Monday - November 10, 2003

Category Image To the Marines on our Birthday


In the first world war, the Marines set the standard for all other militaries for tenacity, teamwork, and success. The Germans called us Teufelhunden, or devil dogs because they had never encountered a military force that pressed the attack so viciously in the face of very strong resistance. And this was just the beginning of the modern Marine Corps.

This is my most assuredly bigoted analysis of the US Marine Corps in comparison to the US army, with as much inter-service rivalry that I can muster.

When the army commissioned a French sculptor to make a bronze statue that personifies the American fighting man, the sculptor chose a Marine as his model. The embarrassed army gave the statue to the Marine Corps and it still stands in front of Little Hall in Quantico, Virginia.

Between the wars, the Marines set the standards for military efficiency, from the banana wars where they invented dive bombing, to their relief of the Legation in Peking. Marines defined amphibious warfare and honed the complex skills and equipment needed to land large numbers of troops where the enemy didn't want them, and this became our means of starting every campaign in the second world war, from North Africa, to Okinawa.

When WWII began Marines defending Wake Island, led by Major Devereaux became the only defenders on either side in the entire war to throw an amphibious assault back into the ocean, using only one battalion and a few airplanes. And the Japanese were thrown back twice before the unrelieved Marines finally surrendered. They would likely have succeeded a third time had they not lost communication due to a broken wire between the two halves of the island. Having lost communications with the other half of the island, Devereaux incorrectly assumed that they were over run, and so surrendered.

It was during WWII that the successes of the Marines continued to contrast with those of the army. The only time a Marine regiment has ever surrendered was when it was led by an army general, MacArthur, who abandoned them in the Philipines. Even then, they surrendered only because they ran out of food, medicine and ammunition, they were never over run. It seems that MacArthur found a way to get a submarine to smuggle him out, but never found a way to smuggle supplies in.

In Okinawa, the first time Marines commanded large army units, an army commander had to be relieved because his progress was too slow compared to his Marine peers.

In Korea, despite the reluctance of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Marine Corps formed a full strength division using troops it scavenged from bases across the country and equipment that it had recovered from WWII that the army abandoned. The Marines were appalled at the army's waste at the end of the war and had the foresight to collect it all and refurbish it to acquire first rate equipment at a bargain.

The army, driven into a pocket at Pusan, barely avoided anihilation. The First Marine Brigade, hastily formed and deployed on very short notice, was divided up and inserted between the army units, to keep them from collapsing completely. The First Marine Division then landed in Inchon, and drove across the peninsula so fast that they reached the other side before the western amphibious assault forces could land. They swept away the same enemy that had sent the US army cowering in Pusan.

In the offensive heading north to the Yalu River, the Marines outpaced the army, and when the Chinese attacked, they sent one Chinese division to attack each army division, yet sent nine to attack the First Marine Division. With the army retreating head over heels, the Marines were forced to pull back, fighting those nine divisions and bringing all their men and equipment with them. Their feat will forever be lauded as one of the finest withdrawals ever conducted under fierce attack, and it included the innovation of air dropping a bridge. Here, more than anywhere else, the Marines proved the theory that all Marines are riflemen, which the army is only now beginning to understand.

In Viet Nam, while the army was flailing, the Marines were famous for their brilliant successes at Khe Sanh, the A Shau Valley, Hue City, etc. The army had some successes, but I'm biased enough to say that the Marines shone in comparison.

After Viet Nam, the Marines were everywhere, and had one notable disaster in Lebanon, but the difference between the army and the Marines came into starkest contrast in Somalia. The Marines did their last amphibious assault using conventional landing craft, and were met by camera crews, just like in Wonsan in Korea thirty years earlier. The Marines regrettably were "meals on wheels" and delivered food to starving villages, but yet performed brilliantly. Their mission was so well executed that it was only the subsequent army bungling that demonstrated their brilliance. During their entire deployment, the Marines remained scrupulously neutral towards all sides in the civil war being waged, and the warring factions stepped aside while the Marines delivered the food in armed convoys. The Marines then did an amphibious withdrawal, leaving the continent.

It was only after this withdrawal that President Clinton, for reasons I can't comprehend, sent in the army special forces and tried to disarm the forces that were most legitimate and most loyal to us in the civil war. People remember Somalia for the army's incompetence, and forget the Marines brilliance only a few months earlier.

Now, in the second Iraq War, the Marines have again displayed their military superiority to all other forces on this Earth. Unlike the incompetence of some army units, no Marine convoys got lost and took a wrong turn into a hostile city. No Marines were captured because they didn't keep their weapons clean and lubricated. All Marines are riflemen and they performed with their customary brilliance. Areas where Marines are now occupying are largely pacified, while wherever the army is, they experience frequent attacks and deaths. The army likes to point out that they occupy the Sunni Triangle, but the Shiite areas were initially very hostile as well, but were pacified by the Marines using creativity in working with the Iraqis and ruthlessness in attacking our enemies.

There are some fine people that have been and are in the army. People are people, and those in the army are no different than those in the Marine Corps. The only difference is how they think as an institution. It's true that much of the Marine Corps' mission is redundant to the army's mission. But the institution of the Marine Corps is unparalleled in the history of mankind, and their ability to perform superbly in all conditions is the best reason to keep them on.

Happy Birthday, Marines, and Semper fidelis.

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