HAPPY BIRTHDAY - SEMPER FI!

[WBWilder]

Its not directly game related but we do include the Marines in our scenarios.

I'm a day early, but Happy Birthday to all the Jarheads out there! 230 and still counting!

You can move this if you wish.
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SEMPER FI – HISTORY OF THE US MARINE CORPS
By Wild Bill Wilder

“Always - The Corps!”

The history of the United States Marine Corps is an amazing one. It is a story of survival and adaptation in a changing world. The Marines are actually considered a part of the United States Navy, though they have become in a real sense, a separate entity. They are considered a branch of the Armed Services just as the other organizations. While the smallest branch of the four, the size does demonstrate the Corps capabilities or usefulness.

It can readily be argued that the Marines are America’s “Ready Force” today. From a simplistic organization of less than 1,000 officers and men in 1775, it has grown and expanded its duties until today it is a permanent part (authorized by law: The Douglas Manfield Act of 1952, Public Law 416, 82d Congress) of the US armed forces with a standing force of nearly a quarter of a million men.

The Continental Congress authorized a force of two battalions of marines on November 10, 1775. This was the birth of the United States Marines. Temporarily inactivated after the Revolutionary War, the Corps was re-instituted on July 11, 1798. The marines played a very active role in American military history throughout the nineteenth century, including the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the American Civil War, the Spanish-American War, and the Boxer Rebellion in China.

Basically there have been four stages of overlapping growth within the Corps. The first phase began with the service of the Continental Marines in the American Revolution, which continued early into the twentieth century.

The primary purpose of the marines was that of “ship security.” A small force of marines was included on the roster of every major US warship. Only in a secondary role would they serve as combat troops or landing operations. There were occasions when the marines served in land operations but they were rare.

The next step in the development of the Corps was the use of American naval forces in the Pacific and in Latin America (primarily Central America and the Caribbean) for prolonged military interventions. This period began in the Philippines in 1899 (The Spanish-American War) and ended with the withdrawal of the 4th Marine regiment from Shanghai, China in 1941. During this period, an expansion program for the marines included the addition of artillery and air support units. It was quickly becoming a self-sufficient, fully integrated force.

The Marines Come of Age

At the request of the Joint Chiefs of Staff early in the twentieth century, the marines moved forward into the third phase of development. The Corps was to provide adequate forces to defend advanced US naval bases around the world, but in particular in the Pacific. Four marine defense battalions were formed and sent to various US bases, including Wake Island and Guam.

The United States was becoming uneasy with the development of affairs in the Far East. Japan had been awarded many German possessions as a result of the Treaty of Versailles and it had extended their authority greatly. As the Japanese Empire took a bellicose stance toward the countries around them, a war in the Pacific was feared.

Contingency operational scenarios were drawn up to deal with such a possibility, including the infamous “Plan Orange.” The surprise, savage attack by Japanese forces all throughout the Pacific and Asia shattered these ideas and sent planners back to start from scratch.

It was realized, however, that an amphibious force would have to be developed to counter such intentions and the marines seemed to be the ideal choice. This would lead to the Corps finding its niche, so to speak. It would fill a void within America’s armed services for dealing with sea assaults and invasions. No units at that time were fully prepared for such a venture.

There were strong advocates within the Corps for just such a capability. Among them was a young major, Holland M. Smith, a veteran of the fighting in France in World War One. He would have the nickname “Howlin’ Mad” given to him, not only for his initials, but also for his ballistic character. An outspoken man, and a fierce defender of the marines and his point of view, Smith argued vociferously for the development of an amphibious doctrine to deal with hostile possibilities down the line. He envisioned a day when the marines, supported by naval gunfire and aerial bombing would be able to make successful landings on enemy held islands and beaches, previously considered impregnable.

The fiasco at Gallipoli when Australian and British troops were slaughtered in an attempted amphibious assault loomed large in the minds of many planners. Smith out-argued them. He termed his plan “a novel principle of war, the principle of doing the impossible well.” Time would prove him and his theory to be correct.

Other visionaries saw a war with Japan as inevitable, as early as the First World War. Marine Corps Major Earl H. “Pete” Ellis, who had served and been decorated in France for his heroism predicted that Japan would strike first at the United States. Then it would be necessary to counterattack across the wide expanses of the Pacific toward the Empire, utilizing Hawaii, Guam, and islands that would have to be retaken from the Japanese. This would only be done through amphibious assault. Ellis recognized that at that time there were no amphibious specialists within the armed services and no plan or doctrine on the matter.

This type of operation, requiring troops to emerge from the sea, unshielded in the face of withering enemy fire of all calibers from concealed and fortified positions would be probably the toughest type of assault. He wrote, “It is not enough that the troops be skilled infantrymen and artillerymen of high morale; they must be skilled water men and jungle men who know it can be done –Marines with Marine training.” Many military authorities denied the possibility of such an operation. Time, of course, would prove them to be wrong.

Ellis was so impassioned with the idea that he decided to get a personal look at Japan’s Pacific outposts. Disguising himself as a commercial traveler, he undertook a secret mission to the Marshalls and the Palaus. In the Far East, the motives of all western foreigners were suspect. He was watched closely. While on the island of Koror in the Palaus, he took up with a native woman, and frequented the bars (he also had an insatiable thirst!). He often prowled around Japanese installations late at night. On May 12, 1923, he was reported by island inhabitants to have gone into a drunken craze and then die a few hours later. The Japanese authorities on the island simply reported that the American had fallen ill and died later. No one knows with certainty just what did happen to Pete Ellis.

Finally H. M. Smith won his argument. In 1933, the Fleet Marine Force, which was defined by the Department of the Navy as “a balanced force of land, air and service elements of the US Marine Corps which is integral with US Pacific and/or Atlantic Fleet. It has the status of a full-type command and is organized, trained, and equipped for the seizure or defense of advance naval bases and for the conduct of limited amphibious or land operations essential to the prosecution of a naval campaign.” A year later, the Corps put together a manual for landing operations that became a standard not only for the Marines, but also for the Army, who seven years later called upon the marines to help train several of its divisions in amphibious techniques. World War II would be perhaps the Corps supreme moment of glory, when it carved in stone its contribution to the survival and security of the United States of America.

Moments of Glory

Since the Second World War, the Marine Corps has adapted a new stance. With units at the ready in naval fleets all over the world, it is considered a “force in readiness.” It is part of the old Theodore Roosevelt saying, “Walk softly and carry a big stick.” A vital part of the “big stick” are the marine units, combat ready, that are available at a moment’s notice to land and do whatever their country calls upon them to do.

The Marine legend is a permanent part of history. Terms that might be thought strange to the American vocabulary, such as “Semper Fi”(always faithful), “Gung Ho” (work together), and “Leathernecks” (taken from the leather cravat that was once a part of the Marine uniform to protect their neck from enemy swords) are well known.

On the afternoon of the surrender of the Marine defenders on Wake, Major James P. S. Devereux sat on a log and experienced deep depression. It was at that moment that a group of marines under Japanese guard approached. They were a ragged group. All of them had been partially stripped, some to their undershorts. Many were without shoes. Unshaven, limping, with ragged bandages over various parts of their dirty bodies, their shoulders were hunched and their heads down.

The long weeks of siege and the final surrender had taken its toll on them too. They were lead by veteran sergeant Edwin F. Hassig. As they approached, Hassig saw his commander nearby. He stopped in his tracks, turned, and shouted, “Snap outta' this stuff, damn it! You’re Marines!” To a man, they raised their heads, squared their shoulders, and when the passed the Major, they were marching in perfect cadence with the pride of a drill team on the parade ground. That image burned itself into Devereaux’s mind and helped sustain him during nearly four years of brutal Japanese imprisonment.

The flag-raising on Iwo Jima has ennobled and immortalized the Corps that James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy in World War Two, who witnessed it himself from an offshore ship made a classic comment. He stated to the now General H. M. Smith, “Holland, the raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next five hundred years!”

Another epic stand of the United States Marines occurred in Korea at the end of 1950. When massive Chinese intervention into the war there threatened the possible total defeat of United Nations forces, it was the First Marine Division, nestled around the Chosin Reservoir in sub-zero temperature that made a stand and a marching withdrawal back to Hungnam.

They came, carrying their equipment, wounded, and many of their dead. They came to the port with pride, heads held high. They had simply, as their general put it, “attacked in another direction.” And so it goes.

Moments of greatness have continued for the Marine Corps through the years. Their fighting spirit and determination fill the pages of the last half of the century past and spill over into this one. Whether holding their ground at Khe Sanh or fighting their way through the streets of Hue or Fallujah, the Marines keep their standards high. Many have paid the ultimate price to do just that. The pages of military history are filled to overflowing with great moments for the Gyrenes. Yes, it appears that the United States Marine Corps is here to stay.