United States Marine Corps
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The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the naval infantry service branch of the United States Armed Forces. The service is responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious warfare[11] through combined arms, implementing its own infantry, artillery, aerial, and special operations forces. The U.S. Marine Corps is a part of the United States Department of Defense and is one of the six armed forces of the United States and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States.
The Marine Corps has been part of the United States Department of the Navy since 30 June 1834, along with its sister service, the United States Navy.[12] The USMC operates installations on land and aboard sea-going amphibious warfare ships around the world. Several of the Marines' tactical aviation squadrons, primarily Marine Fighter Attack squadrons, are embedded in Navy carrier air wings and operate from aircraft carriers.[13] These comprise the bulk of the US military's V/STOL aircraft, with 313 V-22 Ospreys, 183 F-35B Lightning IIs, and 78 AV-8B Harrier IIs as of 2025[update].[14]
The history of the Marine Corps began when two battalions of Continental Marines were formed on 10 November 1775 in Philadelphia as a service branch of infantry troops capable of fighting both at sea and on shore.[15] In the Pacific theater of World War II, the Corps took the lead in a massive campaign of amphibious warfare, advancing from island to island.[16][17][18] As of December 2024, the USMC has around 169,000 active duty members[19] and some 33,000 personnel in reserve.[20]
Mission
[edit]As outlined in 10 U.S.C. § 5063 and as originally introduced under the National Security Act of 1947, the three primary areas of responsibility for the U.S. Marine Corps are:
- Seizure or defense of advanced naval bases and other land operations to support naval campaigns;
- Development of tactics, technique, and equipment used by amphibious landing forces in coordination with the Army and Air Force; and
- Such other duties as the president or Department of Defense may direct.
This last clause derives from similar language in the congressional acts "For the Better Organization of the Marine Corps" of 1834 and "Establishing and Organizing a Marine Corps" of 1798. In 1951, the House of Representatives' Armed Services Committee called the clause "one of the most important statutory – and traditional – functions of the Marine Corps". It noted that the Marine Corps has more often than not performed actions of a non-naval nature, including its famous actions in Tripoli, the War of 1812, Chapultepec, and numerous counterinsurgency and occupational duties, such as those in Central America, World War I, and the Korean War. While these actions are not accurately described as support of naval campaigns nor as amphibious warfare, their common thread is that they are of an expeditionary nature, using the mobility of the Navy to provide timely intervention in foreign affairs on behalf of American interests.[21]
The Marine Band, dubbed the "President's Own" by John Adams, provides music for state functions at the White House.[22] Marines from Ceremonial Companies A & B, quartered in Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C., guard presidential retreats, including Camp David. The Marines of the Executive Flight Detachment of HMX-1 provide helicopter transport to the president and vice president, with the radio call signs "Marine One" and "Marine Two", respectively.[23] The Executive Flight Detachment also provides helicopter transport to Cabinet members and other VIPs. The Marine Security Guard of the Marine Embassy Security Command provide security for American embassies, legations, and consulates at more than 140 posts worldwide.[24]
The relationship between the Department of State and the U.S. Marine Corps is nearly as old as the Marine Corps itself. For over 200 years, marines have served at the request of secretaries of state. After World War II, an alert, disciplined force was needed to protect American embassies, consulates, and legations throughout the world. In 1947, a proposal was made that the Department of Defense furnish Marine Corps personnel for Foreign Service guard duty under the provisions of the Foreign Service Act of 1946. A formal memorandum of agreement was signed between the Department of State and the secretary of the Navy in December 1948, and 83 marines were deployed to overseas missions. During the first year of the program, 36 detachments were deployed worldwide.[25]
Historical mission
[edit]The Marine Corps was founded to serve as an infantry unit aboard naval vessels. Marines were responsible for the security of the ship and its crew by conducting offensive and defensive combat during boarding actions and defending the ship's officers from mutiny; to the latter end, their quarters on the ship were often strategically positioned between the officers' quarters and the rest of the vessel. Continental Marines crewed raiding parties, both at sea and ashore. America's first amphibious assault landing occurred early in the Revolutionary War, on 3 March 1776, as the Marines gained control of Fort Montagu and Fort Nassau, a British ammunition depot and naval port in New Providence, the Bahamas.
The role of the Marine Corps has expanded significantly since then. As the importance of its original naval mission declined with changing naval warfare doctrine and the professionalization of the naval service, the Corps adapted by focusing on formerly secondary missions ashore. The Advanced Base Doctrine of the early 20th century codified their combat duties ashore, outlining the use of marines in the seizure of bases and other duties on land to support naval campaigns. In 1987, the USMC Sea School was closed. In 1998, all Marine detachments on board ships were disestablished.[26]
Throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries, Marine detachments served aboard Navy cruisers, battleships, and aircraft carriers. Marine detachments served in their traditional duties as a ship's landing force, manning the ship's weapons and providing shipboard security. Marine detachments were augmented by members of the ship's company for landing parties, such as in the First Sumatran expedition of 1832 and continuing in the Caribbean and Mexican campaigns of the early 20th centuries. Marines developed tactics and techniques of amphibious assault on defended coastlines in time for use in World War II.[27] During World War II, marines continued to serve on capital ships, and some were assigned to man anti-aircraft batteries.[28]
In 1950,[29] President Harry Truman responded to a message from U.S. representative Gordon L. McDonough. McDonough had urged President Truman to add Marine representation on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. President Truman, writing in a letter addressed to McDonough, stated, "The Marine Corps is the Navy's police force and as long as I am President that is what it will remain. They have a propaganda machine that is almost equal to Stalin's." McDonough then inserted President Truman's letter, dated 29 August 1950, into the Congressional Record.[30]
Congressmen and Marine organizations reacted, calling President Truman's remarks an insult, and demanded an apology. Truman apologized to the Marine commandant at the time, writing, "I sincerely regret the unfortunate choice of language which I used in my letter of August 29 to Congressman McDonough concerning the Marine Corps." While Truman had apologized for his metaphor, he did not alter his position that the Marine Corps should continue to report to the Navy secretary. He made amends only by making a surprise visit to the Marine Corps League a few days later, when he reiterated, "When I make a mistake, I try to correct it. I try to make as few as possible." He received a standing ovation.[30]
When gun cruisers were retired in the late 1970s, the remaining Marine detachments were only seen on battleships and carriers. Its original mission of providing shipboard security ended in the 1990s.[31]
Capabilities
[edit]The Marine Corps fulfills a critical military role as an amphibious warfare force. It is capable of asymmetric warfare with conventional, irregular, and hybrid forces. While the Marine Corps does not employ any unique capabilities, as a force, it can rapidly deploy a combined-arms task force to almost anywhere in the world within days. The basic structure for all deployed units is a Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) that integrates a ground combat element, an aviation combat element, and a logistics combat element under a common command element. While the creation of joint commands under the Goldwater–Nichols Act has improved interservice coordination between each branch, the Marine Corps's ability to permanently maintain integrated multielement task forces under a single command provides a smoother implementation of combined-arms warfare principles.[32]
The close integration of disparate Marine units stems from an organizational culture centered on the infantry. Every other Marine capability exists to support the infantry. Unlike some Western militaries, the Corps remained conservative against theories proclaiming the ability of new weapons to win wars independently. For example, Marine aviation has always been focused on close air support and has remained largely uninfluenced by air power theories proclaiming that strategic bombing can single-handedly win wars.[27]
This focus on the infantry is matched with the doctrine of "Every Marine [is] a rifleman", a precept of Commandant Alfred M. Gray, Jr., emphasizing the infantry combat abilities of every Marine. All Marines, regardless of military specialization, receive training as a rifleman, and all officers receive additional training as infantry platoon commanders.[33] During World War II at the Battle of Wake Island, when all the Marine aircraft were destroyed, pilots continued the fight as ground officers, leading supply clerks and cooks in a final defensive effort.[34] Flexibility of execution is implemented via an emphasis on "commander's intent" as a guiding principle for carrying out orders, specifying the end state but leaving open the method of execution.[35]
The amphibious assault techniques developed for World War II evolved, with the addition of air assault and maneuver warfare doctrine, into the current "Operational Maneuver from the Sea" doctrine of power projection from the seas.[11] The Marines are credited with developing helicopter insertion doctrine and were the earliest in the American military to widely adopt maneuver-warfare principles, which emphasize low-level initiative and flexible execution. In light of recent warfare that has strayed from the Marine Corps traditional missions,[36] the Marines have renewed an emphasis on amphibious capabilities.[37]
The Marine Corps relies on the Navy for sealift to provide its rapid deployment capabilities. In addition to basing a third of the Fleet Marine Force in Japan, Marine expeditionary units (MEU) are typically stationed at sea so they can function as first responders to international incidents.[38] To aid rapid deployment, the Maritime Pre-Positioning System was developed: Fleets of container ships are positioned throughout the world with enough equipment and supplies for a Marine expeditionary force to deploy for 30 days.[citation needed]
Doctrine
[edit]Two small manuals published in the 1930s established USMC doctrine in two areas. The Small Wars Manual laid the framework for Marine counterinsurgency operations from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan. The Tentative Landing Operations Manual established the doctrine for the amphibious operations of World War II. "Operational Maneuver from the Sea" was the doctrine of power projection in 2006.[11]
History
[edit]Foundation and American Revolutionary War
[edit]
The United States Marine Corps traces its roots to the Continental Marines of the American Revolutionary War, formed by Captain Samuel Nicholas by a resolution of the Second Continental Congress on 10 November 1775, to raise two battalions of marines.[39] This date is celebrated as the birthday of the Marine Corps. Nicholas was nominated to lead the Marines by John Adams and commissioned as a captain on 28 November 1775.[40][41] By December 1775, Nicholas raised one battalion of 300 men by recruitment in his home city of Philadelphia.[39][42]
In January 1776, the Marines went to sea under the command of Commodore Esek Hopkins and in March undertook their first amphibious landing, the Battle of Nassau in the Bahamas, occupying the British port of Nassau for two weeks.[43] On 3 January 1777, the Marines arrived at the Battle of Princeton attached to General John Cadwalader's brigade, where they had been assigned by General George Washington; by December 1776, Washington was retreating through New Jersey and, needing veteran soldiers, ordered Nicholas and the Marines to attach themselves to the Continental Army. The Battle of Princeton, where the Marines along with Cadwalader's brigade were personally rallied by Washington, was the first land combat engagement of the Marines; an estimated 130 marines were present at the battle.[43]
At the end of the American Revolution, both the Continental Navy and Continental Marines were disbanded in April 1783. The institution was resurrected on 11 July 1798; in preparation for the Quasi-War with France, Congress created the United States Marine Corps.[1] Marines had been enlisted by the War Department as early as August 1797[44] for service in the newly-built frigates authorized by the congressional "Act to provide a Naval Armament" of 18 March 1794,[45] which specified the numbers of marines to recruit for each frigate.[46]
The Marines' most famous action of this period occurred during the First Barbary War (1801–1805) against the Barbary pirates,[47] when William Eaton and First Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon led 8 marines and 500 mercenaries in an effort to capture Tripoli. Though they only reached Derna, the action at Tripoli has been immortalized in the Marines' Hymn[48] and the Mameluke sword carried by Marine officers.[49]
War of 1812 and afterward
[edit]
During the War of 1812, Marine detachments on Navy ships took part in some of the great frigate duels that characterized the war, which were the first and last engagements of the conflict. Their most significant contribution was holding the center of General Andrew Jackson's defensive line at the 1815 Battle of New Orleans, the final major battle and one of the most one-sided engagements of the war. With widespread news of the battle and the capture of HMS Cyane, HMS Levant and HMS Penguin, the final engagements between British and U.S. forces, the Marines had gained a reputation as expert marksmen, especially in defensive and ship-to-ship actions.[49] They played a large role in the 1813 defense of Sacket's Harbor, New York and Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia,[50] also taking part in the 1814 defense of Plattsburgh in the Champlain Valley during one of the final British offensives along the Canadian–U.S. border. The Battle of Bladensburg, fought 24 August 1814, was one of the worst days for American arms, though a few units and individuals performed heroic service. Notable among them were Commodore Joshua Barney's 500 sailors and the 120 marines under Captain Samuel Miller USMC, who inflicted the bulk of British casualties and were the only effective American resistance during the battle. A final desperate Marine counterattack, with the fighting at close quarters, however was not enough; Barney and Miller's forces were overrun. In all of 114 marines, 11 were killed and 16 wounded. During the battle Captain Miller's arm was badly wounded, for his gallant service in action, Miller was brevetted to the rank of Major USMC.[51]
After the war, the Marine Corps fell into a malaise that ended with the appointment of Archibald Henderson as its fifth commandant in 1820. Under his tenure, the Corps took on expeditionary duties in the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, Key West, West Africa, the Falkland Islands, and Sumatra. Commandant Henderson is credited with thwarting President Jackson's attempts to combine and integrate the Marine Corps with the Army.[49] Instead, Congress passed the Act for the Better Organization of the Marine Corps in 1834, stipulating that the Corps was part of the Department of the Navy as a sister service to the Navy.[52]
Commandant Henderson volunteered the Marines for service in the Seminole Wars of 1835, personally leading nearly half of the entire Corps (two battalions) to war. A decade later, in the Mexican–American War (1846–1848), the Marines made their famed assault on Chapultepec Palace in Mexico City, which would be later celebrated as the "Halls of Montezuma" in the Marines' Hymn. In fairness to the U.S. Army, most of the troops who made the final assault at the Halls of Montezuma were soldiers and not marines.[53] The Americans forces were led by Army General Winfield Scott. Scott organized two storming parties of about 250 men each for 500 men total including 40 marines.[citation needed]
In the 1850s, the Marines engaged in service in Panama and Asia and were attached to Commodore Matthew Perry's East India Squadron on its historic trip to the Far East.[54]
American Civil War to World War I
[edit]
The Marine Corps played a small role in the Civil War (1861–1865); their most prominent task was blockade duty. As more and more states seceded from the Union, about a third of the Marine Corps's officers left the United States to join the Confederacy and form the