Marine: A Guided Tour of a Marine Expeditionary Unit

"Marine." Say the word to any American, and you can count on a strong reaction. The word brings a vivid image to the mind of every American listener — perhaps John Wayne in The Sands of Iwo Jima or Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men. Outside the United States, there are equally strong reactions, both positive and negative. Like other American icons such as Harley Davidson, Disney, and FedEx, the United States Marine Corps (USMC) is known as an institution that works. When the world throws problems at an American President, it is often Marines who are sent to make them right.

This book will focus on one of the basic building blocks of today's Marine Corps, the Marine Expeditionary Unit — Special Operations Capable, or MEU (SOC). It is a rapid-response unit, patrolling a dangerous world while waiting for the President of the United States to get a "911" call for armed intervention. Currently, the USMC maintains seven MEU (SOC)s: three on each coast, and one on Okinawa. Two or three of these units are deployed aboard ship into forward areas at any one time. Each MEU (SOC) is a self-contained naval/air/ground task force, capable of putting a reinforced Marine rifle battalion (over one thousand men) ashore. For decades, MEUs have provided U.S. Presidents with the ability to project power from the sea. MEUs (they were then known as Marine Amphibious Units or MAUs) led the way into Grenada and Beirut in 1983, and were among the first forces sent to Saudi Arabia when the 1990 Persian Gulf Crisis erupted. They were there when the first peacekeeping and relief forces went into Somalia in 1992, and were there again for the evacuation two years later. And MEUs are out there right now as you read this, training and staying ready, just in case they are needed.

This book will take you inside one of these units, and through it, inside the USMC as a whole. As you meet the people in the MEU and examine their equipment, I think you will learn why they represent an irreplaceable asset for the United States, an asset that's even more important today than it was just five years ago. You will come to understand how they work, their dedication and the personal sacrifices they make. For these are truly the people who stand guard on the walls of freedom, while the rest of us sleep safely in our homes.

The Marine Corps Edge: Ethos

In my earlier books Armored Cav and Fighter Wing, the first chapter was devoted to an examination of critical technologies that give a particular service its combat edge. But in this book, things have to be a bit different. This is because most of the Marine Corps technology base is shared with the other three services. In fact, except for amphibious vehicles and vertical/short-takeoff-and-landing aircraft design (VSTOL), virtually every piece of equipment Marines use was developed by, and even bought for the Army, Navy, or Air Force. From rifles and uniforms to bombs and guided missiles, the Marines know how to get the most out of a Department of Defense dollar.

You might ask why we even have a Marine Corps, if all they do is use other folks' equipment and wear their clothes. Well, the answer is that Marines are more than the sum of their equipment. They are something special. They take the pieces that are given to them, arrange them in unique and innovative ways…and throw in their own distinctive magic. There is more to military units than hardware. There is the character of the unit's personnel: their strengths, experience, and knowledge, their ability to get along and work together amid the horrors of the battlefield. There is an almost undefinable quality. That quality is the Marine Corps' secret weapon. Their edge. That quality is their ethos.

Ethos is the disposition, character, or attitude of a particular group of people that sets it apart from others. It is, in short, a trademark set of values that guides that group towards its goals. The Corps has such an ethos, and it is unique. And it explains, among other things, why the Marines' reputation may well frighten potential opponents more than the actual violence Marines can generate in combat. Now, you may be thinking that I've gone off the deep end, comparing an abstract concept like ethos to hard-core technologies like armored vehicles or stealth fighters, but the "force-multiplier" effect on the battlefield is similar — an overmatch between our forces and those of an opponent. Trying to quantify such a concept is a little like trying to grab smoke in midair. To say that it is "X" percent training or "Y" percent doctrine is to trivialize what makes Marines such superb warriors. It is also probably inaccurate. Therefore, I think it is quite appropriate to explore what makes a Marine, any Marine, different from an Army tanker or an Air Force fighter pilot.

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 suits, 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

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 between 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.

The Central Pacific: Winning the Bases with Vision

As early as the early 1900s, following their victory over Czarist Russia, the Japanese had dreamed of expanding their empire into China, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific islands. This dream did not go unnoticed. Even before World War I, the U.S. and Great Britain had prepared contingency war plans against Japan, the American version being the famous War Plan Orange. The U.S. plan was based upon a long march across the Central Pacific, with the navies of the two nations eventually slugging it out in one huge decisive battle. Capturing and holding the island bases that would be needed was the task of the Marine Corps, which had been studying problems of amphibious warfare for decades.

Among the many Marines busy thinking about amphibious operations was Commandant Lejeune, who declared in 1922 that it was vital to have "a Marine Corps force adequate to conduct offensive land operations against hostile naval bases." By the 1930s the Corps had made great strides, including the publication of a Tentative Landing Operations Manual, which became the bible for early amphibious exercises. Marines worked to master new technologies that would allow them to carry out new missions. Landing craft, naval gunfire control equipment, and command radio equipment were key to the new job. Marines appear to have been the first aviators in the world to perfect precision delivery for aircraft bombs when they developed dive bombing. German officers observed Marine bombing demonstrations in the 1930s, which led to the adoption of the technique by Stuka dive bombers of the Luftwaffe.

It was in the Central Pacific, though, that the Marine Corps forged the amphibious assault doctrine that became its enduring tradition. In an "island hopping" campaign, the Marines and Navy conducted a series of landings to take the bases originally designated in War Plan Orange. The drive across the Central Pacific began in the fall of 1943 at Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. Although almost everything possible went wrong (incorrect tidal projections, poor communications and naval gunfire support, etc.), the main island of Betio was taken in seventy-six bloody hours. Despite the heavy cost in Marine and Navy casualties (1,113 killed and 2,290 wounded), much was learned, and the lessons paid for in blood at Betio saved lives later on other islands. Following Tarawa, the Marine/Navy team took the atolls of the Marshall Islands in a swift campaign in early 1944. Capturing Kwajalein and Eniwetok Atolls, they bypassed other Japanese-held islands in the chain.

The next campaign was to be the decisive battle that strategists on both sides had planned for almost half a century, the drive into the Marianas and the resulting naval battle of the Philippine Sea. Led by the legendary General Holland M. "Howlin Mad" Smith in the spring of 1944, the joint Marine/Army amphibious force took Saipan, Guam, and Tinian in just a matter of weeks. This gave the Americans bases to launch B-29 strategic bombers against Japan, less than 1,500 nm/2,750 km away. From these bases, the war was taken to the Japanese homeland in an intense firebombing and mine-laying campaign. It also provided the bases that launched the atomic bomb strikes that ended the war.

More than the other services, the Marine Corps clearly saw its mission in World War II, and developed appropriate technologies and skills to accomplish its critical task of amphibious assault. This is in sharp contrast to the Army Air Force, which saw strategic bombing alone as the key to victory[4], and the Navy, which thought their battleships' guns would win the war.[5] The Corps understood that war is a joint operation — if we were going to win, all the services were needed — and this vision has continued into the postwar era. Always innovators, since the end of World War II the Marines have been leaders in the developments of helicopters, air-cushioned landing craft, and other technologies.

Iwo Jima: The Defining Moment

Following the mainly Army-led invasion of the Philippines in late 1944, the Marines were ready to begin their drive towards the home islands of Japan. They would need to be ready, because the next battle in the Pacific would be the toughest yet: Iwo Jima. A tiny pork-chop-shaped island (just eight square miles) in the Bonin chain just 670 nm/1,225 km from Japan, it was a vital link in the drive on the Japanese homeland. In February 1945, 71,245 Marines hit the volcanic ash beaches of Iwo Jima. There were 21,000 Japanese dug in, determined to fight to the death. They did. Over the next month, Marine and Navy casualties were almost 27,000, and virtually every Japanese on the island was killed. The American lives were not wasted, however, for the island runways began to save the lives of B-29 crewmen even before the fighting ended.

These dry facts are all well and good. But beyond them is a deeper reality: The battle of Iwo Jima was the single defining moment in the history of the Corps. Iwo Jima was an impregnable fortress if there ever was one, far tougher than anything along Hitler's vaunted "Atlantic Wall." The Japanese had spent over a year fortifying the island, including over eleven miles of tunnels which were dug mostly with hand tools! Japanese leaders clearly understood that its loss would put even American P-51 Mustang fighters within range of the home islands. For the Marines, Iwo Jima was going to be the last all-Marine invasion of the war, and they needed to take it, both for what it meant to the war effort and for what it meant to the image of the Corps. Iwo Jima was their island, and they meant to take it whatever it cost. They got their wish.

From the moment that they hit the black sand beaches, Iwo Jima was the hell of every Marine's nightmare, with death and horror behind every rock and in every hole. But tough as the Japanese and their island fortress was, the Marines and their Navy support offshore were tougher. Yard by yard, rock by rock, the Marines cleared the island. And in so doing, they wrote a unique page in American military history. In front of the full view of the wartime press, Marine units advanced against suicidal Japanese forces, taking everything that was thrown at them. Twenty-four Marines won the Medal of Honor on Iwo,[6] more than at any other battle in history.

Lastly, Iwo Jima gave the Corps and America its most famous and enduring World War II image, the raising of the American flag atop Mount Suribachi. When the flag was raised at 10:20 A.M. on February 23rd, 1945, Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, watching from one of the offshore ships, turned to General Holland "Howlin' Mad" Smith and said, "General, the raising of that flag means a Marine Corps for the next five hundred years." Now memorialized with the magnificent memorial overlooking the Potomac River in Rosslyn, Virginia, this was the defining moment of the Marine Corps. More than any other aspect of the Marine ethos, the indomitable spirit of the Corps at Iwo Jima tells who they are. It says there is nothing Marines won't try if ordered to do so, and no cost they will not pay to accomplish that mission. Later, at Chosin Reservoir, Khe Sanh, and the Beirut barracks, Marines remembered the sprit of Iwo Jima, dug in, and accomplished their missions, no matter what was asked of them. That is the Marine ethos defined.

"Send the Marines"

Following the war, the Corps endured the same downsizing as the other military services. The hollow shells of just two divisions remained: the 1st at Camp Pendleton, California, and the 2nd at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The year 1950 saw a rapid Marine response to the outbreak of war in Korea. Once President Truman committed ground troops to help the beleaguered South Koreans, Marines were among the first reinforcements to arrive. Unfortunately, after the brilliant landing at Inchon (September 15th, 1950) by Marine and Army forces and the drive to the Yalu River, the Marines settled down to a miserable routine of trench warfare. They spent the next twenty-two months fighting as "leg" infantry alongside the other UN forces. This misuse of the Marines' unique amphibious capabilities made a deep impression on the leadership of the Corps, who determined it would never happen again. Their response to the problems of Korea was a new organizational doctrine, the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF). The idea was to keep the air, land, and logistical elements of Marine units together, as an integrated team. In this way, Marines on the ground would not have to depend upon the Air Force for close air support (CAS) or the Army for supplies. They would be able to shape their own tactics and doctrine. Half a century later, Marines always go to fight in MAGTFs.

The election of Dwight D. Eisenhower as President brought a new respect for the capabilities of the Marine Corps. Eisenhower and his successors began a tradition of sending highly mobile MAGTFs to trouble spots around the world for pacification, peacekeeping, or plain old-fashioned gunboat diplomacy. Some, like the landing operation in Beirut in 1958, were highly successful. Others, like the 1965 Dominican Republic operation, were widely viewed as repressive mistakes. Direct U.S. military intervention in Vietnam in 1964 began as a series of landings designed to prop up the government of South Vietnam. Marines served in Vietnam from the first to the very last in 1975, usually assigned to the I Corps area in the northern sector of South Vietnam.

For the Corps, the tendency of Presidents to "send the Marines" simply affirms their "first to fight" reputation, as well as the inherent flexibility of the MAGTF concept. Willingness to move first and fast, and being ready to do so, is part of the Marine ethos — when you want something done right, give the job to the Corps!

Ribbon Creek: Remaking the Corps

The postwar years were busy for the Marines, as they were often called upon to support U.S. interests overseas. But with the coming of the Cold War, the Corps sought to make itself ready for its part in America's defense mission. Thus, Marines endured atomic battlefield tests in Nevada and began to absorb new equipment and tactics. All of this came from a general view that the Corps was remaking itself into a high-technology force that was ready to fight on the nuclear battlefield. Then came the tragedy at Ribbon Creek. In 1956, a drunken drill instructor at the recruiting depot at Parris Island, South Carolina, marched a group of seventy-four recruits into a tidal swamp called Ribbon Creek. Six of them died. The tragedy led to a total reform of Marine recruit training.

Ribbon Creek brought on a strong Congressional and public reaction. This came from genuine concern for the welfare of individual Marines and the Corps as a whole. Clearly, Americans wanted the Corps to be a reflection of their values and ideals. Several hundred instructors were relieved of duty as a result of investigations into their conduct in training Marines. In addition, Ribbon Creek led to a profound transformation in the way the Corps viewed and trained its recruits. The shift reinforced the attitude that all Marines are brothers or sisters to their fellow Marines. Even today, the memory of Ribbon Creek influences the way new recruits are handled — not with kid gloves, but with respect for their safety and dignity. This too is part of the Marine ethos: to take care of their brother and sister Marines.

From Desert One to Desert Storm

November 1975 found the Corps celebrating its two hundredth birthday…and again fighting for its life in Congress. This time the issues were manpower, and the question of the Marines' capability to fight on modern battlefields. The 1980s and 1990s provided ample proof that they were capable. Meanwhile, two events in this period would have a fundamental effect on the Corps. The first was the failed embassy hostage rescue in Iran, in which Marine helicopter pilots took part. A result of this disaster was a really hard look at joint warfare, leading to the Goldwater-Nichols reform act of 1986. The second was the creation of the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force (RDJTF) for use in the Middle East. First commanded by Lieutenant General Paul X. Kelley (the future 28th Commandant), it was not very rapid, could not deploy, and was not much of a force. But it was a step on the road to the creation of the U.S. Central Command — the force that would later emerge victorious in Desert Storm.

The election of President Reagan in 1981 led to renewed growth for the Marine Corps, as it did for the other services. Programs like the CH-53E Super Stallion transport helicopter and the AV-8B Harrier II fighter bomber, starved for funding during the Carter Administration, now were fully funded for production. Navy amphibious shipping, which had dropped to only sixty-seven units, was built up as well. The next few years were good ones for the Corps, with a steady influx of new equipment, personnel, and doctrine. Key among these was the development of the Maritime Prepositioning Force, groups of prepositioned ships loaded with equipment and supplies to support a Marine Expeditionary Brigade of 16,500 men in the field for a month. Based at three locations around the world, MPS allows a rapid response to an emerging crisis by a Marine force with serious teeth. The other major development was the creation of the MEU (SOC). Created by General Alfred Gray (the future 29th Commandant), the MEU (SOC) was a response to the terrorism of the 1980s and the need to deal with fast-breaking situations in hours, not days or weeks. It was this force that the Marines took into the last days of the Cold War and the beginning of the New World Order of the 1990s.

When Iraq invaded Kuwait, the 7th Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) immediately deployed to Saudi Arabia from its home at Twenty-nine Palms, California. There, at the port of A1 Jubayl, they joined up with the supplies and equipment of the MPS dispatched from Diego Garcia. Some of these supplies even helped to sustain an early arriving brigade from the 82nd Airborne Division. By the start of the ground war, the Marine force ashore had grown to two full divisions, an air wing with over 450 aircraft, and two combat service support groups, totaling over seventy thousand Marines and sailors.

When the ground war began on February 24th, 1991, two divisions of Marines drove north into Kuwait, while other units of the Corps were busy offshore in the Persian Gulf. The combined 4th and 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigades, with seventeen thousand men embarked in thirty-one amphibious ships, threatened an assault on the Kuwaiti coast. This had the effect of freezing seven Iraqi divisions in place, guarding against an invasion that never came. Meanwhile, elements of the 4th MEB, while waiting to play their part in Desert Storm, carried out a daring rescue of the American embassy in Mogadishu, Somalia, in January 1991. Using in-flight refueling, CH-53Es evacuated the entire embassy staff and other civilians from that war-torn city.

It was a very busy time! It still is. Since 1991, Marines have gone wherever American interests were on the line — peacekeeping in Somalia, disaster relief in Florida, riots in California, or rescuing a downed pilot in Bosnia. The key to the Marines' flexibility is a strong sense of their chosen roles and assigned missions. By clearly understanding who they are, where they have been, what they have done, and what they are capable of doing in the future, Marines will remain America's premier shock troops, the "first to fight." This is the Marine Ethos.

Forward From the Sea: The Marine Corps Mission

Book IV of Julius Caesar's War Commentaries describes his amphibious invasion of Britain with two Roman Legions in 55 B.C. The details would be familiar to any Marine who has ever hit a beach. Though Marines are capable of conducting many other missions, storming ashore is the role most associated with the Corps. These include guarding U.S. embassies and diplomatic personnel overseas, helicopter transportation for the President and senior Administration leaders, and security for "special" (i.e., nuclear) weapons and their storage sites. Marines have also excelled in peacekeeping operations in Somalia and Haiti, riot control in Los Angeles, security operations at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, and disaster relief almost anywhere an earthquake, hurricane, or other natural catastrophe strikes. Finally, just ask Marines themselves what they think their mission is. I can guarantee that they will give you an icy look, square their shoulders, and respectfully tell you that they are riflemen, first and last, whatever their actual job specialty. Keep that in mind as we look at the real roles and missions of the Corps that follow.

All the missions we mentioned above are surely important, but going over enemy shorelines and winning battles is what defines the mission of the Marine Corps today. Following the end of the Cold War and Desert Storm in the early 1990s, the Navy published a white paper called From the Sea, which redefined American seapower for the 21st century. From the Sea, and a revised edition called Forward…From the Sea, have been controversial. The Navy has backed away from its traditional "blue water" combat role,[7] now that the Soviet naval threat has, in effect, disappeared. With no real blue-water threat on the horizon, Navy leaders see the roles and missions of the sea services increasingly tied to operations in the "littoral" or coastal zones of the world. Littoral zones in the Middle East, Indian Ocean, and Asia probably offer the highest likelihood of conflict in the coming years. The majority of the world's population centers are within these areas, along with vast industrial, energy, and mineral resources. Since the end of World War II, most of the U.S. Navy's operations have taken place in littoral areas, notably the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Tonkin, and the Mediterranean Sea.

So ingrained is the mentality of the sea service towards battles in the open ocean, some naval analysts have questioned the Navy's turn to the coastline. However, whether or not you accept the doctrine in Forward from the Sea, the Marines see it as yet another validation of their basic mission as America's seaborne assault force. Now, after 220 years, that mission is finally part of the official U.S. Navy doctrine. It has even survived a recent Department of Defense (DoD) Roles and Missions commission, which left much of the Marine force structure virtually untouched after months of examination.

Clearly, the Marine Corps' first mission is the maintenance of the three active division-aircraft wing teams as rapid-reaction forces for trouble spots around the world. These forces can support other Allied forces already in place, or open a new flank from the sea. This is exactly what happened in Korea in the 1950s, Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s, Desert Shield in 1990, and Desert Storm in 1991. In each case, Marines added mass to joint operations with the U.S. Army. While this mission may not be the favorite of the leadership at Marine Corps Headquarters, given the decreasing size of the Army, it is vital. The three active Marine divisions represent almost 25 % of U.S. ground forces today. This means that any major overseas deployment will probably include one or more of these powerful division-air wing teams.

Another mission is for large, regimental-sized Marine units (up to fifteen thousand Marines) to fall upon prepositioned equipment stocks in land-based depots (such as in Norway) or stowed on ships of the Maritime Prepositioned Squadrons (MPSRONs) based in the Mediterranean Sea, at Agana Harbor at Guam, and at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. These stocks include all of the arms, equipment, and supplies necessary to sustain the unit in the field for a month. The advantage of this scheme is speed, because the only thing that has to be delivered are the Marines, who would fly in aboard aircraft from the Air Mobility Command (AMC), the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF), and chartered airliners.

Once the Marines begin to arrive in-theater, the prepositioned stocks from the ships would be unloaded, distributed to the units, and then deployed. This means that a combat ready force of Marines can be on duty in a crisis area in a matter of days, as happened during Operation Desert Shield. The whole scheme requires a friendly nation willing to host the prepositioned stocks on its soil (like Kuwait or Norway), or a port facility capable of rapidly unloading the heavy ships of the MPSRON. Thus, while the prepositioning concept has worked on the occasions that it has been used (1990, 1994, and 1995 in the Persian Gulf), there are no guarantees that future conflicts will occur in places with such convenient facilities. Without friendly ports and airfields, prepositioning falls apart. Luckily, the Marines and their Navy brethren can deal with such problems. They just fall back on old tradition, head over the beach, and take what they need.

Marines are old-fashioned shock troops, still able to come from the sea and win the first battles of a war. Despite the huge cuts in force structure between 1990 and 1995, the Marine Corps lost only about 11 % of its strength, primarily because its missions were well understood and appreciated by Congress, which controls the money. Much of the amphibious capability that the Corps built up in the 1980s has been retained, and the capability to "kick in the door" is still an option for U.S. policymakers. The Navy retains enough sealift to move and land about 1.25 Marine divisions, though not all at once, or at the same place. As a result, considerable time may be required to assemble a substantial landing force of amphibious ships and Marines, if it is possible at all. To overcome this problem, the Navy and Marine Corps have developed a strategy of rotating small, forward-based Amphibious Ready Groups (ARGs) into potential trouble areas. In this way, one or more battalion-sized landing forces (each about 1,500 to 2,200 Marines) can arrive anywhere in the world within a matter of days, sometimes even hours.

Each of these Battalion Landing Teams (BLTs), with a helicopter squadron and support group, forms a MEU (SOC). The MEU (SOC) does for amphibious warfare what the Aircraft Carrier Battle Group (CVBG) has done for airpower in naval warfare. It provides U.S. policymakers with options to threaten an enemy's coast, take or destroy a vital target such as a port or airfield, and conduct raids or rescue operations. Only the Marines, with support from the Navy, can keep a landing force hovering for months off a hostile coast, and then strike at a moment's notice.

Unlike the heavy armored forces of the U.S. Army, Marine units are infantry formations, whose feet provide their mobility once they hit the ground. Well armed with personal weapons, they tend to be lightly equipped with heavy artillery and armored vehicles. Their offensive potential and mobility, once they are on dry land, requires reinforcement with additional artillery, armor, and transportation. For the afloat MEU (SOC) units, though, such augmentation is unlikely. Their strategy is based on stealth, maneuver, and deception. Once they're on location, they either accomplish their goal quickly and leave, or dig in and hold until relieved by other friendly forces.

While Marine units may be somewhat less mobile than their Army counterparts after they hit dry land, they have many ways to reach a particular strip of coastline. They can ride helicopters, crawl ashore in armored amphibious vehicles, or land from conventional or air-cushioned landing craft. And a MEU (SOC) can put units ashore using all of these options simultaneously, if weather and seastate conditions are favorable. The enemy can even be hit in many, widely separated places all at once, if that is desirable. Such operational mobility is paralyzing to an enemy, and will often enable the Marines to achieve surprise.

Marines have developed their own form of "maneuver warfare." They leap across or over the water to gain operational mobility, hit an enemy at weak points, and confuse and befuddle his command structure. Whenever possible, they try to avoid stand-up fights, preferring to shock an enemy into running or surrendering. The key to all this is intensive training and practice down to the squad level. This requires intelligence and initiative on the part of every Marine, from the commanding officer to the most junior private. Far from the image of "dumb jarheads," today's seaborne Marines are among the most intelligent, motivated, and positive young people you will ever meet. They have to be, because there just are not enough of them to go around.

Marine resources are stretched pretty thin these days. As an example, between October 1993 and October 1994, Marine deployments included:

• October 1993—The 22nd MEU (SOC), based around the USS Guadalcanal with the USS America Carrier Battle Group in support, moved from the Adriatic, where it supported operations off former Yugoslavia, to Somalia, where it landed forces to enforce UN peacekeeping and famine relief efforts.

• April 1994—The 11th MEU (SOC), based around the USS Peleliu, deployed from operations off Somalia to the waters offshore from Mombassa to support famine relief in the Rwandan Civil War and evacuation of non-combatants.

• August 1994—The 15th MEU (SOC), based around the USS Tripoli, deployed from supporting operations in Mombassa for humanitarian relief at Entebbe, Uganda, and in Rwanda for victims of the Rwandan Civil War.

• October 1994—The 15th MEU (SOC), again based around the USS Tripoli, steamed with the USS George Washington Carrier Battle Group from the Adriatic to the Persian Gulf to assist in deterrence against Iraq, which had moved two elite Republican Guards armored divisions into the Basra area.

These movements represented almost half of the MEU deployments that year. What does that mean? If you are a deployed Sea Marine, you have a better than even chance of seeing some sort of crisis. This is the lot of today's deployed Marines.

Tools of the Trade: Marine Units

The Marine Corps is the only branch of the armed services whose size and structure are spelled out in the United States Code, by Public Law 416 of the 82nd Congress (1952),[8] which states that the Corps shall be composed, at a minimum, of three division-sized ground units and three Marine Air Wings (MAWs). The 1st and 2nd Divisions each have about eighteen thousand Marines. But the 3rd Division, split between Hawaii and Okinawa, is down below ten thousand. Each MAW has about 250 aircraft (fighters, attack aircraft, helicopters, etc.). Along with the combat units, there are service and support units to provide supply and equipment maintenance. Backing the whole Marine Corps is a large segment of the U.S. Navy (nicknamed the 'Gator Navy) with the duty of transporting Marines and supporting them in their assigned missions.

The total active-duty strength (as of 1996) of 174,000 Marines is parceled out to the three divisions and three MAWs, as well as various supporting units. The Marine Reserve includes an additional 108,500 people (approximately), spread among units around the country. Reserve units are used to augment active units when they deploy. Each division includes an artillery regiment and two or three Regimental Landing Teams (RLTs), each of which contains several Battalion Landing Teams (BLTs). Each RLT usually has three BLTs under its command, each with about one thousand Marines. But RLTs provide the BLTs used to make MEUs, so a Marine division commander is usually short a battalion or two. In addition, other units are frequently detached to support peacekeeping and humanitarian operations.

Thus, to view the Corps as three monolithic division-sized blocks on the battlefield is not realistic. Desert Storm saw the largest Marine ground force that can probably be assembled in one place, when General Walt Boomer commanded the two divisions of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF). In addition, almost every Marine unit in the world was gutted to deliver that force into battle. In fact, if the late Kim II Sung had wanted to take South Korea, his last, best chance was probably in January 1991, when most of the deployable U.S. forces were facing Iraq!

The basic building block of Marine operations is the BLT, which is a rifle battalion of over 900 men, with attached units bringing it up to a total of 1,200 to 1,300 Marines. The BLT is probably the smallest unit the Corps would deploy into a crisis area. Commanded by a lieutenant colonel (O-5), it is a task-oriented team that can attach or detach units, as the mission requires. For example, the basic BLT, with three Marine rifle companies, might gain a platoon of four M1A1 tanks or a company of wheeled Light Armored Vehicles (LAVs) to beef up its combat muscle. The BLT normally has a reconnaissance platoon and a sniper platoon added to provide intelligence to the commander and his staff. Amphibious tractor or rubber boat companies might also be attached, depending upon the assigned mission. Marine units tend to be tailored for specific mission requirements, and are supremely flexible in both organization and equipment.

The Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF)

Whatever a Marine unit is tasked to do, it would operate as part of a Marine Air-Ground Task Force or MAGTF. The MAGTF is the basic working task unit of the Marines, a concept that has been at the core of operations by the Corps for over half a century. It combines an infantry-heavy ground component — anything from one BLT to several divisions — with supporting artillery and other heavy weapons. Attached is an air component — anything from a reinforced squadron of helicopters and attack fighters to several full Marine Air Wings (MAWs). The entire MAGTF has a logistical service and support component to provide supplies and maintenance. All of this is melded into a single team commanded by a senior Marine officer, anything from a colonel to a lieutenant general.

MAGTFs come in a variety of shapes and sizes, depending on how big a commitment the President of the United States cares to make. For example, during the early stages of Operation Desert Shield following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, the Marine Corps deployed the 7th Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) based at Twenty-nine Palms, California. The 7th MEB had four infantry battalions, a light armored infantry battalion, a brigade service support group, and a reinforced Marine Air Group (MAG). By November 1990, the force had quadrupled in size, and come under the headquarters of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF), which included all of the 1st Marine Division from Camp Pendleton, California, the 3rd Marine Air Wing from El Toro, California, the 1st Force Service Support Group (FSSG), and other reinforcements from active and Reserve Marine units around the world. By the start of the ground war in February 1991, the 1st MEF mustered over seventy thousand Marines. Throughout the Persian Gulf deployment, the Marine force was a fully integrated MAGTF, with all of the necessary components to enter combat. In this particular case, the Marines of the 1st MEF were under the command of Lieutenant General Boomer, who reported to General Schwarzkopf, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM). Another seventeen thousand Marines of the 4th and 5th MEBs were afloat in the Gulf, and came under the command of the Navy's 7th Fleet.

While the division-sized MEFs have made most of the headlines for the Corps in the last five years, it is the smaller, battalion-sized MEUs that do most of the day-in, day-out work. Their rapid mobility aboard the ships of their Amphibious Ready Groups (ARGs) and their ability to rapidly adapt to assigned missions make them popular among Washington politicians. This explains why, in a time of severe budget restrictions, funding for a 7th unit of the Wasp-class, a multipurpose amphibious assault ship, sailed through Congress with hardly a notice.

America needs the capabilities of the Marines and their MEUs; they buy time and provide options that airborne divisions and heavy bombers just cannot provide. Marines of the 24th MEU (SOC) were able to stand by on just twenty minutes notice, for over a week, to rescue Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady from Bosnia following his shootdown by a surface-to-air missile (SAM). Presence is important. In the mind of a potential aggressor, the idea of 1,500 Marines sitting off his coast has a calming effect. It may make him stop, think, and decide, "Well…not today." No dictator, warlord, or international thug wants 1,500 heavily armed, well-trained, and uninvited guests dropping by suddenly to adjust his attitude. That, in the end, is why we need sea-based Marines.

In chapters that follow, I'll try to give you a feel for the "nuts and bolts" of a MEU (SOC), its people, equipment, and organization. We'll have a chance to talk with the Corps' top Marine, and get to know how a young person becomes one of the "brothers and sisters." In addition, you'll see the equipment that is used by the sea Marines, as well as spend some time with one of the MEU (SOC)s that helps maintain forward presence for the United States. By the time we are done, I think you will have a feeling for how the Marines do their vital jobs, and why they can proudly bark their motto, "Semper Fi!" ("Always Faithful!"), when asked how things are in their world.