FORTITUD INEBULLETIN OF THE MARINE CORPS HISTORICAL PROGRAMHISTORICAL BULLETIN VOLUME XVIII SPRING-SUMMER 1988 NUMBER 1

MUSEUM EXHIBIT REMEMBERS MARINES IN THE NORTH CHINI\ BoxL:R REBELLION ThADITIONAL ThRM'EXPEDITIONARY' RETURNS ro MARINE UsA;E Niw SAN DIEGO Duir MUSEUM ThLLS CORPS' S1DRY10 RECRUITS NEW ART SHOWS CUBA FIGHT FLI(;HT LINES: DOUGLAS AD-4B SKYRAIDER

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A: Approved for public release; distribution isunlimited.

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Marine Corps Historical CenterBuilding 55, Washington Navy Yard

Washington, D.C 20374-0580Telephone (202) 433-3838 433-3840, 433-3841

DIRECTOR

BGen Edwin H Simmons, USMC (Ret)

HISTORICAL BRANCHCol James R. Williams, USMC

Deputy Director for History

Mr. Henry I, Shaw, JrAssistant Deputy Director for History

Chief Historian

Histories Section: Mr Jack Shulimsoo, LrCol Gary D. Solis, USMC:Ma) G. Ross Dunham, USMC: Maj Charles D Melson, USMC: Ma)Leonard A Blasiol, USMC, Mr. Charles R. Smith.

Reference Section: Mr DannyJ Crawford, Mr Rsrberr V Aquilina:Mrs Ann A. Ferranre: Miss Lena M Kaljisr: Mrs Regina Srrorhcr.

Oral H,rtor>' Section Mr. Benis M. Frank: Mrs. Meredith P Hartley'.

Arch,r'es: Mrs. Joyce E Bonny-ru

MUSEUMS BRANCH

Col F. B Nihari, USMC (Ret)Deputy Director for Museums

Mr Charles A. WoodChief Curator

Artist-rn-Residence

Col Charles H Waterhouse, USMCR

Manne Barracks, Special Projects: Mr Richard A Long Exhibits: MrCarl M. DeVere, Sr.: SSgr Michael V Gairher. USMC: Mr. BennyLenos, Sr Art Mr John T Dyer, Jr. Personal Papers' Mr J Michael

Miller Registrar Miss Jennifer L Gooding

Museums Branch Activities, QuanrisoLrCol Rudy T Schwanda. USMC

Offrs er-in-Charge

Assistant OJ,ficer.,n.Charge for Branch Activities: Mr Kenneth LSmirh-Chrircmas. Assistant Officer.in. Charge for Museums Opr'ra-

tions: Capt Jerry W Swepsion, USMC

Ordnance: Mr. John G. Griffitiss Restoration Mr Joseph E PaytonAeronautics: Vacant. Exhibits: Mr RonaldJ. Perkins Uniforms: MrsNancy Fl King Security: SSgi Paul C McKenna, USMC

SUPPORT BRANCH

Ma1 Arthur F. Elry. USMCHead/Division Enrcuirve Officer

Adnnuirtrat,ee: CWO2 J C. Owuns, USMC: SSgr Bobby Holmes,

USMC Security: GySgi C. W. Viar. USMC Library' Miss Evelyn AEnglander

Publications Production: Mr. Robert E. Siruder. Production: MrsCarhurine A. Kcrmrs. Graphics: Mr William S Hill. Typesetting: I,Cpl

Javier Castro, USMC.

Editor. FortitudineMr. Robert E. Srruder

FORTITUDINEMotto of the United States Marine Corps in the 1812 era.

HISTORYAND MUSEUMSDIVISION

Historical Bulletin Volume XVIII Spring-Summer 1988 No. 1

This quarterly bulletin of the Marine Corps historical program is published toeducate and train Marines in the uses of military and Marine Corps history.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Memorandum from the Director 'Amphibious' Becomes 'Expeditionary' - - - 3

Instructions for Recruiting Officers of the US. Marine Corps, 1880 7

Readers Always Write: Question of Who Is Corps'Top WWII Ace Continues 8

Acquisitions: Vet's Memoir Enriches Museum's World War I Holdings 11

Vietnam Gear Wanted 12

San Diego Recruits Learn Corps' Story at New Museum 13

Historical Quiz: Symbols and Historic Dates of the Marine Corps 15

Oral History Report: Gen Wilson, LtGen Dulackl Describe Active Careers - - - 16

Recruiters, Youngest Marines Painting's Subjects 17

1900 Boxer Rebellion: Origins of Marines' LongtimeNorth China Association 18

His Fears Answered . - - And A Memorial Portrait 20

New Books: Two Volumes Devoted to Marine Air History Head List 22

Answers to Historical Quiz: Symbols and Historic Datesof the Marine Corps 23

Widely Used Reference Source: Research, Computer EntriesKeep Corps' Chronology 24

1898 Guantanamo Bay Action Portrayed in New Art 26

Center Loans Groth Paintings for New York Exhibit 28

Flight Lines: Douglas AD-4B Skyraider 29

Chronology: 'Over There:' The Marine Experience in World War I 30

Historic Uniforms' Makers Show Heightened Interest 32

THE COVER

Summertime visitors to the Special Exhibits Gallery of the Marine Corps Museumhave viewed an unusual display, "The Eagle and The Dragon: Marines in the BoxerRebellion," discussed by CuratorJ. Michael Miller, beginning on page 18. On thecover, one of the photos from the exhibit shows a Marine patrol in the streets ofPeking: "In response to attacks on Chinese Christians, patrols from the LegationGuards were dispatched to their rescue."

NOTICE TO READERS

Because Defense Department budget constraints prevented the printing ofthe spring issue of Fortitudine, this is a combined spring-summer edition ofthe bulletin. Volume XVII incorporated only three numbers rather than theusual four; this issue begins Volume XVIII.

Fortitudine is produced in the Publications Production Section of the History and Museums Divi-sion, The text for Fortitudine is set in 10-point and 8-point Garamond typeface. Headlines are in 18-pointor 24-point Garamond. The bulletin is printed on 70-pound, matte-coated paper by offset lithography,

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Memorandum from the Director

'Amphibious' Becomes 'Expeditionary'BGen Simmons

'' LMARS" are messages, usually di-rective in nature, that are sent to

all Marine Corps units. ALMAR 023/88told the Marine Corps that, effective 5February 1988, Marine air-ground taskforce (MAGTF) designations would changefrom Marine Amphibious Unit (MAU),Brigade (MAB), and Force (MAF), to Ma-rine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), MarineExpeditionary Brigade (MEB), and MarineExpeditionary Force (MEF). That ALMARreturned MAGTF designations to whatthey had been in 1965.

It was the 9th Marine ExpeditionaryBrigade that landed at Da Nang on 8March of that year. There were one or twoback-page news stories, datelined "Sai-gon," that pointed out that the term "Ex-peditionary" was not apt to be regardedfondly by South Vietnamese who remem-bered the French Expeditionary Corps ofthe First Indo-China War (1946-1954). Bythe beginning of May, the 3d Marine Ex-

peditionary Brigade was on its way to abarren stretch of beach well south of DaNang that would be called "Chu Lai" af-ter the Chinese characters that stood forthe last name of the Commanding Gener-al, Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, LtGen Vic-tor H. Krulak.

The Chu Lai landing was on 7 May. Theday before the landing the headquartersof the 9th MEB at Da Nang was deacti-vated, becoming the cadre for the head-quarters of the III Marine ExpeditionaryForce, which was to absorb both brigades.Alarm bells went off in the Saigon head-quarters of the U.S. Military AssistanceCommand, Vietnam. ComUSMACV, GenWilliam Westmoreland, got off a messageto the Joint Chiefs of Staff urging a unitdesignation less likely to upset Vietnamesesensibilities. Unit designations are, ofcourse, a service prerogative and the JointChiefs asked Gen Wallace M. Greene,then the Commandant, to come up with

Men of2d Battalion, 3d Marines, maneu -

ver near Da Nang on 6 May 1965. Nextday the III Marine Expeditionary Force be-came the III Marine Amphibious Force.

Making their way inland toward Da Nang on 9 March 1965 are on the previous day. Some thought that Marine use of the termmen of the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, who had landed "Expeditionary" might not be liked by the South Vietnamese.

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a more neutral term. Gen Greene's jointaction officers, of whom this writer wasone, came up with a list of possibilities."III Marine Amphibious Corps" was apopular contender because of its famousWorld War II antecedents (battle honorsincluding Guam, Peleliu, and Okinawa),but it was pointed out that the Viet-namese might find "Corps" offensive eventhough they used it for their own majortactical units. So "III Marine AmphibiousForce" was chosen. Not, however, until1970 was "Amphibious" substituted for"Expeditionary" in all MAGTF desig-nations.

T he change back to "Expeditionary,"as Gen Gray said in the ALMAR:

is being made to more ac-curately reflect Marine Corps mis-sions and capabilities. TheMarine air-ground task forceswhich we forward deploy aroundthe world are not limited to am-phibious operations alone. Ratherthey are capable of projectingsustained, combined arms combatpower ashore in order to conducta wide range of missions essentialto the protection of our nationalsecurity interests. This ability toproject expeditionary militarypower is an essential componentof our national security strategy.

Gen Gray later in the message furtherhammered this point home:

• . . our Marines must be ap-prised that the principal reasonfor making this change is to af-fect how Marines think of andrefer to themselves. Our Corps isan expeditionary interventionforce with the ability to moverapidly, on short notice, towherever needed to accomplishwhat is required.

Gen Gray was on sound semanticground in making the change. Expedition,meaning "a sending or setting forth withmartial intention," has been in use at leastsince the 15th Century. In his 1779 Univer-sal Military Dictionary, Capt GeorgeSmith, Inspector of the Royal MilitaryAcademy at Woolwich, says "There is nopart of war so interesting to an insularysoldier as an expedition; nor can there beany part more worthy of attention."

By early in the 19th Century, "expedi-tionary troops," a term that would be re-vived in World War II, was in wide use inthe British Army.

C ol H. L. Scott, Inspector General ofthe U.S. Army during the Civil War,

says in his 1864 Military Dictionary thatan expedition "is an enterprise undertakeneither by sea or by land against an enemy,the fortunate termination of which prin-cipally depends on the rapidity and un-expected nature of its movements."

By the end of the century, as every read-er of Winston Churchill knows (The Sto-ry of the Malakand Field Force [18981),"field force" and "expeditionary force," asin Kitchener's Nile Expeditionary Force,were being used more or less interchange-ably by the British. The U.S. Army, whosedeployment of ground combat forces intothe II Corps Tactical Zone in South Viet-nam followed the arrival of III MAF neeIII MEF in ICTZ, apparently followed Brit-ish precedent and designated the head-quarters of its multidivision force as the"I Field Force, Vietnam" on 15 March1966.

The JCS-accepted definition of "expedi-tionary force," as given in the Dictionaryof United States Military Terms for JointUsage, is "An armed force organized to ac-complish a specific objective in a foreigncountry." An "amphibious force" is some-thing more specific, being defined as "Anaval force and landing force, togetherwith supporting forces that are trained, or-ganized, and equipped for amphibiousoperations."

As Gen Gray also said in the ALMAR,"In making this change [from "Amphibi-ous" back to "Expeditionary"] known toour Marines, it is important that they bemade aware that there is historical prece-dent for this terminology. Prior to WWII,and for a time thereafter, Marine units dis-patched for overseas service were general-ly designated as expeditionary brigades."

T he 1st Regiment of Marines thatmarched to Peking during the so-

called Boxer Rebellion in 1900 to lift thesiege of the Legations were part of whatwas officially known as the InternationalRelief Expedition.

The Marine Advance Base Force, theforerunner of today's Fleet Marine Forces,was formed in 1913 as a brigade of twosmall regiments. It also had an aviation

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detachment: two officers, seven enlistedmen, and two flying boats. The AdvanceBase Brigade had its first expeditionarytesting at Veracruz in 1914. Unfortunate-ly the aviation detachment did not goalong. There was no convenient way of get-ting it from ship to shore.

The 4th and 5th Brigades of Marineswhich went to France in World War Iformed part of Gen Pershing's AmericanExpeditionary Forces (AEF) which hadcopied its organizational title from theBritish Expeditionary Forces (BEF).

MajGen John A. Lejeune, who com-manded the mixed Army-Marine U.S. 2dDivision for the climactic last threemonths of the war, became Commandantin 1920. While the war was being foughtin France the old Advance Base Head-quarters had stayed home in cadre statusin Philadelphia. Lejeune moved the head-quarters to Quantico and on 11 February1922 recommended to the Navy GeneralBoard that the use of the term "AdvanceBase Force," as applied to Marine Corps or-ganizations, be discontinued. His argu-ment was that the primary war mission ofthe Marine Corps was to supply a mobileforce to accompany the fleet for operationsashore. The Advance Base Force according-ly became the East Coast ExpeditionaryForce. There already was a West Coast Ex-peditionary Force, one having beenformed in 1916 in San Diego around the4th Regiment for service under Col JosephH. ("Uncle Joe") Pendleton in theDominican Republic.

M arine Corps Order No. 33 of 8 May1919, issued by MajGenComdt

George Barnett and approved by ActingSecretary of War Franklin D. Roosevelt,had authorized an expeditionary ribbonto commemorate expeditions "in whichthe forces engaged actually landed on for-eign territory and for which service riocampaign badge has been awarded." Me-tal numerals were to indicate additionalawards.

MajGenComdt Lejeune published a re-worked list of eligibles for what was thencalled the "Commemorative Expedition-ary Ribbon" on 25 November 1924, find-ing 37 "expeditions," ranging from thelanding of Marines from the USS Tus-carora and Portsmouth in the Hawaiian Is-lands (12-20 February 1874) through alanding of Marines from the USS Denver,

Bilhingsley, and Lvdner in Honduras (28February-13 March 1924).

The medal itself was struck in 1929 andshows a Marine in field hat and full packcharging ashore with one foot in the surfand one on the beach. The ribbon hasgold (or khaki) stripes edged in scarlet oneach side of a scarlet center. The Navycreated an equivalent medal in 1936.

In a position paper, "ExpeditionaryDuty," written about 1930, the interven-tions in Haiti, Santo Domingo, Nicaragua,China, Panama, and Cuba were all classi-fled as "expeditions." The paper went sofar as to declare that even mail guard duty(1921-22, 1926-27) "may, although per-formed in our own country, be classifiedas expeditionary." Separate "campaign" or"service" medals were eventually autho-rized for specific periods in Haiti, SantoDomingo, Nicaragua, and China.

B y 1932 Navy Department war planswere calling for a Marine expedition-

ary force of 18,000 to be ready within 30days after mobilization and the GeneralBoard had made the statement that:

The Marine Corps should be soorganized as to be capable ofperforming its mission in the sei-zure of an advanced base and inproviding for its initial defense.

The Army would in generalrelieve the Marine Corps of thepermanent defense, thereby per-mitting the latter to resumeoperations with the Fleet for fur-ther expeditionary work.

In 1933, when the old-style East andWest Coast Expeditionary Forces becamethe Fleet Marine Force, there was a 1st Ma-rine Brigade at Quantico and a 2d Brigadeat San Diego. Each had its own aircraftgroup.

MajGenComdt John H. Russell seemsto have disliked the term "expeditionary."In January 1935 he ordered the term dis-continued as applied to Marine Corpsunits, stating, "It is desired that the serv-ice be alive to the significance of theauthorized designation (Fleet MarineForce) and avoid obsolete, less-inclusiveterms."

World War II saw the first real use of"amphibious" in the Marine Corpsvocabulary and indeed "amphibious"came into the military lexicon much laterthan "expeditionary." The Oxford EnglishDictionary gives as its first definition ofamphibious "Living both on land and inwater," and finds the first use of the termin a military sense in a biography, CharlesI published in 1654. In this book theauthor, Royalist soldier Sir Roger EStrange,

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had written: "The ... admiral . . . beingscanted in Mariners . . . was enforced totake in two thousand two hundred landmen, who should be amphibious, servingpartly for sea-men, and partly for land-sou idiers."

Q n 28 October 1942, the I MarineAmphibious Corps headquarters

was activated at Noumea, New Caledonia,to coordinate all Fleet Marine Force unitsin the South Pacific. Originally an ad-ministrative headquarters, I MAC becameoperational for the Bougainville operationwhich had a D-Day of 1 November 1943.The troop list included the 3d Marine Di-vision and the Army's 37th Infantry Di-vision.

I MAC became the III AmphibiousCorps in time for the landing on Guamon 2lJuly 1944. Meanwhile a V Amphibi-ous Corps had been organized and madeboth the Saipan (D-Day, 15 June 1944)and Tinian a-Day, 24 July 1944) landings.Together the III and V Amphibious Corpsmade up Expeditionary Troops under theredoubtable LtGen Holland M. Smith. Ex-peditionary Troops, in turn, was the land-ing force of theJoint Expeditionary Forceunder the equally redoubtable VAdmRichmond Kelly Turner.

The III Amphibious Corps, command-ed by MajGen Roy S. Geiger, would land

Marines of the 8th Company, 4th Marine Regiment, West CoastExpeditionary Force, form a skirmish line near Santiago in the

Dominican Republic in June 1916. In 1922, the Advance BaseForce at Quantico became the East Coast Expeditionary Force.

at Peleliu on 15 September 1944, onOkinawa on 1 April 1945, and go on atthe war's end, under MajGen Keller E.Rockey, to North China as occupationtroops.

The V Amphibious Corps, on its roadto Tokyo, would land on Iwo Jima on 19February 1945 under command of MajGenHarry Schmidt, and then, after the endof the war, would go on to occupy theJapanese home island of Kyushu. The warhad seen the formation of two corps, sixdivisions, and five aircraft groups of Ma-rines, all weighed, in the direction of thewar in the Pacific.

D uring the war the Marine Corps Ex-peditionary Medal was issued only

once—members of the 1st Defense Battal-ion and VMF-211 were given the medal (inabsentia, because they were either dead orlanguishing in Japanese prison camps) fortheir heroic defense of Wake Island, 8-23December 1941. The medal would not beawarded again for 20 years.

After World War II, the Marine Corps,iii spite of meat-ax budget cuts, managedto form a Fleet Marine Force, Atlantic, aswell as an FMFPac, which was already in

place. Both were integrated air-groundteams built around a division and a wing.The Harris Board, which met in the sum-mer of 1951 to consider air-ground andaviation matters, recommended the for-mation of composite staffs of air andground officers for air-ground task organi-zations. The recommendation was "con-sidered desirable but it presents manyproblems and ramifications

On 19 January 1953 the 1st MarineProvisional Air-Ground Task Force was ac-tivated at Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, Hawaii.BGen James P Riseley was named the taskforce commander. Included within thetask force was a headquarters, a reinforcedMarine aircraft group (MAG-13), and thereinforced 3d Marines less one battalion.RCT 3 deployed to Japan in 1953 and wasreplaced in the brigade by RCT 4 in 1955.

Gen Lemuel C. Shepherd, in his Com-mandant's annual report, written in Au-gust 1955, spoke of each of the FMFs as"a flexible, mobile, integrated force ofground and air elements comprising a sin-gle weapons system" and, citing the 1stProvisional Air-Ground Task Force as anexample, that this structure made "it easyto form special air-ground task forces

tailored to meet specific needs of an emer-gency or continuing nature." On 1 May1956, the 1st Provisional Marine Air-Ground Task Force was redesignated the1st Marine Brigade, FME

W ith the publication of 3120.3 on 27December 1962, the Marine Corps

formalized its policy on "The Organiza-tion of Marine Air-Ground Task Organi-zations." The order emphasized that:

A Marine air-ground task forcewith separate air-ground head-quarters is normally formed forcombat operations and trainingexercises in which substantialcombat forces of both Marine avi-ation and Marine ground unitsare included in the task organiza-tion of participating Marineforces.

During the year 1962, the issuance ofthe Marine Corps Expeditionary Medalwas twice authorized, being awarded tothe Marine defenders of the U.S. NavalBase at Guantanamo during the CubanMissile Crisis (3 January 1961-23 October1962) and to the 3d Marine Expedition-

On I November 1943 Marines charge ashore on Bougain ui/Ic. ous Corps. I MAC became the III Amphibious Corps, a part ofthe operation under the commander of the I Marine Amphibi- Expeditionary Troops under LtGen HoIIandM. Smith, in 1944.

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ary Unit for its deployment to northernThailand as a counter to Communist in-surgency based in Laos (16 May-10 August1962).

The basic policies and organizationaldefinitions set forth in MCO 3120.3 havestood the test of time. The organizationalstructure of a "MAGTF," said the order, in-cluded four major elements: command,ground combat, aviation combat, andcombat service support. Four types (orsizes) of MAGTFs were prescribed: MarineExpeditionary Unit (MEU), Marine Ex-peditionary Brigade (MEB), Marine Ex-peditionary Force (MEF), and MarineExpeditionary Corps (MEC). The MEUwas to be built around a battalion land-ing team and a provisional Marine aircraftgroup, a MEB around a regimental land-ing team and a larger Marine aircraftgroup, a MEF around a reinforced divisionand an aircraft wing. A MEC was less welldefined. One variation was to have it asa headquarters superimposed over twoMEFs.

Most deployments and many exercisessince the issuance of MCO 3120.3 have in-volved MAB and MAU-sized air-ground

packages. Thus it was the 24th MAU thatsuffered such horrendous casualties atBeirut on 23 October 1983. At almost thesame time, the 22d MAU, en route to Le-banon, detoured for its highly efficientlanding at Grenada on 25 October.

Q ne of the lessons of the VietnamWar, recognized in Change 1 to

MCO 3120.3, dated 17 February 1966, wasthat "The major organizational limitationof the separate air-ground headquartersderives from the fact it is not normally apermanent headquarters." This weaknesshas been largely rectified in recent yearswith the institution of permanent MAGTFheadquarters of various sizes and region-al orientations. As most readers of Forti-tudine probably know, there is now a IMEF headquarters at Camp Pendleton, aII MEF headquarters at Camp Lejeune,and a III MEF headquarters on Okinawa.

In South Vietnam, III MAF by 1968 hadgrown to two and two-thirds divisions anda huge single aircraft wing plus operation-al control of the U.S. Army's XXIV Corpswithout requiring the superimposition ofa MEC super-headquarters. In 1970 a re-

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vision of MCO 3120.3 eliminated the Ma-rine Expeditionary Corps as a commandechelon and ordered all commanders oforganizations whose titles contained theterm "Expeditionary" to replace it with"Amphibious."

Now the pendulum has swung back.The purpose of the Marine Corps Ex-

peditionary Medal might seem to havebeen largely overtaken by the creation oftheJCS-sponsored Armed Forces Expedi-tionary Medal which Marines first receivedin 1958 for their intervention in Lebanon.Even so, Marines who served afloat in theIran, Yemen, and Indian Ocean area from8 December 1978 until 6 June 1979, andagain from 21 November 1979 to 20 Oc-tober 1981, were authorized the MarineCorps Expeditionary Medal, and theirmore numerous Navy counterparts, theNavy Expeditionary Medal.

At last count, 58 expeditions have beenrecognized by the medal. Marines servingin units deployed to Lebanon during theperiod 20 August 1982 until 26 February1984, and in units deployed for naval oper-ations in the Libyan area, 20 January un-til 27 June 1986, are the most recentrecipients. L111775L111

Instructions for Recruiting Officers of the US. Marine Corps, 1880EXAMINATION OF RECRUIT BY RECRUITING OFFICER.The marines are strictly infantry soldiers trained for service afloat. Their

discipline, equipment, character, and esprit du corps being that of the sold-ier. they necessarily give to a Ship-of-War its military character. As sentinels,they watch over the magazines, store rooms. gangways, galleys, and all lightsand fires required for the use of the ship; they guard all the public propertyand all prisoners of war, which at times may outnumber the crew; and atall times sustain atid protect discipline of a Man.of.War by their organiza-tion. distinctive character and peculiar training. In the ordinary duties ofa ship at sea, they pull and haul in common with the rest of the crew; andalthough not required to go aloft, they keep regular watch, and are mostto be relied upon to man the ropes in sudden squalls, a duty, the promptdischarge of which is as necessary to the safety of a ship as reeling or furling.Marines are also trained at the great gun exercise under their own officers,Si) that in time of action they are ready to assist in manning guns or to actas a reserve force to meet the casualties of battles. These duties being natur-al to, and part and parcel of, the service to which they belong, their absencefrom the deck would have to be supplied by an equal amount of physicalforce; and, as some part of the crew must be kept on deck to perform theseimportant duties, it will he readily seen why a body of well-trained mc'n,familiar with sea life and its duties of soldiers, are required.

As soldters, they guard the ship from troubles within and from surprisewithout; and, as part of the ship's complement, take part in most of theduties necessary to her efficiency as a man-of.war.

While ashore, as soldiers, they guard and protect the navy yards with theimmense amount of public property withtn them, and are always ready foremergencies in adjacent cities. The marines have been from time to timedetailed for duty with the army, as in the war of 1812, Mexico, and the Re-bellion. They rendered efficient services during the labor riots in the sum-mer of 1877, and frequently in New York, Philadelphia. Washington andother cities, mobs have been quelled by the timely appearance of the ma-rines drawn from the navy yards of those places.

1. Are you married? Ans. No.2. Have you ever been in the Army, Navy, or Marine Corps of the United

States? (If the answer is in the arnrmative. demand the discharge papers fromthe branch in which the man has served.)3. Can you read and write? (Here have the man read aloud both print and

manuscript. and have him write his name, together with words and sentences,so as to avoid the possibility of securing a man who can write his name butnothing further.)4. Have you attended school? Have you studied grammar and arithmetic?5. Can you swear that you arc' twenty.one years old?6. The year and the day of the month of your birth?7. Are you an American citizen? (If the answer is no; Where were you born?

How long have you been in the country?)8. Are you five fc'et six inches in height? Ans. Yes.9. Do you drink? Do you go on sprees? (Ans. No) Is (or was) your father

a drinking man?10. Is any one dependent upon you for support? (If yes; Do they know ofyour intention to enlist? Have they objected to it?)11. Is your mother altve? (If yes; Is she aware of your intention to enlist?)12. You have firmly resolved to enlist?13. What has been your business or trade?14. Have you a certificate of character from your last employer?15. Ace you in any way injured, or have you any disease which might pee.vent you passing the examination of the surgeon? (Here compel the manto march to and fm, before you in order to judge of his gatt and manner.)

by James Forney, Captain,and Brevet Lieutenant Colonel, US. Marine Corps

Readers Always JVrite

Question of Who Is Corps' Top W\X/II Ace Continues

W/HO DOW/NED BOYINGTON?

I am writing in regards to a recent arti-cle, written by Col Charles j. Quilter II,USMCR under the title: 'One-of-a-Kind'Marine Aviator 'Pappy' Boyington Dies"(Fortitudine, Winter 1987-1988).

This was a great article, but regretfully,there are some errors which need to be cor-rected before the real facts become dis-torted.

As an aviation writer, I am very familiarwith the combat of 3 january 1944, inwhich Boyington was shot down. Officialjapanese records indicate that only twoZeroes were lost in action on this date—Petty Officers Hideshi Tanimoto andYoshige Kitade, both from the 204Kokutai. The shooting down of Boying-ton was a joint effort by Zero pilots fromthe 204 and 253 Kokutais.

At this time, all aerial victory claimswere awarded to the air group, not the in-dividual. So, there is no way to tell whichindividual was responsible for shootingdown Boyington.

Col Quilter writes: "japanese recordsconfirm Boyington's last three victories,raising his total to 28 and making him theranking American 'ace' of that time. Hewas almost certainly shot down by NavalWarrant Officer Takeo Tanimizu

I am a very close friend of Mr. Tanimizu.He has told me that he cannot recall thisparticular combat since he was involved inso many combats. What has been attribut-ed to him as his account of this combatwas either misunderstood or misinterpret-ed in the translation. For the record, hedisavows any claims pertaining to Boying-ton's shoot down. The identity of the Zeropilots who shot down Boyington will neverbe known.

The Marine Corps Historical Centershould have a copy of my magazine arti-cle entitled "Masajiro 'Mike' Kawato—japanese Ace?" (Fighter Pilots In AerialCombat, Spring & Summer 1984). My ar-ticle covers the combat of 3 january 1944in full detail.

With all due respects to the late "Pap-py" Boyington and Col Quilter, Boying-

ton's last three victories cannot beconfirmed. Additionally, the six heclaimed with the AVG cannot bedocumented. Under the circumstances,joe Foss must be regarded as the top Ma-rine Corps ace for WWII. What is your po-sition on this?

Henry SakaidaTrabuco Canyon, California

EDITOR'S NOTE.' Historical Center avia-tion historian Maj Arthur F Elzy, USMC,replies:

Mr Sakaida c letter essentially takes is-sue with three statements from ColQuilterc piece and additionally asks ourposition on who was the top Marine Corps"ace" in World War II.

The three points of dlccussion are:

(1) The article states that on 3 January1944 Mayor Boyington ' . . was almost cer-tainly shot down by Naval Warrant OfficerTakeo Tanimizu The author's opin-ion is based on his Source 6, which in-cludes documentation that Tanimizusection claimed kills of two Corsairs thatday, which matches the Marine Corpsrecord of losses (Boyington and CaptGeorge Ashmun) precisely. We agree thatMr Tanimizu made no claim to this vic-tory and that Japan was, at that time,crediting claim.c of aerial kills to units andnot to individuals.

(2 As to Mr Sakaidac statement thatBoyington 's last three victories cannot beconfirmed because only two Zeroes werereported by the Japanese as lost in actionon that date, we note that throughout thewar records of aircraft lost by both theAmericans and the Japanese failed tomatch the victories claimed by the otherNot surprisingly, each set of daily losseswas routinely and signijicantly less thanthe count of kills made by the opponent.Although Boyington himself was the soleAmerican witness to his last three claimedvictories, his claim was accepted by theMarine Corps subsequent to his releasefrom prison camp after the war

8

(3) Mr Sakaida states that Boyington 'ssix victories with the Flying Tigers Ameri-can Volunteer Group (AVG) cannot bedocumented Wa note that AVG recordsare neither complete nor conclusive dur-ing the period that Boyington served withthe Flying Tigers, but they credit him withonly 3 1/2 victories. In his History of Ma-rine Corps Aviation in World War II (ThirdEdition), author Robert Sherrod has ad-ded a "Supplement on Aces" which dis-cusses in detail the problems he faced indocumenting, compiling, and verifyingkilt claimed by Boyington during hiscombat tour with the AVG in China.

Although the whole matter is unoffi-cial (there never has been an 'official"listof Marine Corps aces) the Marine CorpsHi.rtorical Center's position on the top Ma-rine Corps ace of World War II is that thischapter of history is not closed We con-tinue to welcome new facts, new interpre-tations, and new insikhts. Copies ofrelated articles previously published inFortitudine include "Fighter Aces List Up-dated" by Mr Sherrod (Vol. X, No. 4,Spring 1981) and "New Research CouldAlterAcesList"by Dr Frank Olynyli (Vol.XI, No. 1, Summer 1981). They discuss indetail the difficulties encountered inresearching the aces of World War II.

THE SPANIARDS IN AMERICA

I enjoyed your excellent article on thefighting Spanish general, Gálvez ("Ber-nardo de Gálvez: The Amphibious Con-quistador," Fortitudine, Winter 1987-1988), particularly since I had run intoGálvez while researching a story on cam-paigns against the Cherokees. AlexanderCameron, whom you mention briefly, hadled, supplied, and inspired the Cherokeesagainst the white American frontiersmenand their families for three years. Most ofhis supplies came up from Pensacola.Cameron had lived with the Cherokeesand had a Cherokee wife, but the Britishin their wisdom removed him as agent forthe Cherokees and instead gave him theChoctaws and Chickasaws. This is in late

1779 or early 1780. When Gálvez tookPensacola, Cameron escaped first to theCreek towns, then to Savannah, where hedied in December 1781. The supply routefrom Pensacola was cut by Gálvez, andshortly thereafter the Americans took Au-gusta and Ninety-Six, thus isolating thetribesmen from the British Indian agents.Gálvez did us a big favor.

Col Anthony Walker, USMC (Ret)Middletown, Rhode Island

THE PENSACOLA ASSAULT

Congratulations on a first-class job. I

am sure that someone has already calledyour attention to a date on page 7. Incolumn 1, last paragraph, it should readmid-Februaiy 1780. One other little pickypoint: on page 8, column 2, you have theMobile and New Orleans troops arrivingto the 'west and north of Pensacola." Itshould be to the west and south of Pensa-cola. Only a few might catch the latter.But, no matter, you still did an outstand-ing job.

Dr. William S. CokerDepartment of History

The University of West FloridaPensacola

EDITOR'S NOTE: The author; BGen Sim-mons, responds, "my argument for saying'arriving to the west and north of Pensa-cola' is that while the Mobile and New

Orleans forces marched from the south-west, they closed against the fortificationsfrom the west and north."

COMMANDERS ON IW/O

While going through some old papers Ifound a picture of MajGen Cates with hisprincipal staff officers and unit com-manders taken on Iwo Jima in February1945. 1 enclose the photo, together withmy best recollection of the people in-volved.

Front row, left to right: Col Matthew C.Homer, Assistant Chief of Staff, D-4; ColMertonJ. Batchelder, Chief of Staff; ColWalter W. Wensinger, CO, 23d Marines;BGen Franklin A. Hart, Assistant DivisionCommander; MajGen Clifton B. Cates,Commanding General; Col Edwin A. Pol-lock, Assistant Chief of Staff, D-3; ColLouis Dc Haven, CO, 14th Marines; ColWalter I. Jordan, CO, 24th Marines; andCol Orrin H. Wheeler, Assistant Chief ofStaff, D-1.

Second row, left to right: LtCol NelsonK. Brown, CO, 4th Engineer Battalion;LtCol John E. Fondahi, CO, 4th ServiceBattalion; LtCol Ralph L. Schiesswohl, CO,4th Motor Transport Battalion; LtCol Mel-vin L. Krulewitch, CO, Support Group;LtCol Godderham L. McCormick, Assis-tant Chief of Staff, D-2; LtCol Richard G.Ruby, CO, 4th Pioneer Battalion; Maj Vie-torJ. Croizat, CO, 10th AmTrac Battalion;

and LtCol Reed M. Fawell,Jr., CO, 2d Ar-mored AmTrac Battalion.

Third row, left to right: Cdr Reuben L.Sharp, CO, 4th Medical Battalion; Silvis(no further identification); LtCol RichardK. Schmidt, CO, 4th Tank Battalion (be-hind MajGen Cates); and Dunn (no fur-ther identification).

Col VictorJ. Croiat, USMC (Ret)Santa Monica, California

MEMORIES OF PEKING

EDITOR'S NOTE: Articles in the Fall 1986("Looking for the Legation Guard in Pek-ing" by]. Robert Moskin, Vol. XVI, No.2) and Fall 1985 ("Four at Center Recall1945 Landing in North China" by HenryI. Shaw, Jr., Vol X1' No. 2) issues of For-titudine, prompted some recollections byPeking-born Col John Lee, USAR (Ret),which he has shared both by letter and bya lecture presented at the Marine CorpsHistorical Center Excerpts from Col Lee'sletter apprear below.

May I share some memories with you?When the 1st Marine Division came

down Tung Chang An Street in 1945, I wasin the throng of greeters, climbing a treeto get a better look. Some of the Marinesin the beat-up charcoal-burning truckswere trying to whip up an American-stylecheering section among the Chinese

W/ith then-MajGen Clifton B. Cates are princijal commandersof the 4th Marine Division Iwo Jima invasion force, identified

9

in a letter from the donor of the February 1945 photograph tothe Marine Corps Museum, Col Victorj Croizat, USMC (Ret).

without success. I can assure you, however,that the welcome was sincere — after eightyears of the Japanese. Unfortunately, theprofiteering and rip-offs came later.

I addressed a Marine in English and,pleasantly surprised, he and his buddieshoisted me onto the truck. I was bombard-ed with questions as to whether I hadheard of Peoria, or Punxatawney or otherhome town. Eventually, I met SecondLieutenant Murray 0. Roe from Pittsburghand worked for him to practice myEnglish. He was in the CommunicationSection, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines. In-directly, that was how I got to the States.I had his old Pittsburgh address but donot know whether he is still there today.

On page 21 (Fall 86), there is a map ofPeiping. At the lower right-hand corner isthe Methodist Mission. My house was nottoo far from there (my father told me itwas torn down to make way for the presenttrain station). Nearby was the Army-NavyClub, owned by one of my dad's bestfriends. It was one of the few places onecould get real and good American food.

The first girl I was really in love withwas a daughter of the Chinese Methodistminister. He and his wife were murderedduring the Cultural Revolution. I don'tknow where she is today.

The alleged rape of a Chinese studenton Christmas Eve, 1946 by two Marinessupposedly occurred under the LegationWall near there. I honestly believe it wasa frame-up after having walked thegrounds.

On page 12 (Fall 85), is the picture ofthe Marble Boat. I wonder if, when you[BGen Simmonsl were there, you had achance to see Yenching University, just thisside of the Summer Palace? On 13 Decem-ber 1948, I was en route on a bus to Yench-ing when a shell landed on the road andoverturned the bus just outside the cam-pus. I left Peiping 14 January 1949 and didnot see it again until June 1984 when Iserved a short training tour as a Reserveofficer in the Attache Office.

Just one reflection on the Japanese sold-ier: One day, my father and I had takenLieutenant Roe sightseeing at the SummerPalace. On the way back, the car brokedown. As we were sitting helplessly in thecar off the road, a company of Japanesetroops came up from behind us. By this

time, of course, all Japanese forces hadbeen disarmed and these men were onsome kind of work detail. Nevertheless,they were in route step and in formationled by a sergeant. As they came abreast ofus, the NCO saw Lt. Roe and called hisformation to attention, whereupon theygoose-stepped by us and the sergeantsaluted. I was most impressed with thisdisplay of discipline even though the warwas over. Just thereafter, ajapanese Armytruck came by. Lt. Roe flagged it down,two soldiers got off, saluted him and thenused a rope to tow us into town! For onewho had stood in fear of Japanesesoldiers—with justification—I was im-pressed about that.

Col John Lee, USAR (Ret)Alexandria, Virginia

FOR TRAVELING MARINES

Please find enclosed a photograph takenin the vicinity of Paris (30 miles northwestof Paris), on a small road connecting twovillages.

It happens that these two villages arenamed US and Marines and you will findthe result on the road sign.

10

I hope you will appreciate, like I do, therelationship to the Corps.

Capt Robert J. Miconnet,French Army Reserve

Eaubonne, France

EDITOR'S NOTE: The photograph en-closed with Capt Mzconnet's letter will bemuch enjoyed by US. Marines. Frequentcontnbutor author Robert Sherrod alsonoted the coincidence of the two villagenames as the result of travel in Europeduring the 1970s.

Travelers along Highway D28 find clear directions to the villages of "US" and "Ma-rines," about 30 miles from Paris, as shown in this recent photograph of the country-side in France contributed by French Army Reserve officer Robert J. Miconnet.

WMA Biennial MeetingThe Women Marines Association

(WMA) 15th biennial conventionwill be held 10-14 October 1988 atthe De Soto Hilton hotel in Savan-nah, Georgia. WMA is open towomen who have honorably servedin the Marine Corps and those onactive duty. There are 3,000 mem-bers with 78 chapters across the na-tion. For further information,contact Jacqueline Eittreim, PublicRelations Officer, WMA, 11690 SWRidgecrest Dr., Beaverton, Oregon97005.

Acquisitions

Vet's Memoir Enriches Museum's World War I Holdingsby Jennifer L. Gooding

Registrar

T he year 1988 marks the 70th anniver-sary of the Marine battles of 1918 in

World War I such as Belleau Wood, Sois-sons, and the Meuse-Argonne. Coincidingwith this event is a recent donation byWorld War I veteran Mr. Raymond FWoerter of Valencia, California. One of themost significant items donated is a messkit he used during the entire war on whichhe engraved the battles he had fought in,St. Mihiel and the Meuse Argonne, as wellas the places he visited: England, Luxem-bourg, and Belgium. Mr. Woerter also do-nated a rare American ExpeditionaryForces helmet with the 2d Division insig-nia he had worn as a member of Compa-ny E, Composite Regiment, Third Army; acamera with case; a small photograph al-bum containing 278 photographs, mosttaken while he was in the Marine Corpsduring the war; a three-foot panoramicphotograph of Company E, taken on 25September 1919, in Washington, D.C.;and various personal papers, including ahandwritten memoir of his experiencesand impressions of Marine Corps service.

Mr. Woerter enlisted in the MarineCorps in May 1918 at the age of 18 afterbeing rejected by the Navy because he didnot graduate from high school. Mr. Woert-er was sent to Parris Island, South Caroli-

Pot U'oerter poses following a 4th ofJulyparade by the 'Pershing Own "regiment.

na, for boot camp training. In his mem-oir, Mr. Woerter remembered his arrivalat Parris Island, that "we could still changeour mind about enlisting but they madesure you wouldn't back out for if you didyou had to pay your railroad ticket fareboth down to Parris Island and back home.Also I recall they also put a yellow flag onyour back if you quit so you see they weretough about it." Mr. Woerter said of hiseight weeks of training, "They reallytaught us how to become Marines. Theydrilled us day & evening but I enjoyed the

'Hayfoot-Strawfoot routine.' "Mr. Woert-er was slated to be part of the replacementforces for the heavy casualties suffered bythe 4th Marine Brigade in France at thebattles of Belleau Wood and Soissons. Therecruits were moved to Quantico in Au-gust 1918 to receive advanced training be-fore sailing on board the USS Von Steubenwhich unloaded at Brest, France, on 27August 1918.

After arriving in France, Mr. Woerterwas assigned to the 18th Company, 2d Bat-talion, 5th Marines. In his memoir, he re-counts St. Mihiel as his first experience infighting the war. The Marines were"Moved by rail and then truck to the frontand all this time we could hear the gunsfiring like the devil. Arrived in sometrenches and was assigned to some outfitthat I didn't know who they were andnever did find out. My impression of theSt. Mihiel was that . . . I was scared todeath." Mr. Woerter commented that"One thing at this time us replacementMarines were having a hard time as wedidn't have any 'break-in experience' andlearned the hard way or didn't make it. Itdon't take long to learn how to managewhen you are in the middle of it."

A fter St. Mihiel the Marines spentseveral days recuperating at a rest

camp for "delousing and change of innerclothing" and were then assigned to theChampagne District with the 2d Divisionfor attack on German-occupied territory.In his memoir, Mr. Woerter said that "Se-cond Division drove so far into German-held territory that we became totally sur-rounded . . . . I believe it was on this frontthat the 2d Division had their roughesttime." Mr. Woerter remembered a Marinemajor, who in his attempt to get the Ma-rines involved in the fighting, "yelled out'Come on boys, lets show them we are Ma-rines.' . . . We showed it airight for a timebut those German gunners in that woodsdidn't seem to care if we are the 'Marines.'They blasted us with everything they hadat point blank range."

As a member of Company E, Composite Regiment, ThirdArmy, Pot Raymond F Woert-ci wore this distinctive helmet of the 2d Division. American Expeditionary Forces.

11

An interesting comment on the physi-cal state of the Marines and their uniformsduring the war was made when Mr. Woert-er said that no washing or cleaning waspossible during much of the fighting and"upon field inspection we with our faces& hair full of Champagne white dust wemust have been a sorry looking bunch ofmen. I had a pair of trousers that had allthe seams busted in them ready to falldown when I removed my belt. . . . Thislieutenant took a look at me he said 'NowI know where that line, The ragged --- Ma-rines, came from.'

Mr. Woerter remarked in his memoirthat "I believe we all had on army uni-forms as the Marine 'Green' were too muchlike the German uniform and some of theFrench Foreign troops mostly colored mis-took the Marine uniform for German andgot a few of the Marines shot in combat."

N ext stop for Mr. Woerter was theMeuse-Argonne Offensive. He said

of this time that "we were given shoulderpatches to sew on our jackets so we wouldknow who was who." Approved MarineCorps shoulder patches first came into useduring World War I.

The German military forces opposingthe Marines obviously made an impressionon Mr. Woerter for he said that "I couldnever get worked up about hating the Ger-man soldiers for I could see me in them.They were doing a job just like us and Ibelieve they were good soldiers as theywere clearly out numbered and gettingmore so every day."

Mr. Woerter was a rifle grenade carrierduring the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Hespent a lot of time in foxholes and as arunner between his company and otheroutfits in his division. Mr. Woertersummed up his sentiments regarding fox-holes by remarking, "About foxholes, theywere not bad if it didn't rain and if therats left you alone. I know one night I hadcompany from a rat or two but just easedthem out by raising my leg up highenough for them to jump out."

During the offensive, Mr. Woerter hadfound a German Mauser muzzle coverwhich he fastened on his Springfield. Hethen fired at the Germans with the pro-tective muzzle flap down around the muz-zle. He discovered that the bullet whenfired, took the muzzle flap with it, mak-ing the flap explode into little pieces, andas he stated, this "acted like Shrapnel."

Pvt Woerter donned his US. Army uni-form with Marine insignia for a photo inNeuwied Germany, on 3 March 1919.

Luckily, the Springfield's muzzle did notexplode in his face.

A ccording to the memoir, althoughthe armistice took effect 11 Novem-

ber 1918, everyone was "still uneasy aboutthe ceasefire and it was hard to believe allthe noise had stopped. That day I walkedback up the river [the Meuse River] wherewe had crossed and could see both Ger-man and American dead along the river.They say the Americans and Germans gottogether to celebrate the end of the warbut I could only think of the Marine bud-dies that were killed at my side."

The impact of any war upon those whofought in it leaves impressions andmemories that do not fade from the mindeasily, as Mr. Woerter's memoir shows.

After the war was officially over andwhile Mr. Woerter was still in Germany,he became a member of a regiment called"Pershing's Own," which was made up ofvarious Army units and Marines from the5th and 6th Regiments. Mr. Woerter triedout for the regiment in the hopes thatmaybe this would get him home faster,but this was not to be the case. He wasoutfitted with new uniforms, a helmet,and other accoutrements. Pershing's OwnRegiment was formed for parades thatwere given in Europe and in the U.S. tomark the end of the war.

The first parade was given in Paris andfrom there the regiment proceeded to

12

London and then returned to Paris, whereMr. Woerter recounts that they "passed theSecond Division on their way home andhere we were going back to Paris. We suredidn't appreciate that for we had thoughtwe would get to the U.S. earlier in Persh-ing's Own."

T he Marines of Pershing's Own finallywere able to go home, boarding the

USS Leviathan and sailing for the UnitedStates in September 1919. Mr. Woerter wasa guard on board the Leviathan. He doesnot have fond memories of the ship for heremained seasick the entire time. He saidthat "They would not relieve me and saidno more seasickness would be allowed."

Pershing's Own Regiment was not al-lowed to disband until it had "paraded inNew York City and then in Washington,D.C." Mr. Woerter recalled that "Both wereexcellent parades but we wanted to gohome. We had our picture taken as a com-pany E or F, Third Army Composite Regi-ment on 25 September 1919." This picturewas taken at Marine Barracks, 8th & I, andwas a part of the donation to the MarineCorps Museum's Personal Papers Col-lection.

Mr. Woerter returned to his home in In-diana after parading with Pershing's Own,got married to the woman who would behis wife for nearly 70 years, and resumedhis life of before the war with as much nor-malcy as possible. L111775L11

Vietnam GearWanted

T he Marine Corps MuseumsBranch, located at the Wash-

ington Navy Yard, is in need of Ma-rine Corps and enemy military ob-jects from the Vietnam War forpotential use by all Marine Corpsmuseums. Potential donors shouldsend a list of objects available witha brief description of their conditionto:

Miss Jennifer Gooding, RegistrarMarine Corps MuseumBuilding 58, Washington Navy YardWashington, D.C. 20374-0580

San Diego Recruits Learn Corps' Story at New Museum

by The Reverend Lawrence P Johnson

T hough it was officially opened onlylast 10 November, the Corps' 212th

Birthday, the museum at Marine CorpsRecruit Depot, San Diego, is already anintegral part of the base mission. A com-prehensive program of lectures, exhibits,films, and publications helps to instill es-prit de corps in recruits and depot Marinesalike.

Under the leadership of former Com-manding General, MajGen Wesley H. Riceand retired MajGen Marc A. Moore, themuseum has taken shape within threeyears. In 1984 MajGen Moore formed ahard-working committee of architects,public works officials, and historians, withhelp from the Museums Branch of theHistory and Museums Division of Head-quarters Marine Corps. Mr. George H.Kordela was named director of the muse-um and curator of the archives in June1986. He continued to work closely withformer Commanding General, MajGenAnthony Lukeman.

In addition to support by the MuseumsBranch in Washington and its Air-GroundMuseum at Quantico, through the loan ofhistorical artifacts, and the donation ofmemorabilia by San Diego-area formerMarines, many members of the MarineCorps historical community participatedin completing the museum. Chairman ofthe Museum Board of Directors is MarineCorps Historical Foundation member Maj-Gen Moore. Another Foundation mem-ber, retired LtCol Robert M. Calland,worked closely with the museum directorthroughout. Two former illustrators for theMuseums Branch's exhibits unit, GySgtDavid Dendy of MCRD and Sgt RebeccaMays of Camp Pendleton, were calledupon to design and fabricate exhibits.On-the-scene leader of the effort was Mr.Kordela, who applied his longtime muse-um experience.

Several major challenges were faced bythe group: a building to house the

museum; a story line; a collection of ar-tifacts and documents to be gathered.Building 26, just inside Gate Four andformerly used as a recruit processingcenter, was restored to its original Span-ish colonial style. Office space, a visitors'

center, archive, temporary exhibit gallery,and standing exhibit gallery form the pub-lic facility. The restoration and storageareas on the second deck are remarkablybright and large. These facilities promisea healthy future for the collection.

MajGen Donald J. Fulham and Sena-tor Pete Wilson presided over ground-

Rev. Lawrence P. Johnson is a doctoral stu-dent at the University of California, SanDiego, and associate pastor of St. JamesCatholic Community in Solana Beach. Hisinterests include the histoiy of the MarineCorps in the twentieth centuiy.

13

Photos by Andrew J. Quinones

San Diego Recruit Pvt Stephen Smith scans the POU'//MIA exhibit at the Museum.

Early California Marines exhibit is viewed by Pvt Evan Campbell, left, and family.

breaking on 4 December 1986. Actualrenovation began in February 1987. With-in nine months the completed portion ofthe project occupied the entire seconddeck of the structure and most of the first.

Entering the reception area the visitoris struck by the size and bright opennessof the rooms. All active-duty visitors orformer Marines are invited to enter theirnames, dates of service, and unit designa-tions in the collection of log books. Thesewill form the data base of one of the muse-um's future publications, aiding formerfriends and service-mates to keep in touchwith each other.

A collection of original works of art byMarine artist Col Charles H. Waterhouseis located adjacent to the reception area."Marines in the Conquest of California"vividly illustrates the role of the MarineCorps in the area between 1846 and 1848.

A iso found on the first deck is a spa-cious visitors' lounge. Together with

its accompanying film theater, this loungebecomes the focal point of visitors on Sun-days. Recruits in their final week of train-ing are encouraged to bring family andfriends to the museum. New Marine fa-milies learn the traditions and history of

the Corps by viewing films and examin-ing the museum exhibits.

The two galleries of exhibits on the se-cond deck form the focal point of themuseum. As throughout the museum, themission of the permanent gallery of ex-hibits is to show the role of the Marinesin Southern California from 1846 to thepresent, and to chronicle the developmentof the base and units associated with thedepot. In keeping with the nature of thismission, Mr. Kordela has maintained thevitality of the exhibits. Individual displaysare constantly modified as new acquisi-tions arrive, encouraging Marines and theirfamilies to make return visits.

The standing exhibits are arrangedchronologically from 1846. Individual dis-play cases contain articles of interest fromuniforms through Marine gear and its per-tinent documentation to enemy weapons.Emphasis is placed on the role of the 4thMarine Regiment and the evolution of theSan Diego base. The visitor observes thedevelopment of the Advanced Base Force,forerunner of today's Fleet Marine Force;the role of the Marines in guarding theU.S. Mails; and the experience of the 3dMarine Brigade in China under BGenSmedley D. Butler. There are exhibits onthe Marines in Nicaragua, World War I,World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Final-ly' there are exhibits on the role of Wom-en Marines, and drill instructors andtraining at the recruit depot.

T he temporary gallery on the seconddeck can focus on a particular per-

son or episode in Marine history. The cur-rent exhibit includes an exact reproductionof one of the infamous POW tiger cagesof Vietnam. Original works of art by Ma-rine combat artists and others also are in-cluded in the temporary gallery, as theyare in the spacious hallways of the

14

The growing personal papers collectionof the museum contains material on theestablishment of the Fleet Marine Force,including orders, letters, photos, andmaps. The Horse Marines form the sub-ject of an interesting collection of thepapers of Capt Charles A. Baker, coveringthe period 1916-1936, which also dealswith the formation of the Guardia inNicaragua. Documentation in Spanish onthis same period shows Mr. Kordela's com-mitment to obtain "both sides" of the sto-

Photos by Andrew J. Quinones

Oversized eagle, globe, andanchor insignia welcomes visitors to the Permanent Galleryof the San Diego Recruit Depot Museum, including Pvt Len Hicks and his family.

Studying apainting from the Conquest of California series by Col Charles H. Water-house, USMCR, are drill instructors and recruits visiting the Depot c museum.

museum.

ry of a Marine operation. How the Marinesare perceived by the other side is an im-portant historical question. The archivedoes not neglect it. An extensive collec-tion of Korean, Soviet, and North Viet-namese propaganda secured by Marineveterans is highly instructive. As a POWin North Vietnam Maj James V. DiBer-nardo was able to keep a log and to bringit out upon his release. This log and its

supporting documentation should be avaluable research tool for Marine histori-ans and historians of the Vietnam War. Asword of the collection is passed among thelarge number of retired Marines in the SanDiego area, the collection is sure to growin size and importance. Its cataloging andthe collection itself is part of the largerpersonal papers collection of the MarineCorps Historical Center, Washington D.C.

The museum staff at San Diego is readyto offer personal assistance to research stu-dents and interested amateurs alike.

Future plans for the museum call foran expansion of the oral history sec-

tion, including a videotape interviewresource; an extensive collection of Marineaviation documentation to 1945; an arrayof appropriate and informative museumpublications; and the continuing expan-sion of the museum collections.

The museum is under the supervisionof the assistant chief of staff, G-2/3, forthe recruit depot. This command arrange-ment shows the place of the museum wi-thin the mission of the depot. Regulartraining classes are held for instructors onthe depot as well as for Marines at nearbyCamp Pendleton. Recruits are given an in-timate experience of the history of thedepot and the Marine Corps. Togetherwith the other components of Marinetraining, the inspiration of Marine histo-ry is a central factor in the 'first to fight"tradition of the Corps. This is clearly amuseum with a mission.

San Diego Recruit Depot CommandMuseum hours are Tuesday through Satur-day, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, noonto 5 p.m. The museum is closed Mondays.

Historical Quiz

Symbols and Historic Dates of the Marine Corpsby Lena M. Kalyot

Reference Historian

Match the event with the correct date (answers on page 23):1. The U.S. Marine Band made its White House debut in this year, and has since furnished music for each President

of the United States as "The President's Own."2. During what year was the Marine Corps emblem, the eagle, globe, and anchor, approved?3. When did the formal commemoration of the Marine Corps birthday begin?4. A Marine Corps order of this year designated gold and scarlet as the official colors of the Marine Corps.5. In what year did the Marine Barracks, 8th and I, initiate the regularly scheduled "Sunset Parades," later changed

to "Evening Parades?"6. The design for the official Marine Corps battle colors, incorporating the colors and essentially the design of today's

Marine Corps battle colors, was approved during what year?7. When did the Commandant of the Marine Corps approve a change in the words of The Marine's Hymn (fourth

line, first verse) to include "In the air,...?"8. The Marine Corps Reserve's "Toys for Tots" program, which every year collects new toys for needy children, dates

back to what year?9. The dedication ceremony for the United States Marine Corps War Memorial (IwoJima Memorial) took place at the

northern end of Arlington National Cemetery during what year?10. In what year was a Marine Corps bulletin released authorizing the adoption of "The Marine's Prayer" for generaluse?

15

Photo by Andrew). Quinones

American Indians who became Marines are recognized in an exhibit in the PermanentGallery, including Iwo Jima flagraiser Ira Hayes and the famous Navajo codetalkers.

a. 1921

b. 1939c. 1801

d. 1965

e. 1947

f. 1954

g. 1925

h. 1868

i. 1934

j. 1942

Oral History Report

Gen Wilson, LtGen Dulacki Describe Active Careers

F our new oral history interview tran-scripts recently joined those already

accessioned in the Marine Corps Oral His-tory Collection. These are the interviewswhich were conducted with Gen Louis H.Wilson, 26th Commandant of the MarineCorps; LtGen LeoJ. Dulacki; Col JusticeM. Chambers, who was awarded the Me-dal of Honor for his bravery on Iwo Jima;and Mrs. Francis Neville Vest, daughter ofMajor General Commandant of the Ma-rine Corps Wendell Cushing Neville.

Gen Wilson was interviewed during1979-80 by the Director of Marine CorpsHistory and Museums, BGen Edwin H.Simmons, both in the Commandant's of-fice in Headquarters Marine Corps(HQMC), and after Gen Wilson's retire-ment at his home in Jackson, Mississippi.The interview begins with a review of GenWilson's commandancy, using the Com-mandant's appointment books as a guide.Fully discussed in the sessions covering thisfour-year period are such highlights ofGen Wilson's tour as Commandant as: thedecision concerning the F-18; the LHAprogram; the AV-8B program; assignmentsof women Marines; the steps leading tothe Commandant becoming a permanentmember of theJoint Chiefs of Staff (JCS);the Wilson "initiatives;" FMF structurechanges during his commandancy; andMarine Corps observances of its 200th an-niversary. In addition, the interview con-tains Gen Wilson's memoirs of his pre-commandancy period and his combat ex-periences, especially of the events whichled to his being awarded the Medal ofHonor for heroism in the battle for Guam.Gen Wilson also spoke of the various staffand command billets he filled during hiscareer.

In this transcript also is a nine-page in-terview session Mr. Frank conducted withGen Wilson in 1984 concerning MarineCorps-Navy relationships, especially hisrelationship with Chief of Naval Opera-tions Adm Elmo Zumwalt. Appended tothe interview transcript is a bound annexwhich contains Gen Wilson's four annualreports to the Senate Armed Services

by Benis M. FrankHead, Oral History Section

Committee on the status of the MarineCorps. In addition to the transcriptsdeposited in the Marine Corps Oral His-tory Collection in the Marine Corps His-torical Center and in Breckinridge Libraryat Quantico, a copy of the transcript hasbeen sent in Gen Wilson's name to hisalma mater, Millsaps College in Mis-sissippi.

I t took 12 years to complete the 333-page, three-session interview conducted

with LtGen Dulacki. The first two sessionswere conducted in Washington in October1974, after Gen Dulacki had retired; thethird session was a marathon taping, last-ing from 1930 in the evening to about0130 the next morning—including timeout for off-the-record comments—at GenDulacki's home in California in 1986.Joining Mr. Frank in the first session,which was largely concerned with Gen Du-lacki's tour in Vietnam as G-2 of III Ma-rine Amphibious Force (MAF) and Chiefof Staff of the 3d Marine Division in 1965and 1966, was Dr. Graham Cosmas, thena member of the History and MuseumsDivision engaged in writing one of thevolumes concerned with the history of Ma-rine Corps operations in Vietnam. The re-mainder of the interview concerns GenDulacki's varied and interesting MarineCorps career, during which he served as aship Marine detachment commander inWorld War II, having one ship—the Hor-net—sunk under him, and anothercarrier—the Belleau lVood—heavily dam-aged while he served in her. A Russianlinguist by dint of his training at the ArmyLanguage School, Gen Dulacki served twotours as a naval attache. The first was inHelsinki, Finland, and the second was inMoscow. In between these two assign-ments, he filled a number of staff andcommand billets, one of which was asCommander of 1st Battalion, 7th Marinesin Korea. He later commanded the 4thMarine Division. At the time of his retire-ment in 1974, Gen Dulacki was DeputyChief of Staff for Manpower at HQMC.Before then, he had served on the Joint

16

Staff of theJCS; with the Defense Intelli-gence Agency; and had a second tour inVietnam as Assistant Division Command-er of the 1st Marine Division and thenChief of Staff of III MAE

Before his death on 29 July 1982, ColJustice M. "Joe" Chambers and his wife,Barbara, reviewed and edited the 900-plustranscript pages from 28 interview sessionsCol Chambers' son, Paul, had conductedwith him beginning in 1976, and paredit down to a two-volume transcript of 710pages. In this interview, Col Chambers, anative of West Virginia, tells of how he en-listed in the Washington Marine Reservebattalion in 1930, while an employee ofthe FBI. Two years later he was commis-sioned and remained active with the unituntil it and he were mobilized in 1940 tojoin the 1st Marine Brigade in Guarnana-mo Bay, Cuba. Initially he was assignedto the 5th Marines, but later transferredto the 1st Raider Battalion. He led a com-pany in the battle for Tulagi, where he waswounded for the first of three times in thePacific War. Capt Chambers was decorat-ed with the Silver Star Medal for his ex-ploits. After recovering from his woundsin the States, now-LtCol Chambers tookover command of the 3d Battalion, 25thMarines, which he led in the landings onRoi-Namur, Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima.He was severely wounded on Iwo andevacuated, and for his heroism on this is-land, President Truman decorated ColChambers with the Medal of Honor afterthe war. He retired in 1946, remained veryclosely attuned to Marine Corps affairs inhis new position as staff advisor to theSenate Armed Services Committee, andwas very much involved in supporting theMarine Corps' fight for existence in thepostwar unification battle.

M rs. Frances Neville Vest was thedaughter of the 13th Commandant

of the Marine Corps and the mother of anow-retired Marine colonel, Wendell Ne-ville Vest, who carried both his grandfa-ther's sword and his grandfather's nick-name, "Buck," as a serving Marine. The

wife of Capt John Vest, USN (Ret), Mrs.Vest was interviewed at her home on Mary-land's Eastern Shore in July 1983, whenshe was 84. Her interview is a delightfuland interesting memoir of a gracious ladywho recalled her younger days as a Marinejunior when she acted as hostess for herCommandant father, her mother being illat this time. The interview is replete withsuch famous Marine names as John Le-jeune, young Frank Goettge, Harry Liver-sedge, Smedley Butler, Lemuel Shepherd,and her godfather, George Barnett, a-mongst others. In it she recalls the sociallife at Marine Barracks, 8th and Eye, in aquieter, less hectic time in history for theMarine Corps. Mrs. Vest died in October1984.

T he Oral History Section has recentlycompleted interviews with four Ma-

rine Corps "heavy hitters'—LtGens Tho-mas H. Miller, Jr.; Bernard E. "Mick"Trainor; Harold A. "Hal" Hatch; andPhilip D. Shutler. Recalled in 30 separateinterview sessions totalling 67 and one-half hours are the experiences of Marinesin three wars and 154 years of active serv-ice. Two of the interviewees—Miller andShutler—were aviators, while the othertwo were infantry officers. Both GensHatch and Trainor had been enlisted Ma-rines before commissioning — in fact, GenHatch attained the grade of master ser-geant. When these interviews are tran-scribed and accessioned into the OralHistory Collection, a fuller abstract of theircontents will appear in this section. It

might be interesting to note a few factsabout the career of each officer.

For instance, Gen Miller was the firstAmerican to fly the Harrier, and he alsomade his mark in aviation history by set-ring the 500km closed-course world speedrecord of 1,216.78 miles per hour in an F4Baircraft in 1960. He is also reputed to beone of the few Marine aviators to haveflown every type of plane in the MarineCorps aircraft inventory—and a few out-side of it — during his active service. At thetime of his retirement, he was DeputyChief of Staff for Aviation at Headquart-ers Marine Corps.

G en Trainor, who is currently militarycorrespondent of The New York

Times, enlisted in the Marine Corps in1946, and the following year entered HolyCross College as an NROTC contract stu-dent. He was commissioned in 1951 intime to be sent to Korea to join the 1stMarines in the fighting there. As the othergeneral officers in this group of inter-viewees, he had a varied and challengingcareer, which included two tours in Viet-nam. At the time of his retirement in1985, Gen Trainor was Deputy Chief ofStaff for Plans, Policies, and Operationsat HQMC.

Gen Hatch also retired from his billetat Headquarters; he had been DeputyChief of Staff for Installations and Logis-tics for an event-filled, busy seven years.Gen Hatch enlisted in the Marine Corpsin 1942 and was commissioned in 1945.

He reverted to enlisted rank in March1947, but was recommissioned in Septem-ber 1949. He commanded the 1st Battal-ion, 1st Marines, in Vietnam and the 8thMarines at Camp Lejeune. Prior to takingover I&L at Headquarters, he was FiscalDirector of the Marine Corps.

A lthough he was a Marine aviator forthe greater part of his career, upon

graduation from the Naval Academy in1947, Gen Shutler initially was an infan-try officer, and served with the 1st Recon-naissance Company in Korea, 1950-51.After he pinned on his wings, he flew at-tack aircraft for the most part, command-ing attack squadrons and groups duringhis active service. He attended the Navy'sPostgraduate School at Monterey in July1961, followed by two years' graduate workat MIT, where he obtained a master'sdegree in aeronautics and astronautics.Following a tour on the staff of the Secre-tary of the Navy, Gen Shutler was Direc-tor of Aviation, then Deputy Commander,Fleet Marine Force, Atlantic. In 1978, hewas nominated for a third star and becameDirector for Operations,J-3, on theJointStaff of theJCS. He retired in July 1980.

The Oral History Section continues toprocess completed interviews, and willsoon accession an additional number intothe Oral History Collection. At the sametime, interviews both in depth and issue-oriented are being conducted with retiredMarines as well as those involved with cur-rent operations. LIJI775LIJ

Recruiters, Youngest Marines Painting's Subjects

The painting, "In the Tradition of Great Men," by artist Robert U Arnold, was re-cently accepted by the Historical Center's Historic Art Committee. Below, Mr Arnolddiscusses the work.

"In the Tradition of Great Men"—is an exquisite working title for this painting, foreach Marine recruit has the potential, in due time, of becoming one of our nation's"great men" of history.

The setting is Boston. Adams Square, with the historic Faneuil Hall, is the back-ground, the statue of Samuel Adams standing between the recruiter and the recruit.

A recruit would not go wrong in knowing of Samuel Adams, a man of great courage.This is the patriot who directed the act of civil disobedience known as the Boston "TeaParty," and who became a prominent leader of the American Revolution.

Samuel's brother, John, had a hand in founding the Continental Marines. JohnAdams' Naval Committee of the Continental Congress in October 1775 proposed theestablishment of a navy and in early November two battalions of Marines to serve onthe navy's ships. The Tun Tavern, according to one undocumented account, was themeeting place of Adams' committee. RWA

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1900 Boxer Rebellion

Origins of Marines' Longtime North China Associationby j Michael Miller

Curator of Personal Papers

W by the Boxer Rebellion? Why didthe Marine Corps Museum devote

major exhibition space to a small, four-month campaign which involved only afew ship's detachments and a regiment ofMarines? Past major exhibits have includ-ed "From Dawn to Setting Sun," a com-prehensive exhibit on all of the MarineCorps battles of World War II; "Arms andMen," an inclusive exhibit of the develop-ment of Marine weaponry; and "Recruit-ing . . . Since 1775," a complete reviewof Marine Corps recruiting. Why then didsuch a seemingly minor campaign as theBoxer Rebellion require the same timeand effort as these broadranging topics?

The answer is simple. It was a majorcampaign for the small Marine Corps ofthe day with much of the Corps' totalstrength ultimately being engaged inNorth China, assembled from around theworld from ships' detachments, expedi-tionary units in the Philippines, and rein-forcements from the East and West Coastsof the United States. Moreover, it was thefirst time Marines had been engaged in amajor multinational force—a precursor offuture wars and excursions.

Additionally, the mission of the MarineCorps Museum is to educate and motivateindividual Marines. With "The Eagle and

The Dragon: Marines in the Boxer Rebel-lion," the decision was made to focus ona limited campaign, so that historic in-dividual Marine officers and enlisted mencould become "real people" to today's Ma-rines. The exhibit concentrates on thecompany and sometimes platoon andsquad levels. The exploits of individualMarines can be highlighted better in thisfinite form than in the usual large-scalereview.

In addition, the performance of the Ma-rine Corps in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900emphasizes such traditional missions ofthe Corps as forming ship's detachments,landing parties, and embassy guards, aswell as combined duty with the Army andNavy.

H aving decided on the subject of theexhibit, the next step was to develop

a research plan and preliminary storyline.To do this, the museum staff had to learnexactly what the Marine Corps missionswere in 1900. Generally, they were: (1) toorganize units in time of national crisis;(2) to secure advance naval bases; (3) toprovide security for naval installations; (4)to maintain ship's detachments; and (5)to provide ceremonial detachments for na-tional and international events.

With our focus now defined, researchbegan on the average officer and enlistedman, with the goal of making them morethan images in faded photographs. TheCurators of Personal Papers and SpecialProjects visited the National Archives, andbegan compiling for the first time a list-ing of Marines who served in China in1900, completed by pouring over the origi-nal muster rolls for May through August1900, for selected ship's detachments, Ma-rine Barracks, and the 1st Marine egi-ment based in the Philippines.

Then we began to compile statistical in-formation from the individual recordbooks of randomlychosen enlisted Ma-rines: place of enlistment; age; prior serv-ice; combat experience; and awards data.After assembling material from 250 recordbooks, a "composite" picture of an enlistedMarine of the period emerged. He stood5,6" tall, weighed 141 pounds, was 27 yearsof age, had blue eyes, brown hair, a faircomplexion, and typically was employed asa laborer. Almost 80 percent of enlistedMarines of the time were from the north-eastern United States, although nation-wide recruiting had begun.

Seventy-seven percent of Marines werealso on their first enlistment, and a

surprising 55 percent had some combatexperience, primarily in the Spanish-American War and the Philippines. An-other surprising statistic uncovered wasthat a substantial number of enlisted menwere ordered to China with less than threemonths' service, including a few with onlytwo weeks' service.

Research now began on the operationalaspects. What emerged were many previ-ously unstudied incidents of Marine Corpsparticipation in the campaign, such as therole of Marines in the ill-fated first attemptto relieve the Legations of Peking, the Sey-mour Relief Expedition. Marines eventual-ly earned six Medals of Honor during theperiod.

Also of interest was the wide variety ofweapons used by Marines in China. Fourdifferent rifles were carried, including the

Mr. Benny E. Lenox, Sr., prepares to reconstruct the famous "International Gun" us-ing contemporary photographs. The only original piece of the gun is the barrel, therest having to be made from reproduction material. Mr J. Michael Miller looks on.

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Springfield .45-caliber single shot rifle, theWinchester-Hotchkiss rifle, the LeeStraight-Pull rifle, and the new Kragjor-gensen rifle. Marines on board the shipswhich had been on the Asiatic Station foryears, still had not been supplied modernarms. Marines sent directly from the Unit-ed States carried the most modern arms inthe American military arsenal, the Krag-Jorgensens. According to personal narra-tives of Marines in the field, a supplynightmare was avoided by discarding theantiquated weapons and using capturedmodern Chinese rifles, for which there wasplenty of ammunition.

W ith the sequence of events defined,we began to structure the exhibit,

dividing it into two sections of introduc-tory material, followed by three sectionson the siege of Peking, three on the battleof Tientsin, one on the Seymour Relief Ex-pedition, and one providing conclusionsand evaluations.

The true test of the exhibit now began,finding the right artifacts to support thestoryline. We thought we would have diffi-culty in locating material history from adistant and short campaign, but such wasnot the case. After identifying a generalartifact list selected from among the Muse-um's reserve collections, we were able tochoose several areas where we could wellinterpret the material history of 1900 fortoday, especially in two of our strongestcollections: uniforms and weapons. Origi-nal Chinese uniforms were found, as wellas samples of every Marine uniform worn

in China. Examples were located of all fourof the rifles used by Marines, as well asseveral used by the Chinese Army and theInternational Force. Early automaticweapons were also located, including aGatling gun and the Colt 'Potato Digger"machine gun.

W ith the artifacts selected, assign-ment was then made to match the

storyline of the exhibit. A minigallerywithin the major exhibit area was designedto point up six of the most important uni-forms, and special arrangements weremade for the numerous weapons to be in-corporated into the display. The PersonalPapers Collection was searched for privatedocuments and photographs to personal-ize the different sections. It soon becameevident that we were uncovering many rareand seldom-seen photographs, many morethan could be used. We decided to em-ploy as many of them as possible, to as-tound the visitor without overwhelminghim; more than 500 photographs wereeventually used.

As the exhibit planning progressed, wereasoned that participation in joint oper-ations with the Army and Navy, and evenas part of an international force, is certain-ly a familiar event to Marines today, so wedecided to include documentation of asmuch of the joint and international co-operation of the events in China as possi-ble. To this end, artifacts, documents, andphotographs were borrowed from theNaval Academy Museum, Navy MemorialMuseum, Naval Historical Center, West

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Point Museum, and the Army MilitaryHistory Institute; and the Curator of Per-sonal Papers visited England and France,on his own, locating additional items fordisplay from institutions such as the Roy-al Marines Museum, the British NationalArmy Museum, the Royal Welch FusiliersMuseum in Caernarvon Castle, and theMusée de l'Armée in Paris.

The challenging task of composing asuitable main caption for each section anda short but complete caption for each ob-ject now was underway. As a section wascompleted, the text was reviewed by seniorstaff members for accuracy. The text wasthen given to the Publications ProductionSection staff, who prepared all the exhi-bition labels. This section also producedspecial graphics and maps to assist in relat-ing the story line to visitors.

T he time now began for actual con-struction. A portion of the Special

Exhibits Gallery was partitioned off as astaging area. The Exhibits Section underMr. Carl M. "Bud" DeVere, Sr., then be-gan to devote uncounted hours to prepar-ing the often delicate objects for display.Platforms had to be specially constructedto accommodate the heavy weapons. Wallsand panels had to be built to separate thediscrete areas of presentation. Speciallydesigned cutout figures were made as"hangers" for the uniform coats and werepainted in lifelike detail by Artist-in-Residence Col Charles H. Waterhouse,USMCR, and Maj Donna J. Neary,USMCR. An entire gun carriage was con-structed, to scale, by woodcraftsman Mr.Benny Lenox from photographs for the fa-

Chinese court passes sentence on Boxerprisoners. The surrender treaty demandedthe Chinese themselves punish the Boxers.

On 5 August 1900, mounted American member of the China Relief Expedition sur-veys British Indian Army position where a wounded Indian is being placed on a stretcherbefore receiving treatment. The relief column had 10 more days before reaching Peking.

mous "International Gun." A scale-modelof the American Legation in Peking wasbuilt—building by building—by SSgtMichael V. Gaither from contemporaryblueprints and photographs, and pains-takingly painted to mirror reality.

Each item was to be mounted in the dis-play with concern for security and preser-vation. Light levels had to be consideredand safety plexiglass fitted over objects toprevent damage from ultraviolet light.

Acid-free papers and boards were used toprevent damage to fragile items from con-tact with acid surfaces.

When all the objects for display wereproperly prepared, the exhibit gallery wasclosed off completely and the final layouttook place. Working parties of Marinesand curators carefully moved the large arti-facts into place, including the Gatling gunand a Chinese field gun. Slowly and delib-erately, the exhibit came into realization.

A s a final test, the staff of the MarineCorps Historical Center was invited

for an advance showing to locate errors,and despite all our checks and balances,some were found. Once the correctionshad been made, the exhibit was ready foropening on 4 September 1987, the LaborDay holiday.

The exhibit was first covered in Leather-neck magazine, and was recommended byMuseum and Arts Magazine for the monthof September. The firearms portion of thedisplay was featured in American Rijie-man magazine. Then-Marine SSgt AnneSkelly volunteered to help with the pub-licity, producing a press package which wasmailed to several hundred newspapers andmagazines to announce the display. Shealso wrote several magazine articles aboutthe exhibit, which appeared in AmericanHistory Illustrated and Marine CorpsLeague Magazine.

By early August, 16,855 visitors hadviewed the exhibit, and countless othershad read and learned of the historical roleof the Marine Corps in the Boxer Rebel-lion and hopefully something of the menthemselves who served in China. Eli 775L1J

His Fears Answered

H e ". . . had a premonition that he would not survivethis Boxer campaign. When we came up from the Philip-

pines on the Brooklyn he occupied a room with Chaplain [FrankiThompson, to whom he expressed this fear. The night beforethe attack on Tientsin, a number of us who occupied quartersin the same building with Reddy, on Victoria Terrace, BritishConcession, Tientsin, were keeping late hours in discussing theevents to take place on the morrow, when Reddy said: 'Well,you fellows had better get to bed and stop your noise. Someof us won't be here tomorrow night.'

These were the portents of Capt Austin Rockwell Davis,USMC, as recited by his fellow Marine officer, George Richards,later a brigadier general and paymaster of the Marine Corps,who was beside Davis when he fell mortally wounded outsidethe walls of Tientsin on 13 July 1900.

The conversations of both officers were reported by anotherclassmate, John Twiggs Myers, who wrote of Davis's career anddemise in The Book of the Naval Cadets of the Class of 1892,published iJune 1912. Of particular significance is the fact thatDavis and Richards were officers in Maj Littleton W. T. Wailer'sMarine battalion. Together with a battalion of Royal WelchFusiliers, they had joined the allied relief force under the com-mand of British BGen R. F. Dorward organized to rescue the

besieged Peking Legations. However, a horde of Chinese nowdefied them to pass Tientsin. Ironically, Capt Myers and his Ma-rine detachments from the U.S. warships Newark and Oregonwere among the beleaguered at Peking.

Myers fondly remembered "Reddy," so known for his red hairand freckles, as the bag-man on a snipe hunt near Annapolis,"whose blue eyes looked straight into yours, who was utterly in-capable of mean word, thought or act." He was also known tohis classmates as "Count Rockwell," or simply as "The Count."

20

R ichards recalled the movements of Davis's Company C onthe early morning of 13 July. With the Fusiliers, they com-

posed the left wing of the attacking force, the flank immedi-ately menaced by the enemy. They advanced from the mud wall,parallel to the Tientsin city wall nearly a mile away. They hadhalted beyond a Chinese graveyard, confronted by an impassa-ble lake or swamp, their individual rifle fire directed against thewalled city. Chinese nearly enveloped them on three sides. CaptDavis stood in the open, smoking a cigarette and directing hiscompany's fire with his swagger stick. He fell at 0830, struckin the right breast by a gingall ball.

"His body, with his face covered by his campaign hat, lay byour side all that day. A wrist watch he had wound that morning

Doctors of various nationalities combine to treat the wounded during the battle ofTientsin on 13 July 1900. In the foreground an American surgeon pours water for awoundedJapanese infantryman. Marine casualties totaled five killedand23 wounded

• • . And A Memorial Portraitby Richard A. Long

Special Projects Curator

was in plain sight on his wrist and told us the minutes that passedthat seemed like to us hours."

Following withdrawal from the position that evening, Davis'sMarines buried him in the English Cemetery, beside Col E. H.Liscum, commanding officer of the 9th U.S. Infantry, who wasslain the same day. In 1901, Davis's fellow Marine officers hadhis remains reinterred in Arlington National Cemetery and con-tributed to a handsome stone erected in 1903.

D avis was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on 3lJuly 1871 and en-tered the U.S. Naval Academy in the fall of 1887. Although

he resigned on 6 February 1888, he was reinstated on 21 Mayof that year, and graduated on 3 June 1892. While a naval cadethe was on board the USS Kearsarge when she was wrecked onthe Roncador Reef in the Caribbean on 18 February 1894. Com-missioned a second lieutenant of Marines on iJuly 1894, he at-tended the School of Application at Marine Barracks,Washington, and graduated in June 1895.

After duty at Norfolk and Mare Island, he joined the battle-ship Oregon when she was commissioned at San Francisco on15 July 1896 and served in her on the Pacific Station for one andone-half years. On 16 February 1898, news was received that theMaine had blown up in Havana Harbor the previous day. Ore-gon departed San Francisco for the East Coast on 19 March,steaming 14,000 miles around the stormy South American hornin 66 days, stopping to coal only three times.

On 28 May, she joined the fleet, and on 1 June arrived offSantiago to shell military installations and to assist in the de-struction of the Spanish fleet on 3 July.

Davis was detached from Oregon and assigned to Headquart-ers Marine Corps on 18 September 1898, and on 4 November hewas notified of his promotion to first lieutenant, effective 2 June1898. On 7 November, BGenComdt Charles Heywood recom-mended him for a brevet captaincy for gallant service on theOregon.

This commission was never awarded, for Davis was promoted tocaptain on 3 March 1899 while stationed at Marine Barracks,Norfolk.

Shortly after, Capt Davis was assigned to a battalion organizedfor service in the Philippine Islands, arriving in Manila Bay on23 May 1899. He subsequently commanded Company C, 1st Ma-rine Regiment, at Cavite and in the field until the summer of1900, when preparations were made to sail to China to curb therebellion.

Little more than a year elapsed after Davis's death before thecitizens of Atlanta began to think of honoring their only

son to have died in the Boxer Rebellion. His family still livedthere.

The Davises apparently determined that a portrait of their sonwould be a fitting memorial, and a photograph of him as a firstlieutenant was provided as a model. The project was taken upby The Atlanta Constitution on 1 October 1901, and the taskof raising funds for its painting was adopted by the ladies of theInman Park Literary Circle. They were generously aided by anAtlanta businessman who was a non-graduate of the AcademyClass of 1891. Miss Adelaide Chloe Everhart, a popular Atlantaartist, was chosen to paint the portrait.

The city chose a prestigious site in which to exhibit the por-

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Portrait of Capt Austin R. Davis, USMC, killed during the Box-er Rebellion at Tientsin in July 1900, now belongs to his nephew,W/ingfield Davis. Another nephew, LtCol Charles L. Davis, USAF(Ret) stands next to the memorial stone to Capt Davis in Atlanta.

trait. The elder Davis, when beginning his family, had built ahouse on Peachtree Street. Austin was born there and lived inthe house until he was 13 years of age. It was torn down to makeway for the new Carnegie Library, which was scheduled for com-pletion in the fall of 1902. His portrait was to be the first workof art to be deposited there.

The portrait was dedicated in November 1902 in the presenceof family, friends, classmates, and city officials. It originally oc-cupied the north wall of the library's east room.

A few years ago, Wingfield Davis, a nephew of Capt Davis,found the portrait no longer on public view but in storage, where-upon he acquired it, and it now hangs in his home in Atlanta.

T he Marine Corps Museum is indebted to another nephew,LtCol Charles L. Davis, USAF (Ret), Falls Church, Virginia,

for his interest in the career and life of his uncle. Early in 1985,for information on his forebearer the colonel contactedJ. MichaelMiller, Curator of Personal Papers. Mr. Miller was then deeplyengrossed in planning and researching details of "The Eagle andThe Dragon: Marines in the Boxer Rebellion," the Marine CorpsMuseum exhibit.

The writer was also engaged in this research, but primarilyin the search for descendants of American participants and thepossible acquisition of memorabilia for the exhibit and for theMuseum's permanent collections.

In the following three years, Col Davis collaborated with Mr.Miller and the writer on the intensive research of Capt Davisfrom a number of sources. It was he who first related the exis-tence of the portrait in Atlanta, persuaded his cousins there tohave it professionally photographed, shared his other photo-graphs with us, and gave permission to have a reproduction usedin the exhibit and to be published here. The color transparencyof the portrait is a welcome donation from the family. Eli 775E1J

In addition to LtCol Davis and the W/ingfield Davis SeniorandJunior the writer desires to thank Mrs. Beverly W Gains,Librarian, Atlanta-Fulton Library; Ms. Anne Salter Librari-an, the Atlanta Historical Society, and Ms. Peggy Jennings,Decorations and Medals Branch, HQMC, for their assistance.

New Books

Two Volumes Devoted to Marine Air History Head Listby Evelyn A. Englander

Historical Center Librarian

F rom the library of the Marine CorpsHistorical Center, recently published

books of professional interest to Marines.These books are available from local book-stores or libraries.

Forged in Steel; US. Marine Corps Avia-tion. Photography by C. J. Keatley III; in-troduction by SenatorJohn Glenn. HowellPress. 207 PP. 1988. A photographic trib-ute to the first 75 years of Marine CorpsAviation, years which have also seen thegrowth and development of military avi-ation in general. The book features colorphotographs of the Corps' present-day air-craft with accompanying comments fromMarine Corps aviators and flight crews.(The author's photographs helped inspirethe movie Top Gun for which he servedas aerial cinematographer.) $37.00

Flights of Passage; Reflections of a WorldWar II Aviator Samuel Hynes. Naval In-stitute Press. 272 pp. 1988. Well writtenrecollections from a World War II Marinebomber pilot. Hynes tells the story of histraining and fighting, vividly recreatingthe world of the 1940s as he knew it.$16.95

Guardians of the Sea; A History of theUS. Coast Guard 1915 to the Present.Robert E. Johnson. Naval Institute Press.412 pp. 1987. Written to follow RAdmStephen Hadley Evans' US. Coast Guard1790-1915; A Definitive History, this isboth an operational and an organization-al history. In addition, the author has usedpeople and events to emphasize the com-plexity of the Coast Guard's mission andresponsibilities. $23.95

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers; Eco-nomic Change and Military Conflict from15 00-2000. Paul Kennedy. RandomHouse. 677 pp. 1987. In this analysis ofglobal politics over the past five centuries,the author focuses on the relationship be-tween economic and military power as therelationship affects the rise and fall of em-

pires. Professor Kennedy concludes withan analysis of great power relations from1945 through the year 2000, with impli-cations for the United States, the SovietUnion, Western Europe, China, andJapan. $24.95

Delivered from Evil; The Saga of WorldWar II. Robert Leckie. Harper & Row Pub-lishers, Inc. 998 pp. 1987. A completeone-volume history of World War II. Or-ganized chronologically, the book coversthe major battles, the commanders, andthe background developments. By theformer Marine author of Helmet for MyPillow. $29.95.

Battle Cry of Freedom; The Civil War Era.James McPherson. Oxford University Press.904 pp. 1988. A comprehensive, readableone-volume history of the Civil War. Theauthor, with great skill, integrates the po-litical, social, and military events of thetwo decades from the beginning of theWar with Mexico to the ending of the CivilWar. As for the war itself, he covers thebattles, the strategy and tactics, the po-litics, and the personalities of both theNorth and the South. $35.00.

A Pictorial History of the Vietnam WarRichard E Newcomb. Doubleday. 292 pp.1987. A concise history of the VietnamWar, illustrated with 263 black-and-whitephotographs, maps, charts, and illustra-tions. $14.95.

Maverick Marine; General Smedley D.Butler and the Contradictions of Ameri-can Military History. Hans Schmidt.University Press of Kentucky. 292 pp.1988. The story of Smedley D. Butler, whofought in most of America's military cam-paigns from 1898 to the late 1920s andwho won two Medals of Honor. The bi-ography covers his military career and hisequally eventful post-military years, dur-ing which he renounced war and "Yankeeimperialism." $28.95.

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The Bombers of MAGSZAM; A History ofMarine Bombing Squadron 611. RaymondS. B. Perry. Raymond S. B. Perry, Publish-er. 154 pp. 1987. The story of MarineBombing Squadron 611 and its role sup-porting the Army X Corps on Mindanaoin the Philippines in the spring of 1945.The author and publisher served as

navigator-bombadier in the squadronfrom 1943-1945, from the squadron's or-ganization until its decomirissioning. Thebook includes a bibliography, listing ofcasualties, table of organization, and rosterof personnel. $15.00. Available from Mr.Perry at Plastic Components, 7570 N.W.79th Street, Miami, Florida 33166. Phone:1-800-327-7077.

The United States Navy; 200 Years.Captain Edward L. Beach, USN (Ret).Henry Holt and Company. 564 Pp.' 1986.This is a well-written, one-volume historyof the U.S. Navy. Along with its narrativeaccount of wars and battles, the book alsotraces the impact of new technologies onshipbuilding, weaponry, and naval tacticsthroughout the Navy's 200 years, whetherthis new technology is steam power ornuclear power, American hardwoods orAmerican steel. $24.95

Guadalcanal, Starvation Island Eric

Hammel. Crown Publishers, Inc. 478 pp.,1987. This is the first in a series of booksby Hammel that will focus on the Guadal-canal campaign, exploring the elementsthat made it a turning point in the warin the Pacific. Along with using officialrecords and previously published works,Hammel interviewed more than 100 par-ticipants from both sides to describe thiscampaign which lasted six months, in-volved nearly one million men, and in-cluded land, sea, and air battles. $24.95

Howlin 'Mad vs. the Army; Conflict inCommand SaiOan, 1944. Harry A. Gailey.Presidio Press. 276 pp., 1986. A study ofthe conflict between Marine Corps LtGenHolland M. Smith and Army MajGen

Ralph Smith and the assault on Saipan inJune 1944. Along with analyzing the per-sonalities and the battle, the author alsodetails the part played by the media in thecontroversy. $17.95

Marine Sniper, 93 Confirmed Kills.Charles Henderson. Stein and Day. 274pp., 1986. The story of Marine Sgt CarlosHathcock, who served twice in Vietnamwith a total of 93 confirmed kills. BeforeVietnam, Hatheock was the U.S. LongRange Rifle Champion in 1965. AfterVietnam, he was one of the founders ofthe Marine Corps Sniper School. Annu-ally now the Carlos Hathcock Award ispresented to the Marine who has con-tributed the most to marksmanship.Charles W. Henderson is himself a MarineCorps officer who served with the 24thMAU in Lebanon. $18.95

One Bugle, No Drums; The Marines atChosin Reservoii William B. Hopkins. Al-gonquin Books. 274 pp., 1986. The authorwas a Marine Corps Reserve captain calledto active service in 1950. He commandedHeadquarters Company of the 1st Battal-ion of Chesty Puller's 1st Regiment. Hisunit was one of those encircled at Chosinwhen the Chinese entered the war. Theauthor describes the action as the Marinesfought their way south in sub-zeroweather. Hopkins also details the burdensborn by the foe, short of supplies them-selves, ill prepared for 20-below-zeroweather. The book also includes a previ-ously unpublished report on the action byS. L. A. Marshall. $15.95.

Music at the White House. Elise K.Kirk. University of Illinois Press. 457 pp.,1986. Elise Kirk has described the diverseceremonial traditions and musical perfor-mances at the White House along with thecultural interests of the presidents and firstladies from George Washington throughRonald Reagan. She has included, ofcourse, the many contributions of "ThePresident's Own," the U.S. Marine Band.This comprehensive volume includesblack-and-white photographs, a biblio-graphic essay, and a detailed index. $19.95

The United States Navy and the Viet-namese Conflict, Volume II. From MilitaryAssistance to Combat, 1959-1965. EdwardJ. Marolda and Oscar P. Fitzgerald. NavalHistorical Center, Dept. of the Navy. 591pp., 1986. The second volume of the Na-

vy's official history of the Vietnam Warcovers the years from 1959 to 1965 whenthe Navy's efforts to train the South Viet-namese Navy began to be accompanied byunilateral operations in Southeast Asia byU.S. naval forces. This volume also coversthe Navy actions in Laos as well as detail-ing the war in North and South Vietnam.Also covered by this volume is the Gulfof Tonkin incident of 4 August 1964.$22.00

George C. Marshall, Statesman,1945 -1 959. Forrest C. Pogue. Viking Press.603 pp., 1987. Statesman, 1945-1959 is thefourth and final volume in this authorizedbiography of George C. Marshall. Begin-ing with the closing events of World WarII and Marshall's involvement in the deci-sion to use the atomic bomb, the bookgoes on to describe the challenges Marshallassumed in the postwar years. It deals firstwith his 1946 mission to China, then his1947-1948 role as Secretary of State, whenhe responds to the plight of a war-devastated Europe with the Marshall Plan,his work as head of the American RedCross, and his role as Secretary of Defenseduring the Korean War. $29.95

Bitter Victory. Robert Shaplen. Harper& Row. 305 pp., 1986. The late RobertShaplen reported on events in Asia formore than 40 years, first for Newsweek,more recently for The New Yorker. Return-ing to Vietnam and Cambodia in 1985,he wrote an account of his impressions andinterpretations of life in post-war Indo-China. His knowledge of the region andits people added to the depth of his cover-age and reporting. $16.95

Vietnam, the Naval Story. Frank Uhlig,Jr., editor. Naval Institute Press. 515 pp.,1986. The 15 essays that form the core ofthis book were originally published in theNaval Institute's annual Naval Review be-tween 1967 and 1972. Included is BGenEdwin H. Simmons' essay on "MarineCorps Operations in Vietnam, 1965-1966."Uhlig, publisher of the Naval War CollegeReview and head of the AdvancedResearch Program at the War College, pro-vides the introduction and five addition-al essays that precede each section of thebook covering the Navy, Marines, CoastGuard, and Merchant Marine. $28.95.

In addition to the titles recently an-nounced, Battery Press has reprinted the

23

World War II divisional histories: FollowMe! The Story of the Second Marine Di-vision in World War II; The Spearhead,The World War II History of the 5th Ma-rine Division; and the History of the SixthMarine Division. For price and availabili-ty, please contact the publisher: BatteryPress, Inc., P.O. Box 3107, Uptown Station,Nashville, Tennessee 37219.

The U.S. Military Academy Library re-cently received a large collection of booksand manuscripts relating to Bataan andCorregidor in World War II. The Collec-tion is housed in the West Point Room ofthe Academy Library. In addition to theCorps of Cadets, the Collection is open toresearchers and interested individualsupon request. A list of titles contained inthe Collection may be obtained from theSpecial Collections Division of the USMALibrary, West Point, New York 10996. Itadds that additions which would strength-en the Collection are most welcome.

New titles in the Osprey Men-at Arms ser-ies: No. 184, Polish Armies 1569-1696 byRichard Brzezinski; No. 185, The RussianArmy of the Napoleonic Wars (1): Infan-try 1798-1814 by Philip Haythornthwaite;No. 186, The Apaches byJason Hook; No.187, British Battle Insznia (2) 1939-45 byMike Chappell; No. 194, Arab Armies ofthe Middle East Wars (2) by S. Katz; No.195, Hungary and the Fall of Eastern Eu-rope 1000-1568 by D. Nicolle; and No.197, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police1873-1987, by M. Barthorp. Osprey Eliteseries: No. 14, The British Army in the1980s by M. Chappell, and No. 16, NATOArmies Today by N. Thomas. Eachvolume, $7.50.

Bantam books is publishing a new ser-ies, Illustrated History of the War in Viet-nam. The titles, to date, include Marinesby BGen Edwin H. Simmons; CamerOperations by Edward J. Marolda; SkySoldiers by F. Clifton Berry, Jr.; and Ar-mor by James R. Arnold. $6.95 eachvolume. L111775L11

Answers to Historical Quiz

Symbols and Historic Datesof the Marine Corps(Questions on page 15)

ic; 2h; 3a; 4g; Si; 6b; 7j; 8e; 9f lOd.

J'VideIy Used Reference Source

Research, Computer Entries Keep Corps' Chronologyby Ann A. FerranteReference Historian

Since 1982, the Reference Section has been compiling ongo-ing, current Marine Corps chronologies which ultimately will

outline the significant events and dates in contemporary Ma-rine Corps history. The Marine Corps chronologies have grownfrom 85 entries per calendar year in 1982 to 155 entries in 1987,and have been completed each February.

To build the current chronology of the Marine Corps, a num-ber of primary and secondary sources, consisting of literallyhundreds of pages, are researched on a weekly basis. They in-clude official records, such as the annual summaries of activitiesfor Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps; unit command chronolo-gies; operational summaries; and message traffic. Additionally,press releases, newspapers, magazines, and journals are reviewedfor items of interest.

Submitted to the US. Naval Institute Proceedings, the cur-rent Marine Corps chronology was a standard feature of the NavalReview from 1982 to 1986. Summary essays written by officialsof the History and Museums Division complemented the pub-lished chronologies along with current photographs. During thisperiod the NavalReview also included yearly historical overviewsof the Navy, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marines. The formatof the Review has since changed and no longer includes servicechronologies.

The Reference Section's computer-based current chronologycontinues to serve as a valuable source of information on impor-tant Marine Corps events for the Marine Corps Historical Center,in support of other Corps activities, and as a reference tool forhistorical writers and researchers from all over the world.

Below are a few selected entries from the 1987 Marine CorpsChronology:

5 Feb—Gen Paul X. Kelley delivered his fourth and final report as the Com-mandant of the Marine Corps to the Senate Armed Services Committee, stat-ing that the Corps' readiness for war was the highest ever in peacetime. Citingan across-the-board increase in readiness in both air and ground components,Gen Kelley assured Congress that the Marine Corps was ready to meet thechallenge as a versatile, cost-effective force that can be rapidly projected to resolveconflict on foreign soil.

19 Feb-9 May—The Ill Marine Amphibious Force participated in Exercise TeamSpirit '87 in South Korea. The 12th annual joint-combined training focused onrapid deployment for the defense of the Republic of Korea. It was designed toevaluate and improve procedures and techniques used to defend the Koreanpeninsula and increase the combat readiness of U.S. and Republic of Korea Forces.

3-29 Mar—The 4th Marine Amphibious Brigade (MAB) participated in Exer-cise Cold Winter '87. a NATO exercise held in northern Norway. Cold Winter'87 marked the first time a Marine general commanded an allied defensive forcein Norway. BGen Matthew B. Caulfield led the 4th MAB, along with Britishand Norwegian units. Under the direction of the Military Airlift Command,the Marines of the 4th MAB, as well as rotary-wing aircraft, were transportedto the exercise by military and chartered civilian aircraft. Designed to enhanceoperational readiness among forces that protect NA'IO's northern flank, the ex-ercise tested the forces' capabilities during extreme winter conditions.

24

In March, 4th MAB joined in Exercise Cold Wz'inter '87.

10 Apr—Capt James H. Webb, Jr., USMC (Ret), a decorated Vietnam veteranand noted author, replaced John H. Lehman, Jr., becoming the 66th Secretaryof the Navy. A 1968 graduate of the Naval Academy, Webb served with the 1stBattalion, 5th Marines in Vietnam. His military decorations include the NavyCross, Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, and two Purple Hearts. A graduate ofGeorgetown Law School in 1975, Webb authored the novels, Fields of Fire (1977),A Sense of Honor (1981), and A Country Such As This (1983).

16 Apr—The first of two Marine Corps Security Force (MCSF) Battalions, thefoundation of the newly organized Marine Corps Security Forces, was officiallyestablished in a ceremony at Marine Barracks, Norfolk, Virginia. The colors ofMarine Barracks, Norfolk were retired and replaced with those of the MarineCorps Security Force Battalion, Atlantic. Each security force battalion would consistof a headquarters, Marine Security Force School, cadres assigned to the securitydepartments of Navy installations, security force companies ashore (formerly Ma-rine Barracks), Marine detachments afloat, along with Marine instructors to pro-vide training to assist naval security forces at naval bases where no Marines arestationed. MCSF Battalion, Pacific would activate in July 1987 at Mare Island,California.

25 Apr.15 May—More than 40,000 U.S. military personnel, including Marinesof the Ill Marine Amphibious Force, participated in Exercise Solid Shield '87.The exercise was the 24th in a series of annual joint exercises designed to em-phasize command and control of military forces with a friendly nation in a simu-lated combat environment. Solid Shield, which takes place every other year, wasdivided into two phases—one conducted at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, andthe other, a joint U.S-Honduran air and amphibious exercise in Honduras.

4-11 Aug—A milestone was achieved in the MaritimePrepositioning Ships (MPS) Program when two of theMPS ships were off-loaded in-stream simultaneous-ly for the first time in Exercise Freedom Banner '87that was held in the Philippines. The flagship of MPSSquadron 2, the Put Hany Fisher, and the Put Wit-ham B. Baugh sailed from Diego Garcia in the In-dian Ocean to link up with 1,300 Marines and sailorsof the 7th Marine Amphibious Brigade who wereairlifted from California for the exercise.

26 Aug—Navy Secretary James H. Webb announcedthat a new Aegis guided-missile cruiser would be-come the first Navy combat ship to carry the nameof a Vietnam War battle. The USS Hue City will benamed for the battle to retake the old imperial cap-ital from the North Vietnamese during the Tet Offen-sive in 1968. U.S. Marines and Army troops togetherwith South Vietnamese soldiers and Marines foughtfor more than a month to retake thr city.

9 May—The USS Rodney M. Dat/c (FFG 60), anOliver Hazard Perry class guided missile frigate, wascommissioned at U.S. Naval Station. Isng Beach.California. The ship was named in honor of Sgt Rod-ney M. Davis, a posthumous Medal of Honorrecipient who died in 1967 while serving as platoonsergeant with Company B, 1st Battalion. 5th Marines.in Quang Nam Ptcsvince, Vietnam.

22 May—This date marked the 75th anniversary ofMarine Corps aviation. On 22 May 1912, lstLt AlfredA. Cunningham reported to the Navy's aviation campat Annapolis for flight instruction. Cunningham wasthe first Marine Corps aviator and led the 1st Ma-rine Aviation Force in France during World War I.A major traveling exhibition of aviation art, "75 Years

of Marine Corps Aviation—A Tribute," assembled bythe Marine Corps Museum, Washington. D.C.. illus-trated events and aircraft from 1912 to the 1980s.

28Jun —. Before an estimated audience of 4,000 Ma-rines and guests, including special guest and keynotespeaker, Vice President George Bush, Gen Alfred M.Gray, Jr., received the official battle color of the Ma-rine Corps and became the 29th Commandant. Herelieved Gen P-aul X. Kelley. The ceremonies wereconducted at the historic Marine Barrack.s in

Washington. D.C. The evening's ceremony honoredGen Kelley, who retired after a career spanning 37years. Geti Gray asscimed command (in i July.

30 Jun Headquarters, 27th Marines, located atTwenivnine Palms, Californa, retired its colors. Thedeacnvanon of the regimental headquarters enabledthe Marine Corps to return to its traditional nineactive-duty infantry regiments. 'l'he 27th Maritses wasfirst activated in January 1944 and distinguished it-self in the battle of Iwo Jima. At the end of World

War II. dcc regiment was deactivated. 'l'he colors wereagain unfurled in_June Ic66 in preparation hit cool-hat in \'ic'inam. Ret urning to Camp Pendleton,California. in Sepic'ncher l')6X. the non wa deacti-vs ted ci ci ring Qc icshe r I

)(,d) Dci ring Deceni her I I.

the regimetnal heaclcjciatiers rc'ac nvaied as lie head-c1ustiet hit the gtoundi concbai clcmenc of the 7thMarine Amphiibion ISrigaile. Dciririg i his penod. the

2 ib NI an nec sva i lie ccicl pernicoceni lv organizedmechanized combined antis task force regiment inthe Marine Corps.

In]ttne, Gen Ai/;'ed M. Grig, fi;, became29th Co mmzndmi o/' the Mczi'tne Corps.

11-16 Sep—More than 4,000 Marines and sailors at-tached to the 13th Marine Amphibious Unit andAmphibious Squadron Five participated in ExerciseValiant Usher '87, held off the coast of Western Aus-tralia. 'I'he Marine Corps and Navy joined elementsof the Royal Acistraliati forces in the execution of jointamphibious training operations. The air cushionlanding craft made its debut on foreign soil in a majorexercise and embarked on the USS Germantown.Also fcsr the first time, Maritce F/A-18 jets from the1st Marine Aircraft Wing flew over Australianairspace.

4 Oct A UI I-IN helicopter from Marine MediumHelicopter Squadron 263 crashed in the Persian Gulf.haseci oic the USS Guadz/canal, the helicopter wasoic a roinine night patrol wheti the crash occured.l'hree Marine' crew members were resccied, but thepilot was unaccounted for and presumed dead. TheGu,zdzlcanal. a helicopter and troop transport shipused ti amphibious assaults, was one of five shipssent ici the Pc'rsiatc Gulf to operate with the task forceprotecting oil tankers there.

10 Nov - 'l'he Matine Corps established the MarineCorps Comhai Development Command (MCCDC)at Quatcncci. Virginia. to increase the Corps' efficiencyin training. edu aticiti, planning. material require-nienis identification and concept, and doctrinal de-vc'lopnicnt. MCCDC combined the former MarineCorps Development atid Education Command withsc'veral Headquarters Marine Corps elements to en-scire stanciatdized doctrine and training throughoutthe Marine Corps. It would itcludr five centersreponsihlc' fot sit, grocind. and logistics warfare;traitting and education; ititelligence; wargaming andassessment and inform at iou technology.

8 Dcc — Sea Sc icool, one of the oldest schools in theNi sri ice Corps a ii ci a I atid ni ark at the San Diego Ma-title Corps Recrcnt Depot since 1923, closed its doorsslier grsdciaong its last class. The only one of its kindin the Niaritie Corps. the school trained Marines forservice wnh Marine detachments on board Navysic l'he primary ci city of those detachments is topros ide internal sec unit for U.S. ships. The closingof the Sea School part of a general Maritie Corpsrc'i tga iii zai t ciii. Canci clam es fcsr fleet service wouldnow be i tai iced for shipboard sec tin iv at Mart ice Corps

Sc'c ci nit hirce Bat tahiti. Vallejo, California. r i 775rJ

The Landing Craft, Air Cushion (LCAC-1) made tts debut on foretgn sot/tn a Martnelanding. part of Exerc/ce Valiant Usher '87, held tn U'estern Ats.ctra/tz tn September;

25

1898 Guantanamo Bay Action Portrayed in New Art

by J. Michael MillerCurator of Personal Papers

This devil's dance was begun. Theproper strategic movementseemed to me to be to run awayhome andswearl had never startedon this expedition. But Elliottyelled, 'Now men; straight up thishill." The men charged up againstthe cactus, and because I cared forthe opinion of others, I found my-self tagging along close at Elliott'sheels.

So began the battle of Cuzco Well, 14June 1898, for journalist Stephen

Crane. He was accompanying a detach-ment of Marines under Capt George F. El-liott, later to become the 10th Com-mandant of the Marine Corps. This actionis the subject of the latest painting by ColCharles H. Waterhouse, USMCR, in theHistory and Museums Division's historicalart series. The subject of each painting inthe series is a prominent moment in Ma-rine Corps history, filling gaps in the art-work already held by the division. Previouspaintings in the series include the 1859capture of John Brown at Harper's Ferryand the 1865 landing of the Marines atFort Fisher during the Civil War.

Each painting in the series is researchedfor the detail needed for an accuraterepresentation. Official reports, letters,and diaries of Marines on the scene are col-lected, as well as contemporary newspaperand magazine accounts. Visual material,such as photographs and engravings, arealso collected. Each document and photo-graph is carefully examined for referencesto the equipment and uniforms of theperiod, as well as the action taking place.Once the research is completed, a packagecontaining specific information on eachitem of clothing and equipment carriedby Marines is sent to the artist, who thenis able to begin his sketches.

A s Col Waterhouse plans his design,research continues to answer more

detailed questions that arise, such as fea-tures of the terrain, exact time of day, ar-ticles of enemy clothing, and even thevariety of personal belongings likely to becarried by Marines of the day. The nextphase of the process is the preliminarysketches of the total work, submitted tothe Historical Art Committee for approval.Once the developed sketch is approved,the artist begins the first brush strokes of

the painting itself. The painting is

presented to the committee several moretimes while still incomplete, so that vari-ous experts can examine it for historical ac-curacy, down to the last uniform andweapon included. Once the painting iscompleted, it receives final approval by thecommittee and becomes a part of the artcollection of the Marine Corps.

The subject for the newest painting inthe series was selected because of the lackof accurate artistic representations of Ma-rines in the Spanish-American War, moreespecially the landing on 10 June 1898 atGuantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Perhaps the most famous event of thelanding is the "wig-wag" signalling by SgtJohn Quick on 14 June at Cuzco well forwhich he received the Medal of Honor.This scene has been recorded many timesby various artists, unfortunately for themost part inaccurately. Stephen Crane,one of America's greatest novelists, accom-panied the Marines to the Cuzco planta-tion and acted as an unofficial aide to theMarine commander during the battle,Capt Elliott.

The landing took place at Guantana-mo Bay to fulfill a time-honored missionof Marines, to seize and hold an advancenaval base for the American fleet. Atlan-tic Fleet was trying to blockade the Span-ish fleet in the seaport of Santiago, Cuba,and the Guantanamo harbor was the onlysafe haven for ships during the hurricaneseason. More than 650 Marines under thecommand of Col Robert W. Huntington,armed with 3-inch rapid-fire cannon andColt machine guns waded ashore at 1400on 10 June, and established a base camparound an abandoned blockhouse over-looking the bay.

T he Spanish soldiers had withdrawn tothe cover of the surrounding country-

side, but returned on the evening of 11June to attack the main Marine position,and the line of Marine outposts surround-ing the hill. The Spaniards never actually

With the blockhouse, upper left, captured, Marines advance toward the windmill overthe Cuzco well, in the recreation of events in Cuba by Col Charles H. Waterhouse.

26

attempted to storm the position but main-tained a harassing fire all during the nightand the early morning hours of the fol-lowing days. The Marine battalion suf-fered only minor casualties, however. TheMarines were joined on 12 June by 60Cuban insurgents under the command ofa Col La Borde, who suggested a methodof ending the Spanish attacks. The onlyfresh water available to the enemy was atthe Cuzco plantation six miles away. If thewell was destroyed, the Spanish soldierswould have to abandon the surroundingarea to the Marines.

Accordingly, at 0730 on 14 June, por-tions of Companies B, C, and D under thecommand of Capt Elliott, accompanied bythe Cuban irregulars, marched on Cuzcowith the USS Dolphin following along thecoast for naval gunfire support. Taggingalong with the column were severalnewspapers' correspondents, includingStephen Crane. He later wrote his obser-vation of the Marines as they moved:

One could note the prevalenceof a curious expression—some-thing dreamy, the symbol ofminds striving to tear aside thescreen of the future and perhapsexpose the ambush of death.

Waiting at the plantation were fourcompanies of regular Spanish infantryalong with two companies of irregular in-fantry, styled as "guerrilla," totaling morethan 400 men.

T he action began at 1100, when a pla-toon of Marines providing flank secu-

rity along the ridgeline ran into the firstSpanish outposts. The men from bothsides scrambled quickly for control of theridge surrounding the plantation, whichwould give command of the battlefield.The slope was nearly vertical and the ex-treme heat slowed the Marine advance.One private started up the incline andlamented, "We never can get up thosehills. We go up one foot and slip back six."lstLt (and later Commandant) Wendell C.Neville overheard the remark and replied,"You won't if you stand and look at them.Get up. Dig in. We must get there!"

The Marines slowly clawed their way tothe crest of the ridge as bullets from theSpanish sentries passed overhead. Crane

later wrote, "The hill was as steep asa Swiss roof . . . . Every man of the ma-rines was climbing away like mad .

What in the devil was it to the men .

It was perfectly easy for any Marine to getovercome by the burning heat and lyingdown, bequeath the work and danger tohis comrades . . . . However, when Elliottarrived at the top of the ridge, myself andmany other men were with him."

C apt Elliott drove the few Spaniardsfrom the crest of the ridge and quick-

ly established a base of fire into the valleybelow containing the Cuzco plantationand well. Company C was equipped withColt machine guns which suppressed theenemy fire. "Nothing could stand againstthose machine guns of ours," Pvt ArthurClifford remembered, "the enemy deadlay in heaps at the foot of the hill."

The remaining Spanish soldiers tookthe cover of a dense thicket of under-growth around the plantation and tried toreturn the Marine fire. Elliott signaled tothe USS Dolphin to fire into the enemyposition and destroy a blockhouse whichhad been evacuated by the Spanish. PvtFrank Keeler remembered the openingsalvo: "The first shell went wide of its markbut the second struck the blockhouse andit flew apart like a fire-cracker."

The ship then began to bombard theplantation, but still the enemy clung toits position for more than an hour. Elliotthad to signal again to the Dolphin, butthis time the message was to cease firing,for the shells were raking a flanking Ma-tine column on the ridge. The signallingwas extremely hazardous duty for the twoMarine signalers. Each had to expose him-self on the skyline to be seen by the ship.Both Marines were awarded the Medal ofHonor. One of them was SgtJohn Quick,who was just beginning his famous Ma-rine Corps career.

On the ridgeline, Crane observed theMarine firing line. "The scene on top ofthe ridge was very wild, but there was onlyone truly romantic figure. This was aCuban officer who held in one hand agreat glittering machete and in the othera cocked revolver . . . afterwards he con-fessed to me that he alone had beenresponsible for winning the fight . . . butother than this splendid person it was sim-ply a picture of men at work, men tern-

27

bly hard at work, red-faced, sweating,gasping toilers." The Marines fired slowlyand deliberately as if at target practice,each Marine expending an average of 60shots during the action.

At 1400, the Spaniards began to breakfrom their cover and retreat up their onlyavenue of escape, a narrow gulch exposedto the fire of the Marines on the highground. For the next hour, the Spanishtried to escape by small rushes to safetythrough the gulch, but paid a heavy price.A detachment of Marines under 2dLtLouisJ. Magill on outpost duty marchedto the sound of the firing and arrived onthe ridge in a position overlooking theSpanish retreat, and opened a devastatingfire on the gulch. Most of the Spanishcasualties occurred at this time. A war cor-respondent for the Chicago Record visit-ed the gulch after the battle and wrote,"Often the bodies were prone in the path.Sometimes they lay in a cleft of rocks witha pile of expended cartridge shells besidethem to tell the tale of a heroic stand."

B y 1513, the fighting was over, andCapt Elliott ordered Lt Lewis C. Lu-

cas with 40 men down to the Cuaco plan-tation to destroy the well and burn theSpanish blockhouse. This is the scenedepicted in the painting by Col Water-house. The 40 Marines have captured theblockhouse, the structure at the upper leftof the painting, and are advancingthrough the plantation buildings towardthe windmill over the well in the back-ground. One of the Marines with a Cuban"guerrilla" examines a fallen Spaniard onthe lower left of the painting, as Capt El-liott directs his men while standing besidethe blockhouse. Seated beside him isvolunteer aide Stephen Crane, dutifullywriting in his notebook his impressions ofthe action.

The Marines are wearing the newbrown-linen campaign suit, the first timesuch a utility uniform was worn in thefield. Various Marines have discarded theircoats and wear the blue wool shirt andflannel underwear shirt. However, the menare still wearing the blue undress cap, forthe felt campaign hats have yet to be is-sued. The Marines are armed with the Lee6mm Straight Pull Rifle and ammunitionbelt. The Cuban "guerrilla" is armed withthe same rifle and wears a U.S. Navy white

enlisted uniform, both provided by CaptBowman H. McCalla of the Dolphin.

The Marines burned the blockhouse, asignal station, and the hacienda used asthe Spanish headquarters, and destroyedthe well. One private remembered that"although we were nearly dying for adrink, our officers would not allow us totouch a drop of it. We had to wait untilthey could send some from the USS Dol-phin." At 1730, the work was completed

and the Marines had returned to their basecamp by 2000.

Q nly one Marine had been wounded.Two Cubans were killed and five

wounded. The cost to the Spanish wasconsiderable. The bodies of 68 enemysoldiers were counted near the Cuzcoplantation with an additional estimated150 Spanish wounded carried from thefield. Eighteen prisoners were also taken

from the area, including one lieutenantwho, when questioned about the actionwould only remark, "The Cubans are verybrave and the Americans shoot very fast."After the destruction of Cuzco well, allSpanish resistance ended in the area. Con-vinced of an immovable American pre-sence, the Spanish withdrew their forcesto the upper regions of the bay. The Ma-rines at Guantanamo were left undisturb-ed for the remainder of the war.Th775L11

Center Loans Groth Paintings for New York Exhibitby Maj John T Dyer Jr., USMCR (Ret)

Curator of Art

F our paintings by John Groth, of Ma-rines in Vietnam, Korea, and the Do-

minican Republic, were recently loaned bythe Marine Corps Museum for a 72-pieceretrospective showing of Groth's works atthe Art Students League of New York.

Groth, widely acknowledged as thedean of combat artists, went to Vietnamfor the Marine Corps in 1967 and pro-duced a number of drawings and water-color paintings of Marines on patrol, at-tacking Viet Cong-held hamlets, andmine-sweeping along the roads outsidethe city of Da Nang.

His most recent assignment for the Ma-rine Corps was in fulfillment of a MarineCorps Historical Foundation research grantwhich enabled him to visit and sketch atThe Basic School at Quantico, Virginia.Groth, at the time of his death, was work-ing in his New York City studio onfinished paintings based on these sketches.

T he Art Students League show includ-ed 15 works from the Depression and

pre-World War II eras, 24 based on Groth'sworld travels, 16 dealing with warfare (in-cluding the four from the Marine Corps

Museum, plus one of Marines in Vietnamloaned by the artist), and many othersfrom book-illustration projects completedby Groth.

Richard Meryman, a friend of the artist,wrote the foreword to the exhibit catalog.Meryman quotes from a conversation withGroth on a visit to the studio:

And as an artist, everything Iever dreamed of I managed toget somehow, some way. It is acrazy thing. I never wanted a car,not a house, not a boat, not a fa-mily. But in teaching I havefound a family. I am in love withevery girl in my class and I see allthe boys as sons. I never wantedtraveling for the sake of traveling.I just wanted to go, to see it, todraw it. But painting sports, Ihave gotten myself every place inthe world: an elephant race inCeylon, a kayak race in the Arc-tic, a canoe race in the Trans-Jordan. I have been able to coversix wars. There is so much I havebeen a part of—the liberation ofParis, the fall of Berlin, the link-up with the Russians at the Elbe,the battle of St. Lo, London andthe bombs — Picasso, Hemingway,a wartime studio in Paris—covering Korea, Santo Domingo,Vietnam! So much! L111775E1

28

Shortly before publication, Fortitu-dine sadly learned of the death ofJohn Groth on 27June. He was 80.

TypicalofJohn Groth's style is this illustration for the novel, All Quiet on the WesternFront. He died before finishing paintings from sketches made at The Basic School.

F1iht Lines

Douglas AD-4B Skyraiderby May Arthur F Elzy, USMC

Aviation Historian

Q n 6 July 1944, the U.S. Navy order-ed 25 aircraft, designated as the

XBT2D-1, to satisfy the need for a carrier-based dive bomber and torpedo carrier,making it the first single-seater of thiscategory to be slated for duty in WorldWar II. Its design reflected wartime ex-perience, which demonstrated the impor-tance of an airplane capable of carrying alarge and varied load of ordnance. Provi-sion had been made for the external car-riage of up to 8,000 pounds of stores on 15strong points under the wings and fuse!-

age, and the airframe was designed aroundthe huge, 2,500-horsepower WrightR-3350 engine, which possessed inherentpower growth potential. Because the warended in 1945, the redesignated BT2D(Dauntless II) did not experience combatas expected, but its variants spanned threedecades of naval service, seeing action inKorea and Vietnam.

In February 1946, the Navy's designa-tion system was changed, Douglas Aircraftwas assigned the "Sky' series of nomen-clature, and Dauntless II became the A

(for attack) D (for Douglas) "Skyraider."Thus "Able Dog" was derived from thephonetic alphabet at that time, and AD-iwas its designation in the new "attack"category. During the Vietnam War, whenthe Skyraider shared the sky with jets, itwas nicknamed the "Spad" in reference toa World War I combat plane.

The AD-4, one of many variations, wentinto production in 1949 and arrived in thefleet squadrons of the Navy and MarineCorps in 1950. It had APS-19A radar, a P-iautopilot, and other minor modificationsover its predecessor, the AD-3.

Within three days of the United Statesundertaking to back the United Nationsresolution in support of the Republic ofKorea on 30 June 1950, Skyraiders were inaction, flying from the USS Valley Forgeagainst targets in North Korea. The Ma-rine Corps had three squadrons of Skyraid-ers in Korea; VMA-25i (AD-3), VMC-1(AD-2Q), and VMA-121 (AD-2), which seta record by dropping 156 tons of bombs inone day. The Skyraider performed fourbasic missions: day attack, all-weather ornight attack, airborne early warning, andcountermeasures.

Late in 1960, surplus AD-6s were as-signed to the Republic of Vietnam AirForce under the Mutual Defense As-sistance Pact. English-speaking Viet-namese pilots were trained to fly them. ByJune 1964, the U.S. Air Force was flyingSkyraiders in-country. They had beenmodified with dual controls and fittedwith USAF-compatible radio and naviga-tional gear. Skyraiders from VA-S 2 of AirGroup Five were the first Navy Spads tosee action in Vietnam, when they flewretaliatory strikes against North Viet-namese torpedo bases. In Vietnam, theSkyraiders flew rescue, close-air-support,and forward-air-control missions.

The history card of the AD-4B on dis-play at Quantico (BuNo. 132261) indicatesits service with Marine Attack Squad-rons-332, -333, -225, and -324, and Ma-rine Wing Support Group 37 and Head-quarters and Maintenance Squadron 31.

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This AD-4B (BuNo. 132261) £c undergoing rework at the Air-GroundMuseum, Quan-tico. The incorrect VMA -121 markings were on the aircraft when it was procured

Technical Data

Manufacturer: Douglas Aircraft Company, El Segundo, California.Type: Carrier-borne attack-bomber.Accommodation: Pilot only.Power Plant: One 2,700 h.p. Wright R-3350-26W.Dimensions: Length, 38 ft., 2 in.; Height, 15 ft., Sin.; Span, 50 ft.; Wing Area,400 sq. ft.Weights: Empty, 10,546 lbs.; gross, 18,263 lbs.Performance: Maximum speed, 321 m.p.h. at 18,300 ft.; Cruising Speed, 198mph.; Initial climb, 2,800 ft/mm; Service ceiling, 32,700 ft.; Range, 915 st. miles.

Armaments: Two fixed forward-firing 20mm guns. Up to 8,000 lbs. carried ex-ternally beneath the wings and fuselage.

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Q n duty at Apra Harbor in Guam, Cpl Michael Chockie,USMC, spotted a German cutter heading for the interned

German ship Cormorant at anchor in the bay. Notifying his su-perior officer, the alert Marine was ordered to fire a shot acrossthe bow of the cutter. Immediately complying with the order,he fired the first of three shots as the enemy cutter stopped, andits crew surrendered. The date was 6 April 1917, and Cpl Chockiehad become the first American in World War I to fire at theenemy.

When Congress declared war against Germany that fatefulApril day, the strength of the Marine Corps totaled only 13,700officers and enlisted men. Of this force, four expeditionary regi-ments were deployed in the Caribbean, with the remaining Ma-rines scattered on warships and at Navy shore stations. TheMarine Corps hierarchy, led by the forceful Commandant Maj-Gen George Barnett, was nevertheless determined that the Corpswould live up to its reputation as the nation's "force in readi-ness." Spurred on by the slogan "First to Fight," Marine Corpsrecruiting offices across the nation did a brisk business, as the

Men of the 5th Marines, in ranks at right and bound for com-bat, are readied to board French Army trucks on 11 May 1918.first seven weeks of the war brought more than 30,000 eager ap-plicants to recruiters' doors.

The formal declaration of war raised the ceiling on the Corps'authorized strength. By May 1917 Congress increased the autho-rized strength of the Corps to 30,000 and, byJuly 1918, autho-rized a Marine Corps strength of 75,000. Enthusiasm for servicein the Marine Corps remained high throughout the war, andultimately, only 60,189 of the 239,274 individuals who tried toenlist would be accepted into the Corps. Large numbers of eligi-ble college students were successfully recruited to increase theranks of junior officers, as the appeals of the Marine Corps Pub-licity Bureau found a receptive audience on the nation's collegecampuses.

T he increase in size of the Marine Corps placed a concomi-tant strain upon existing facilities, and the war years result-

ed in the growth of recruiting depots and bases. Those recruitsfrom east of the Mississippi River were sent to Parris Island, SouthCarolina, while recruits from the west received their recruit train-ing at Mare Island, California.

BGen Charles A. Doyen, Commanding General of the 4th Bri-gade, marks a map before the brigade cfirst clashes in April 1918.

Part I of a Chronology, April 1917-May 1918

'Over There:' The Marine Experience in World War Iby Robert V Aquilina

Assistant Head, Reference Section

S eventy years ago this spring, American forces in Franceengaged German units in the first major confronta-

tion between the two powers in World War I. The MarineCorps would play a significant role in American partici-pation in the war and would emerge from the conflict withits prestige and popularity greatly enhanced Fortitudinewill examine that role in a three-part series, which beginswith this issue 's discussion of Marine Corps preparationfor war in the spring of 1917, and the subsequent arrivalin France of US. Marines.

Marines arriving "near the front" in 1917 are welcomed with bou-quets of flowers to the French town where they will be billeted

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Marines of the 2d Division, American Expeditionary Forces,present arms at a retreat formation he/din France in April 1918.

At either facility, recruits underwent a deliberately rigoroustraining course, involving drill, physical training, and the ob-ligatory two to three weeks of marksmanship qualification.Recruit instruction at Parris Island was of eight weeks' duration,while the course of training at Mare Island originally lasted 12weeks, but was gradually reduced to conform with Parris Island.Together the two depots handled 58,000 recruits from 6 April1917 to 11 November 1918.

Advanced and specialized training was conducted at the Corps'newly acquired base at Quantico, Virginia. The first troops ar-rived at the Marine barracks there on 18 May 1917. The Quanti-co base grew rapidly in size and complexity throughout the waras approximately 1,000 officers and 40,000 enlisted Marinespassed through its gates. The Overseas Depot at Quantico wasformed in May 1918 from the base's advanced training schools,and it was from the Depot that Marines were sent to the battle-fields of western Europe. Regular company drills and exerciseswere supplemented at the Overseas Depot with instruction intrench warfare, the use of hand grenades, bayonet exercises, andrifle and machine-gun practice. The ensuing success of Marineunits in combat was due in no small measure to the rigorouscourse of training early established at Quantico.

H eadquarters in Washington was adamant that a Marine ex-peditionary force would be among the first American

troops to set sail for France. On 29 May 1917, President WoodrowWilson directed the Secretary of the Navy to issue the necessaryorders for the sending of the 5th Marine Regiment to France.MajGen Barnett, with foresight, had already recalled overseastroops, and organized them into battalions of the 5th Marines.Four days before the President's official approval, the 1st Battal-ion was organized at Quantico, and eight companies from theWest Indies area were enroute to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania(where the regiment was assembling), to form the 2d and 3dBattalions. Officially activated 8 June 1917 at Philadelphia, theregiment was truly diverse, including pre-war officers as well asnewly appointed second lieutenants from college campuses.Among the enlisted ranks, pre-war veterans of Central Americanoperations mingled with Marines only weeks from eastern citiesand midwestern farms. The regiment set sail on 14 June 1917in the Navy transport USS Henderson, and arrived at SaintNazaire, France, on 27 June 1917.

The 6th Marine Regiment was organized at Quantico on 11July 1917. Col Albertus Catlin, commanding officer of the Ma-rine Barracks at Quantico until the arrival of BGen John A.Lejeune, was also in command of the 6th Regiment. Col Catlinimmediately put his Marines on an extensive training program.

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The regiment was represented in Washington, D.C., in the 5 Sep-tember Preparedness Parade, which was reviewed by PresidentWilson. Embarkation of the 6th Regiment for France began bymid-September, and by January 1918 the entire unit was inFrance. The 6th Machine Gun Battalion, commanded by MajEdward B. Cole, which was to serve with the 5th and 6th Regi-ments, embarked in late 1917.

On 23 October 1917, the 4th Brigade of Marines was organizedunder the command of Marine BGen Charles A. Doyen. Thebrigade consisted of the 5th and 6th Regiments, and the 6thMachine Gun Battalion. The 4th Brigade was assigned to the2d Division, American Expeditionary Forces, under the commandof MajGen Omar Bundy, USA, on 26 October 1917.

T he 4th Brigade now included some 280 officers and 9,164enlisted Marines. Throughout the winter of 1917-1918 the

brigade trained under the watchful eyes of French instructors.Gen Foch, commander-in-chief of the Allied forces, wished touse American troops to reinforce depleted units in his own bat-tered Army, and to incorporate U.S. units with understrengthFrench divisions. The Commander of the American Expedition-ary Forces, MajGen John J. Pershing, USA, resisted (with thebacking of President Wilson), and remained adamant in his de-termination that the AEF be employed as a distinct United Statesarmy.

In March 1918, the 4th Brigade was assigned a "quiet sector"southeast of Verdun in order to orient the Marines to thepeculiarities of trench warfare. Anxious to be employed in "openwarfare," the Marines soon learned the realities of cold food, rats,trench foot, and the deadliness of mustard gas. Their clashes withtheir German adversaries brought the brigade its first battlecasualties in early April 1918. In mid-May the brigade wasrelieved and rejoined 2d Division comrades northwest of Paris.The brigade also lost its commanding general, as BGen Doyenwas invalided home. His replacement was BGen James G. Hat-bord, USA, who had served as Pershing's chief of staff.

Convinced that one final, concerted push would bring the Al-lies to the negotiating table, the German High Commandlaunched a series of offensives in the spring of 1918. The thirdof these offensives saw 18 German divisions batter a tired French6th Army, and the enemy soon approached the Marne River. Seri-ous gaps developed in the Allied lines. On 30 May the 2d Divi-sion, including the 4th Marine Brigade, received orders to marchsouth to help stem the German advance. For the officers andenlisted Marines of the 4th Marine Brigade, the long monthsof training were at an end. Their mettle was about to be testedon the battlefields of Chateau-Thierry. LII11775Li

Graves for slain German foes are prepared by Marines at PostCommand Moscou, at the Verdun Front, France, on 4 April 1918.

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVYHEADQUARTERS U.S. MARINE CORPS

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20380

OFFICIAL BUSINESS

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BULK RATE

POSTAGE AND FEES PAID

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PERMIT N() G-63

Historic Uniforms' Makers Show Heightened Interestby Kenneth L Smith-Christmas

Assistant Officer in Charge,Museums Branch Activities, Quantico

T he revitalization of the historicaluniforms kit project ("Historical

Uniforms to be Available for 1988 Pag-eants," Fortitudine, Fall 1987) continuesto elicit enthusiastic responses from bothmajor commands and smaller posts andstations. Each month brings in new re-quests for kits or information on orderingthem from the manufacturer, The NewColumbia Company of Charleston, Il-linois.

Columbia makes the majority of thecloth items and coordinates the purchaseof items which are not produced in itsown factory.

Inspection of the first items to bemade — the manufacturer's samples —

were to take place in mid-spring, afterwhich the balance of the contract wouldbe filled. Already, several items havebeen informally examined for bothhistorical accuracy and durability.

weight and shade is unobtainable in thiscountry; wool from Austria has been im-ported to make the 1917 enlisted-mens'uniforms. Likewise, herringbone-twillcotton cloth in the sage-green colorwhich was used for Marine Corps "dun-garees" of the 1940s and 1950s, is nolonger made. White twill has had to bedyed to the proper shade for our uses.

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Among the requests are several fromprivate collectors and living-history en-thusiasts, who expect a high level of his-torical accuracy. To achieve this accuracy,without sacrifice in durability, close coor-dination has been maintained betweenthe Museum and New Columbia overthe winter.

1840 Shoulder-belt Plate

A bonus of the program is the renew-ed interest by various manufacturers un-der subcontract in including MarineCorps items in their historical productslines. For example, the company thatrecreates our handsome 1840 shoulder-belt plates will be offering the plates forsale to their regular customers. There issome speculation that the plates alsowould be attractive additions to theitems sold by companies and organiza-tions specializing in Marine Corps-related gifts.

A few surprises have confronted thoseinvolved in the project. It appears thatforest-green wool kersey of the correct

Weekly telephone calls with companyrepresentatives are necessary to double-check details and interpret nuances ineach uniform. Subcontracts—of whichthere are many—have been discussedand agreed upon. There are subcontrac-tors supplying everything from a singleinsignia to an entire uniform. New