United States Marine Corps

The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is one of the most successful and legendary military organizations in history. Marines have fought in all of America’s wars, plus countless other operations and engagements, and have rarely been defeated.

The USMC is unique. Few nations maintain significant marine forces; these are mostly small commando-type organizations. The USMC is the world’s largest, with a post-Iraq/Afghanistan fluctuating end strength of about 190,000 active members.

In essence, the USMC is a small army, complete with its own air force and a navy to take it anywhere. Its fundamental mission, established by Congress in 1933 and reaffirmed in 1947, is landing large forces from the sea on hostile shores. The Marines have not done this since the Inchon landing of 1950 during the Korean War. Amphibious operations have grown far more complex since then. But the capability remains essential for a superpower with enduring global interests.

Brief History

The US Marine Corps was founded by the Continental Congress on 10 November 1775. The Marines were originally naval infantry. At sea, they provided the ship’s captain with his personal security force; Marine detachments still serve aboard major ships. In naval battles, they fought as sharpshooters and boarded enemy ships. They also went ashore as landing parties to perform limited missions.

There were some historic events, such as Lt. Presley O’Bannon’s exploits against the Barbary pirates in 1805 or the capture of the "Halls of Montezuma" during the Mexican War in 1847. But until 1918, the Marines were mostly small and unnoticed.

World War I changed all that. Marine regiments fought in France for most of 1918. The battles of Belleau Wood and Chateau-Thierry established their reputation. The Marines became American idols.

The United States Army did not appreciate their new competitor. And so began years of rivalry—much of it bureaucratic, political, and budgetary, but some good-natured.

The interwar years, 1918-41 were technically a time of peace and an era of scant public support. Still, the Marines experienced years of low-level combat in a series of military occupations and interventions in the Western Hemisphere and China. Despite severely limited budgets, Marines and the other services developed new weapons and wrote new operational and tactical doctrines. The Army puzzled over tanks, aircraft, and paratroops. The Navy experimented with aircraft carriers and submarines.

For the Corps, the task was to do something that most experts considered impossible—landing large forces on distant hostile shores and then sustaining them as they fought their way inland. Despite the skepticism, in 1933, Congress established the Fleet Marine Force, and the era of a small-scale naval infantry ended.

The results passed into legend during World War II: opposed landings of all sizes, all successful, including Iwo Jima and its iconic photograph, later statue, of the flag-raising on Mount Suribachi. But these battles were short, from a few days or weeks to, more rarely, several months. The Korean War lasted three years, 1950-53. For the Marines, Vietnam was eight, 1965-72. The 1991 Gulf War proved brief. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ended for the Marines after nearly a decade.

United States Marine Corps Today

Marines continue to serve around the world. Expeditionary units, integrated air-ground forces of two thousand or more men and women, are routinely deployed aboard ships in the Mediterranean and in the Indian and Pacific oceans. Small land-based follow-on units maintain high levels of readiness, and the Corps is capable, over time, of fielding multi-division/air wing forces. Although Marines themselves are not special forces like Navy SEALs or Army Green Berets, they participate actively in unconventional warfare.

The core mission of landing large forces under fire or threat of fire remains. However, since 1946, some have argued that America does not need a second land army. Critics also contend that the John Wayne-style, hit-the-beach amphibious operation is no longer doable. Advanced antiship missiles and mines may make it impossible for the ships to get close enough to land Marines. Helicopters are always vulnerable to missiles, shells, and bullets. And new generations of weapons and equipment are proving to be both expensive and hard to develop.

The Marines and Navy (the Marines are part of the US Navy Department) have worked for decades to develop new doctrines and techniques for landings that have yet to be tested in battle. Attempts to develop a new armored personnel carrier, an amphibious combat vehicle that can come ashore from twenty or more miles out and then operate on land, have not been successful. And the Marine variant of the F-35 Lightning II fighter-bomber, the perpetually delayed and most expensive single weapons program in history, remained troubled.

Fortunately for the Corps, success in Washington, DC, has come along with success in combat. The National Security Act of 1947 reaffirmed the Marines’ mission and basic structure. The Corps is the only service to have its minimum organization (three divisions and three air wings) set by law. They have fought off all serious challenges to their existence since then and have been able to keep post-Vietnam, post-Cold War, and post-Iraq/Afghanistan cuts from becoming ruinous. And beginning in the 1980s, Marines assumed unprecedented power and influence within America’s global defense system. Once, Marine generals were considered too limited in experience and outlook to command large multiservice forces. But Marines now routinely lead the regional combatant commands responsible for places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Western Pacific. In 2015 General Joseph Dunford became the second Marine to become chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, an organization consisting of the senior-most leader of each branch of military service.

Still, the Corps is perpetually challenged to meet its peacetime operational commitments while maintaining readiness for major war. The Rule of Three holds that for every forward-deployed unit, there must be three: one aboard ship, one back and rebuilding, one preparing to relieve. A high operational tempo means repeated and often long absences from home and family; this causes many good Marines to resign or retire. Finally, the Marines have historically been the service most opposed to women in combat roles, and the most resistant to Pentagon orders that they accept gender equality under arms. This has caused significant and ongoing difficulties within the Corps and occasional public scandals.

Bibliography

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"Brief History of the Corps." United States Marine Corps, www.usmcu.edu/Research/Marine-Corps-History-Division/Brief-Histories/Brief-History-of-the-United-States-Marine-Corps/. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.

Coram, Robert. Brute: The Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine. New York: Little, Brown, 2010. Print.

Devaney, David. They Were Heroes. Annapolis: U.S. Naval Institute Press, 2015. Print.

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Leatherneckmagazine. Marine Corps Association and Foundation. 09 Dec 2015. <https://www.mca-marines.org/leatherneck>.

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Ricks, Thomas. Making the Corps. Revised Edition. New York: Scribner, 2007. Print.