Marine Corps Essay, Research Paper
?From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, we fight our country?s battles in the air, on land and sea. First to fight for right and freedom, and to keep our honor clean, we are proud to claim the title of United States Marine?? (Alexander, 398)
Why is this first verse of The Marines? Hymn so familiar to me and to my parents and grandparents before me? As history writes, the Marines have written their page in history and have also won a place in the hearts and souls of Americans.
From the time of the battle cries of the civil war to the beginning of the horrors of trench warfare during World War I, the United States government evolved from a nation divided to a global empire. The foreign policy of America became to protect American interests everywhere and anywhere. The United States Marine Corps evolved to meet this challenge. The challenge was to be always ready, or more eloquently put, always faithful. Semper Fidelis! How did The Marine Corps grow from relative obscurity, to become an elite American fighting force advancing American Imperialsim and proud protector of the ?American Empire.?
?In declared wars, the nation always found need for an instantly available, rigorously trained force of relentless fighters. But in the “extra-curricular” fighting of the imperial age they (The Marines) were especially handy, presenting a powerful national military presence in something of a seagoing constabulary role, always politically easier to commit than the Army.? (Alexander, 14)
The way the Marines became so important and reliable is for the most part due to their training. The policy of the Marines is to take a man or woman, who meets the requirements; height, weight, no criminal record, no broken bones, the average American Joe, and they turn him or her, into a Marine. (Webster) The process by which this happens can be described in two different ways, the first being, the physical realm. In this realm the candidate is physically challenged, and pushed beyond his or her limits on an everyday basis. The actual amount of physical exertion may vary from drill instructor to drill instructor, but the results are always the same. Somewhere along the training the person is broken down and built anew. The second part of becoming a Marine is passing the mental test. Not only do you have to be physically strong, but also you must learn and appreciate the new ideals and goals of this brotherhood. You gain a higher respect for what it means to be a Marine. What does it mean to be a Marine?
US Marines ?are the most peculiar breed of human beings I have ever witnessed. They treat service as if it was some kind of cult, plastering their emblem on almost everything they own, making themselves look like insane fanatics with haircuts to ungentlemanly lengths, worshipping their Commandant almost as if he was a god, and making weird animal noises like a gang of savages. They’ll fight like rabid dogs at the drop of a hat just for the sake of a little action, and are the cockiest sons of bitches I have ever known. Most have the foulest mouths and drink well beyond a man’s normal limits, but their high spirits and sense of brotherhood set them apart and, generally speaking, the United States Marines I’ve come in contact with are the most professional soldiers and the finest men and women I have ever had the pleasure to meet…?
Correspondent Richard Harding Davis (Ellsworth, xi)
Marines are different. What makes them different? When most people try to sum up the ideal of the Marine Corps they often use the word ethos. Ethos is the characteristics, attitude or values of a group that sets it apart from others. The Marines are rich in ethos and spend the majority of their training instilling this into their soldiers. At the core of the Corps is the motto Semper Fidelis (Always Faithful). This is unique from any other branch of the military. The Marines offer pride and belonging much like a fraternal organization. All personnel must pass the same tests, even officers, and Marines often refer to each other as brother and sister. Every Marine is a rifleman, whether a cook, pilot, drill sergeant, or grunt. This is an extreme difference from other branches of the Department of Defense. The Marine Corps is unified beyond any other branch; everyone is a Marine first, last and always.
Marines have a worldwide reputation for being hard, courageous leaders and simply gifted. This has much to do with their impressive wartime history, but other factors lead to this assumption too. The pilots, honor guards, and band of the President of the United States, are Marines. In every American Embassy around the world there are Marines standing guard. (Allen, 45)
Every Marine has a considerable amount of heritage to live up to. This is achieved by literally saturating young and old Marines in the rich history that came before them. Upon entering any basic training in the Marine Corps, recruits are required to learn extensive Marine history including significant milestones and history of heroic Marine elite. No other branch of the armed forces demands this of its men
. Combined with straightforward, yet challenging moral standards, the Marine legacy builds the core of values that are instilled in young men and women, as they become Marines.
The Marines concentrate on their basic training more than the other armed forces. Marine recruit training is the longest, lasting 12 weeks, while the Army’s consists of 8 weeks and the Air Force 6 weeks. Marine recruit training is very physical and stressful. It builds extreme discipline, teamwork skills and leadership ability. Recruits are pressed to achieve their potential. Basic Training is where Marines get their “every Marine a rifleman” background. All Marines, regardless of their job specialty, practice using their M-16A2 rifle extensively. Here, Marines are awarded their first rifle status of Rifle Marksman, Rifle Sharpshooter, or Rifle Expert. For the rest of their military careers, they are held to the same physical and rifle standards that they were held to at Basic Training. All Marines take regular physical fitness tests to assure that they are physically healthy.
Marines require all newly commissioned junior officers to report to an approximate six-month long training course called ?The Basic School? regardless of the commissioning source. No other branch offers this core curriculum course that unites junior officers. Here, they receive basic leadership training and exposure to all aspects of the Marine Corps. Officers of different job specialties have the opportunity to learn and grow together during this leadership development period. (Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, 86-89)
Over the gate of Parris Island, South Carolina is a sign: ?Where the Difference Begins.? Thousand of men and women have passed through those gates and came out Marines. Parris Island and places like it have been described as forges for Marines. During the training period known as ?Boot Camp?, the person is forged into a Marine. Young bodies harden, maturity emerges, minds focus, confidence grows, brotherhood takes form, and pride begins to tingle. During this basic training the candidate is tested physically and mentally. He is given an in depth history of the Corps, along with rigorous physical demands. The Crucible is a fifty-four hour event occurring near the end of recruit training. It features little sleep, less food, over forty miles of forced marches and numerous stations that test physical toughness and mental agility. Many say that somewhere during this period the individual is destroyed and rebuilt. Only this time something has changed they are stronger, and have a profound sense of belonging, and brotherhood. It is this that makes Marines different from any other service, and it is this that makes them a ?cut above the rest?. “I will never surrender of my own free will. If in command I will never surrender my men while they still have the means to resist.” (?www.parrisisland.com)
? The Marines have a way of making you afraid- not of dying, but of not doing your job.? First Lieutenant Bonnie Little, USMCR, 2d Amphibian Tractor Battalion, posthumous Navy Cross, D-Day, Tarawa (Alexander, 136)
The Marines? character and philosophy are surpassed by their deeds. In some Marine-recruiting station in any town USA, and man with poor eyesight was being questioned by the recruiter. The recruiter asked him if there was any special skill that he possessed that would make up for his lack of eyesight. The man said that he taught history. A Sergeant overheard this from across and room, and told the man, ?This is the Marine Corps we don?t teach history, we make it.? And history they made! (Metcalf, vi)
On November 10, 1775, the Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia passed a resolution stating that “two Battalions of Marines be raised” for service as landing forces with the fleet. This resolution established the Continental Marines and marked the birth date of the United States Marine Corps. Serving on land and at sea, these first Marines distinguished themselves in a number of important operations, including their first amphibious raid into the Bahamas in March 1776, under the command of Captain Samuel Nicholas. Nicholas, the first commissioned officer in the Continental Marines, remained the senior Marine officer throughout the American Revolution and is considered to be the first Marine Commandant.
The Treaty of Paris in April 1783 brought an end to the Revolutionary War and as the last of the Navy’s ships were sold, the Continental Navy and Marines went out of existence. (Allen, 97)
Following the Revolutionary War and the formal re-establishment of the Marine Corps on July 11, 1798, Marines saw action in the quasi-war with France, landed in Santo Domingo, and took part in many operations against the Barbary pirates along the “Shores of Tripoli”. During the Mexican War (1846-1848), Marines seized enemy seaports on both the Gulf and Pacific coasts. A battalion of Marines joined General Scott’s army at Pueblo and fought all the way to the “Halls of Montezuma,” Mexico City. The seizure of advanced naval bases would become one of the primary missions of the Corps. These early successes brought the Marines prominence and respect from the US Government and established them as a dependable force.
Marines also served ashore and afloat in the Civil War (1861-1865). Although most service was with the Navy, a battalion fought at Bull Run. Other units saw action with the blockading squadrons and at Cape Hatteras, New Orleans, Charleston, and Fort Fisher. The last third of the 19th century saw Marines making numerous landings throughout the world, especially in the Orient and in the Caribbean area. (McCellan, 85-95)
With the explosion of the U.S.S. Maine, killing 260 Americans 26 of whom were Marines, on February 15, 1898, war with Spain was imminent. The war would prove to be a short one, but the gains for America would alter the role of the Marine Corps forever.
With orders from Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, the commander of the US?s Asiatic Squadron Commodore Dewey attacked the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay, in the Philippines. On May 3, Commodore Dewey landed Marines from the USS Baltimore, under the command of Lieutenant Dion Williams, to occupy the naval station at Cavite. These Marines were the first to land on Spanish territory and raise an American flag. Shortly thereafter, other Marines from the Charleston landed unopposed at Guam and the Pacific phase of the war ended. The rapid deployment and rapid advanced seizure of naval bases and strong holds would become the primary mission of the Marine Corps. (Metcalf, 67)
While Marines and seamen were fighting the Spanish in the Pacific, Marines at home were preparing for a landing in Cuba. On April 16, Commandant Heywood had been given the word to organize a Marine battalion to serve in Cuba. Within a few weeks, the Marine battalion was organized and encamped at Key West, Florida awaiting further orders. On June 10, and a month before Roosevelt’s Rough Riders saw any action at San Juan Hill, Lieutenant Colonel Robert W. Huntington landed his battalion at Guantanamo Bay and became the first American troops to establish a beachhead on Cuban soil.
The most important factor of Marine Corps participation in the War with Spain was the speed with which its forces had been organized and dispatched to the region where they were needed and its ability to do the job once on the field of battle. Although the Cuban operation lacked the daring of Dewey’s decisive victory in the Philippines, the landing at Guantanamo demonstrated the necessity of Marines as assault troops. The victory at Guantanamo proved that the primary mission of the Marine Corps should be to capture advanced naval bases. (Ringler, 212)
The growing animosity of the Chinese toward foreigners in the 1890’s led many of the foreign powers to establish guards at their diplomatic missions in Peking. An American Legation guard was established in November 1898. Shortly there after a Marine guard was placed over the American Consulate at Tientsin. This is particularly significant because the Marine?s expanded role into China shows that they had the ability to respond to crisis anywhere and at anytime in the world. (Parker, 39)
In Haiti, during 1914, strife-torn internal conditions of the government required a detachment of Marines to land for the purpose of restoring order and protecting the property of Americans and Europeans alike. Marine officers directed vital services such as road construction, communication efforts, education, and other public activities.
Throughout the period, the Americans had a stabilizing influence in the troubled country, and as reforms were made, conditions began to improve. The Marines are now characterized as civil leaders and trainers in addition to being peacekeepers and soldiers.
The thrust of the Marine involvement in Mexico and the Caribbean in 1914, further illustrated the necessity of employing larger forces. These expanded forces would be necessary on the battlefields of France as the United States headed into World War I. The United States is now a world power and the United States Marine Corps – the world police. (Ellsworth, 42)
In World War I the Marine Corps distinguished itself on the battlefields of France as the 4th Marine Brigade earned the title of “Devil Dogs” for heroic action during 1918 at Belleau Wood, Soissons, St. Michiel, Blanc Mont, and in the final Meuse-Argonne offensive. Marine aviation, which dates from 1912, also played a part in the war effort, as Marine pilots flew day bomber missions over France and Belgium. More than 30,000 Marines had served in France and more than a third were killed or wounded in six months of intense fighting. (Alexander, 395)
The Marines continued to protect American interests throughout Latin America and Asia during the years between World War I and World War II. From 1929 until the outbreak of the war with Japan, Marines stayed on in China to protect American interests. Additional Marines were sent to the area during the late 1930s when war broke out between China and Japan. The Marines did not become involved in the fighting and continued to perform their duties of keeping a watchful eye on the situation and of protecting American citizens and property just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
As the United States was hurled into World War II, the Marines? proven expertise in amphibious warfare was evident first on Guadalcanal, then on Bougainville, Tarawa, New Britian, Kwjalein, Eniwetok, Saipan, Guam, Tinian, Pelelui, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. (www.usmc.gov) By the end of the war in 1945, the Marine Corps had grown to include six divisions, five air wings, and supporting troops. Its strength in World War II peaked at 485,113. The war cost the Marines nearly 87,000 dead and wounded. Eighty-two Marines had earned the distinguished Medal of Honor for valor. (Alexander, 395) When you read about the History of the Corps one must take a step back to recognize the importance of the Corps, and the respect that they earned. They served their country beyond the call of duty because the Marines not only serve the United States, but they also serve the corps. “Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue.” Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, USN, March, 16 1945. (Parker, 238) This ?uncommon valor? was typical of the Corps throughout World War II. Clearly, WWII was the pinnacle point for the Marines. The efforts of the Marine Corps in the previous 40 years culminated in America?s success particularly in the Pacific.
Following WWII, the role of the Marine Corps was a difficult one. The United States mission was now to stop the spread of communism in Korea in 1955 and then in Vietnam in 1967. The end of World War II did not mean the end of amphibious warfare as the Marines continued to do what they do best, seize the beachhead. “I have just returned from visiting the Marines at the front, and there is not a finer fighting organization in the world.” General Douglas MacArthur, USA, outskirts of Seoul, September, 21 1950. (Parker, 276) In Vietnam the precarious role of the United States lead to many problems in Vietnam and on the home front, this was not a time of tremendous support for any of the actions of the military, the Corps was no exception. The Vietnam War, longest in the history of the Marine Corps, exacted a high cost as well 13,067 Marines killed and 88,633 wounded.(Alexander, 395) In the spring of 1975, Marines evacuated embassy staffs, American citizens, and refugees in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and Saigon, Republic of Vietnam. Later, in May 1975.