Marine: A Guided Tour of a Marine Expeditionary Unit
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Though most Marines are unable to fully explain this mystical power, the Marine ethos is a combination of many different shared values and experiences. And it comes from what all Marines have in common, much like the brothers and sisters of a large family. In fact, this is how they refer to each other: as brother and sister Marines. Marines are unique among American service personnel in that they all must pass the same tests, no matter whether they are officers or enlisted personnel. This is in stark contrast to the other services, which rigidly separate their officers and enlisted personnel, maintaining separate career tracks, professional responsibilities, and even standards of performance and behavior to which they are held. In the Corps, everyone is a Marine!
This means that the leadership of the Corps works hard to give every Marine a common set of core skills, capabilities, and values to draw upon when they face the emotional crucible of combat. For example, once a year every Marine from the guards on American embassy gates to the Commandant of the Corps has to pass a physical fitness test (running and various other exercises), or be drummed out. In addition, every Marine always has to be fully qualified as a rifleman with the M16A2 5.56mm combat rifle; and officers also have to be fully qualified with the M9 9mm pistol. You might consider such standards petty, but when the call of "Enemy sappers on the wire!" is shouted, you want everyone from cooks to fighter pilots armed and ready to fight, shoulder to shoulder. This is the Marine way of doing things, and it has been for over 220 years.
Along with common standards and skills, every Marine shares a common heritage. This is more than just textbook history, for the Corps leadership believes that Marines need to know they are part of a team with a past, a present, and a future. What they do today is based upon the lessons of the past, just as the future should be based on a firm foundation of present experience. For Marines, their rich past is a living, ever-present reality. The Marines, alone among the services, require basic recruits and officers candidates to study their history as soon as they enter training. They all learn the important milestones that have defined the character of the Marine Corps and its ethos.
There is much to study in the Marines' twenty-two decades of existence, but a few defining moments stand out. These milestones--some predate the creation of the United States itself--are the historical structure which holds that ethos together. Let's take a look at them.
The Beginning: Tun Tavern, 1775
If you want to understand the Marine Corps ethos, it helps to start at the beginning. Created on November 10th, 1775, by the Second Continental Congress, the Corps served the new Continental Navy in the role Royal Marines had traditionally filled on board ships of the Royal Navy. Royal Marines were (and are) tough soldiers who suppressed mutiny and enforced discipline among the "press-ganged" (in effect, kidnapped) ships' crews, manned heavy cannons, and gave the ship's captain a unit of professional soldiers for boarding enemy vessels or landing on an enemy shore. These missions were rooted in the history of the Royal Navy, and the leaders of the Continental Congress felt their new Navy should also have Marines.
Four weeks after their legislative creation, the first Marine unit was formed in Philadelphia, at an inn called the Tun Tavern. The beginnings were modest: just one hundred Rhode Island recruits commanded by a young captain named Samuel Nicholas, a Philadelphia Quaker and innkeeper. These early recruits were all volunteers (beginning a tradition that continues in today's Corps). They fought their first action in March of 1775. Embarked on eight small ships, they sailed to the Bahamas and captured a British fort near Nassau, seizing gunpowder and supplies. Later, during the Revolutionary War, Marines fought several engagements in their distinctive green coats, such as helping George Washington to cross the Delaware River, and assisting John Paul Jones on the Bonhomme Richard to capture the British frigate Serapis during their famous sea fight.
From these humble beginnings came the start of the traditions that make up the Marine Corps that we know today. Its ranks are filled primarily with volunteers, and its missions are joint (i.e., in concert with other services like the Navy) and expeditionary in character. But perhaps most important is that when duty first called, Marines were among the first organized forces of the new nation to be committed to combat. This tradition of being "first to fight" is the first characteristic that their history brings to the ethos of the Corps.
The Halls of Montezuma...and the Shores of Tripoli
For a time following the Revolutionary War, the Marines were disestablished. But they were reborn with the revival of the United States Navy and its "big frigates" like the USS Constitution and USS Constellation. Once again, Marines went aboard to support the Navy in missions to protect American shipping and interests. As the 18th century came to a close, the interests of the United States assumed a more global character, and the Navy and Marines had to protect them.
During this period the Marine Corps conducted a series of operations, known as the War against the Barbary Pirates, that defined its role for the next two centuries. Four outlaw states along the coast of North Africa (the "Barbary Coast")--Algeria, Tunis, Morocco, and Tripoli--drew their primary source of income from capturing and ransoming merchant ships and their crews transiting the Mediterranean. For a time, the U.S. Government paid the ransoms, as other nations had done for years. But by 1803, the American and British governments had tired of this, and sent squadrons of combat vessels to suppress these maritime outlaws. Over four hundred Marines and other soldiers were committed to the effort, which inspired the line "to the shores of Tripoli"1 in the Marine Corps Hymn. Their early achievements included the destruction of the captured American frigate Philadelphia. Later, in 1805, an expedition against Tripoli included eight Marines and a force of Arab mercenaries, which marched across six hundred miles of desert to storm the town of Derna. The war against the Barbary States was America's first overseas military operation, and Marines were in the thick of the action.
By the 1840s, the young United States of America had started to flex its muscles, coveting the tempting, sparsely populated, and vast Mexican territories of the Southwest. President James Polk, deciding to make this dream real, organized the conquest of Texas and California. Following the annexation of Texas in July of 1845, he dispatched Marine First Lieutenant Archibald Gillespie on a covert mission to the U.S. consul at Monterey, California, with special instructions for the takeover of that Mexican territory. Gillespie joined the famous explorer John C. Fremont, who led the California rebellion a year later.2
Meanwhile, the United States had declared war on Mexico. General Winfield Scott's invasion force included a battalion of about three hundred Marines led by Brevet Captain Alvin Edson. Landing at the Mexican port of Vera Cruz in March, 1847 aboard specially designed landing boats (the first purpose-built landing craft), they helped take the port in a matter of just two weeks. They also undertook a series of coastal raids to pin down other Mexican forces along the coast. Later, reinforced by additional Marines, the combined Army/Marine force marched on the Mexican capital, taking part in the final assault of the Battle of Chapultepec (September 13th, 1847).3 The victory at the fortress of Chapultepec, the famous "Halls of Montezuma," led to the capture of Mexico City, and itself became a part of Marine Corps folklore. The scarlet stripes Marines wear on their dress pants are said to be in remembrance of the blood shed in the Mexican War.
While Marines took part in other actions, from quelling labor unrest to fighting in the War of 1812 and the American Civil War, it was these two conflicts just mentioned that defined the roles and missions of the Corps in its first century. Most notably, Marines fought alongside their Army and Navy brothers-in-arms, a precursor of the joint warfare so typical of today's military operations. The ethos had been born and was taking form.
Martial Tradition: The Music of John Philip Sousa
You do not need to be in the military to know that every organization has its own character or culture; for human groups spontaneously create culture. At IBM, it was conservative su
its, John D. Watson's motto "THINK" on every desk, and a silly company song. Within other organizations, like the Jesuits or the Baltimore Orioles, those who belong to them are empowered by their culture, which is articulated in their traditions, rituals, and collective memories. Employees or members of an organization use the symbols of their culture to identify their roles and missions in the world.
Music forms an important part of Marine tradition. Though the Corps formed a band in the 1800s to play at ceremonial functions around Washington, D.C., it was pretty much like other military bands of the period (i.e., loud and probably out of tune) until 1880, when Colonel Charles McCawley (the 8th Commandant) appointed composer and musician John Philip Sousa to lead the Marine Corps Band. Sousa created and popularized the Corps' martial music tradition. And in so doing, he revolutionized marching music and the bands that played it. He also composed a body of music that is at the core of Marine Corps tradition today. His compositions included "Semper Fidelis" (1888), "Washington Post March" (1889), "King Cotton" (1897), and the most popular of all, "The Stars and Stripes Forever" (1897). For a dozen years he led the Marine Band, taking it on tours all over the country and the world. The effects were both deep and lasting.
Since Sousa and his music were as popular in his time as Glenn Miller or the Beatles have been in ours, his band's performances were the 19th century equivalent of a recruiting commercial for young men of the period. More than that, in the age of global imperialism, the band's bright uniforms, the precision of their drills, and the inspiring qualities of their music left a positive impression of the Marine Corps in the public mind. Perhaps Sousa's most lasting contribution to the Corps, however, was forging the Marines' relationship with the President of the United States. As the Chief Executive's personal band, the Marine Band often played at the White House and other official functions. And by the time Sousa left to form his own private band in 1892, his music and service had forever bound the Presidency to the Marine Corps. You see this when the President flies in his Marine helicopter, when you walk up to an American embassy guarded by Marines, or when you note that wherever the Navy has nuclear weapons, there are Marines guarding them. Sousa's music was the link that forged that special relationship.
World War I: The Corps Is Forged
Marines storm ashore a Japanese-held island during World War II.
OFFICIAL U.S. NAVY PHOTO
For over a century, the Marine Corps was a tiny portion of the American military structure. Before World War I, its strength of 511 officers and 13,213 enlisted men made it just a fraction of the strength of the Army and Navy. America's entry into World War I meant that the country's modest peacetime military was going to expand exponentially in a short time. In support of this effort, the Marine Corps expanded rapidly. With the addition of new training facilities at Parris Island, South Carolina, the Marines grew to a wartime high of 2,462 officers and 72,639 enlisted ranks. This included a small number (277) of the first women Marines, recruited to free up men for combat. The war also saw 130 Marine aviators, a new kind of warrior. For World War I, the Marines deployed the largest formations in their history, brigades of up to 8,500 men, to fight on the Western Front. Rapidly pushed into that cauldron, they fought at Belleau Wood, Soissons, and St. Mihiel, and in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. These victories came at a high cost, with the Marine Brigade suffering 11,968 casualties, with 2,461 killed. Following the Great War, Marines participated in the occupation of Germany, keeping watch on the Rhine until July 1919, when they finally returned home. Following a victory parade in front of President Wilson with the rest of the U.S. 2nd Division, they were demobilized.
For all of its costs, World War I left the Marine Corps with positive results: For the first time, the Corps was allowed to form and operate combat units as large as those of the Army. They demonstrated that their unique training and indoctrination produced a more effective and aggressive combat infantryman than the other armies on the Western front. They experimented with new ideas, like integrating women into the Corps and using airpower to support Marines on the ground. Virtually every kind of challenge that faces Marines today was discovered and dealt with during the Great War--for example, the horror of poison gas. But most importantly, the Marines had been allowed to grow large, and had shown the country what a larger Corps could achieve. This would make it easier for the Marines to expand to meet the challenge of their defining moment, the Pacific campaign of World War II.
The "Small Wars"
With the Great War won, the Corps returned to its peacetime routine of duty aboard ships, and peacekeeping missions in China and the Philippines. This was an era of "small wars," with interventions mostly in Central American and Caribbean countries in support of American foreign policy. This "gunboat diplomacy" was a typically American mix of corporate greed (dominating the regional economy) and noble intentions (rescuing local populations from despotism or anarchy). At the cutting edge of these interventions were Marines, leading the way and taking most of the casualties.
Even before World War I, the Marines took part in putting down Filipino rebels and quelling the Boxer Rebellion in China, both in 1899. During the Taft and Wilson Administrations, Marines carried out interventions in Nicaragua (1912 to 1913), Haiti (1915 to 1934), and the Dominican Republic (1916 to 1924), pacifying the Panama Canal Zone (1901 to 1914) and Cuba (1912 to 1924), and at Vera Cruz, Mexico (1914). Through these actions, the Marines became experts in what is now called "counterinsurgency" warfare. They even wrote a book, The Small Wars Manual (1939), which is considered a military classic, much admired but little read outside the Corps.
The small wars established the Marines as leaders in unconventional warfare--thus continuing a tradition of special missions and operations that date back to the war with the Barbary States in the early 19th century. This tradition gave the Corps a base of experience that allowed it to conduct similar missions in World War II, as well as into the postwar era and today. In fact, ignorance of the lessons in The Small Wars Manual contributed to the failure of U.S. policy in Vietnam and various Third World insurgencies over the years. These lessons included the importance of providing security to native populations ("civic action"), and the need to target the enemy's weakness (in finance and logistics) rather than his strength (small-unit combat in difficult terrain). Despite that failure, Marines still have the corporate knowledge of such operations, and are using it today in the training and operations of the MEU (SOC)s around the world. And they still read and use The Small Wars Manual. I know. They gave me a freshly printed copy.
1942: First to Fight
The years leading up to World War II saw Marines at the edge of the developing conflict. Marines were caught between warring Chinese and Japanese forces in 1932 Shanghai when fighting broke out there. Other incidents involving Marines in China followed. When World War II finally engulfed the United States in 1941, the Corps was in the heat of the fighting from the start. Over a hundred Marines died in the attack on Pearl Harbor, and thousands more would fall in the weeks and months ahead. Marine units initially served as base garrisons defending remote outposts. The tiny Marine force on Guam surrendered on December 10th, and the Midway garrison was bombarded by a pair of Japanese destroyers. All around East Asia, small forces of Marines fought for their lives in the early days of the Great Pacific War, usually without enough men or equipment to be more than speed bumps for the onrushing Japanese forces.
One exception was the tiny atoll of Wake, where a Marine island defense battalion with a handful of fighter planes held off repeated Japanese assaults before they were overwhelmed on December 23rd, 1941. For over two weeks, the defenders of Wake Island held off a vastly superior force of Japanese ships and troops, inspiring the whole nation with their plucky spirit and sacrifice. Unfortunately, Navy leaders at Pearl Harbor, struggling to protect what was left of the shattered Pacific Fleet, canceled a relief mission, allowing the island and its defenders to fall without support. Wake damaged the long-standing trust betw
een the Corps and the Navy, a memory that still rankles Marines and shames sailors.
The Navy would soon have a chance to square things with their Marine brethren. The spring of 1942 saw the Navy and Marines reversing the Japanese tide of expansion at the Battle of Midway. Navy carrier aviators wiped out their Japanese opponents, and this time stayed to support the Marines. As a result, Midway held out against determined air attacks, but Marine aviators defending the island were decimated while flying obsolete Navy "hand-me-down" aircraft. The leaders of the Corps vowed that the next time Marines had to fight, they would have proper equipment, aircraft, and Navy support. They would not have long to wait.
Down in the Solomon Islands, Allied intelligence found the Japanese constructing an airfield on the island of Guadalcanal which threatened Allied supply lines to Australia and had to be neutralized. Luckily, the prewar expansion of the Corps had begun to pay off, and there now was a division-sized force in the Pacific to do the job. In August of 1942, the 1st Marine Division splashed ashore onto the beaches of Guadalcanal and nearby Tulagi and seized the airfield, beginning one of the most vicious campaigns of World War II. For the next six months, Allied and Japanese ground, naval, and air forces fought a battle of annihilation in the jungles, skies, and seas around Guadalcanal. When it was over, the Marines had played a key role in winning a decisive but costly victory, with 2,799 Marines wounded and 1,152 killed. Marine aviation helped drive the Japanese from the skies over Guadalcanal. This also took its toll, with some 127 Marine aviators wounded, 55 killed, and 85 missing in action. But when it was done, the Marines and their Navy partners had turned the tide of battle in less than a year following Pearl Harbor. For the Marines, it validated their claim of "first to fight." They were the first Allied ground force to take the offensive against Axis forces in World War II, a point they still take pride in today.