Re: Truman and the Marines

[robert guertin <wanaki@infionline.net>]

Ben,

The move was indeed to disband the Corps, and integrate those assets and
personnel into the other branches. The American people had no voice in
the matter, nor did the outstanding combat record of the Corps over the
170 years of their existence. It was the exemplary battle record at the
Pusan Perimeter and the results of the Inchon landing and the Changing
Reservoir that assured the continuation of the Marine Corps, and the
legislation creating the public law that declared; "This nation shall
maintain a Corps of Marines consisting of three divisions with attached
Air Wings." MacArthur himself argued in favor of the law, and helped
assure their will always be a United States Marine Corps.
Your argument that the Corps was only to be reduced in strength ignores
the fact that the Corps had already been cut not just to the bone but to
the very marrow, and weakened to such an extent, that the first
contingent of Marines that stopped the NKPA on the west flank of the
Pusan Perimeter, and turned the tide there, were cobbled together from
active and Reserve Marines, and still could not field a complete Brigade,
but had to engage the enemy while at only two thirds their T.O. strength.
Some of the Reserve Marines had not even been to Boot Camp, but the
leadership of the reactivated WW2 Marine NCO's and Officers turned them
into "Devil Dogs" through on the job training.
One Marine that I have come to know personally, a reservist from New
Jersey,who also never went to Boot Camp, later was awarded the Medal Of
Honor on Fox Hill during the retrograde from the Chosin Res.

Robert

Robert

Ben Frank wrote:

> >They and he were in the process of disbanding the Corps when the
> >Korean War broke out and...
>
> The Marine Corps was not in the process of being disbanded. It was
> just being reduced because of reduced funding, which also affected
> the number and kinds of missions it could carry out.  As Truman and
> others quickly learned, there was no way that the American public and
> Congress were going to allow disbandment of the Corps. BMF
> --
> Benis M. Frank