Re: 1st MarDiv to Korea by back channel

[<SDonell73@aol.com>]

In a message dated 10/30/02 6:50:26 PM Pacific Standard Time, evanhoe@arbuckleonline.com writes:


> > >>Anything found abandoned was innediately claimed by us ain't that the 
> > way it supposed to work. Some of  our best times<<
>
> Do you include the M-48 tank that somehow found its way to Sojak-do?  Must 
> have been amphibious and just swam its own way to the island. <ROFL>


Ed,

I find little in these discussions that address the issue of the planned extinction of the Marine Corps by the Truman administration, as egged on by virtually every senior Army officer, and most if not all Air Force officers, who not only wanted the Marine Corps disbanded, but wanted Marine aviation assets to come under their control.
That fight has continued to this date more than 50 years after its inception.

It's curious that MacArthur, no friend to the Marines, was the one Army general who was enthusiastic about using them in his plan for an amphibian invasion to break the back of the North Korean Army which was about to push the Americans and a few allied forces off the Korean peninsula. He was the only one who appreciated the value of amphibious operations, obviously. 

Ike had been quoted as saying that it was no big deal. And Bradley, the Soldier's Soldier, commented that in the post WWII period there would never be another need for an amphibious invasion. It doesn't say much for America's military leadership at that time.

Sandy