entry into the conflict, and at the
Battle of Belleau Wood, Marine units were in
the front, earning the Marines a reputation as the "First to Fight". This
battle marked the creation of the Marines' reputation in modern history.
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?" (then Gunnery Sergeant, later Sergeant
Major
Dan Daly, two time
Medal of Honor recipient), the Marines drove
German forces from the area. American media coverage stated that captured
prisoners and German letters referred to the Marines in the battle as "Teufelhunde",
or "Devil Dogs", a nickname Marines proudly hold to this day. However, there
is no proof to this legend.[2]
The French government renamed Belleau Wood "Bois de la Brigade de Marine",
or "Wood of the Marine Brigade", and decorated both the 5th and 6th Regiments
with the
Croix de Guerre.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then
Secretary of the Navy, stated that enlisted
Marines would henceforth wear the
