Marine Corps

The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is a branch of the United States military responsible for providing power projection from the sea, utilizing the mobility of the U.S. Navy to rapidly deliver combined-arms task forces. more...

Home
Knives, Swords & Blades
Militaria
1700-74
1784-1860
1866-97, Indian Wars
1903-13
1919-38
1946-49
1954-60
1976-89
Civil War (1861-65)
Current Militaria (1991-Now)
Desert Storm (1990-91)
Korea (1950-53)
Militaria (Date Unknown)
Air Force
Army
Coast Guard
Marine Corps
National Guard
Navy
Other
Other Militaria
Pre-1700
Revolutionary War (1775-83)
Spanish-Amer War (1898-1902)
Surplus
Vietnam (1961-75)
WW I (1914-18)
WW II (1939-45)
Science Fiction
Tobacciana
Trading Cards
Transportation

Since the Marine Corps works alongside U.S. Naval forces, it is part of the Department of the Navy for administrative purposes.

Background

Originally organized as the Continental Marines on 10 November 1775 as naval infantry, the Marine Corps has evolved in its mission with changing military doctrine and American foreign policy. The Marine Corps has served in every American armed conflict including the Revolutionary War. It attained prominence in the 20th century when its theories and practice of amphibious warfare proved prescient and ultimately formed the cornerstone of the Pacific campaign of World War II. By the mid 20th century, the Marine Corps had become the dominant theorist of amphibious warfare. Its ability to rapidly respond to regional crises has made it, and continues to make it, an important body in the implementation and execution of American foreign policy.

The United States Marine Corps, with 180,000 active duty and 40,000 reserve Marines as of 2005, is the smallest of the United States' armed forces in the Department of Defense (the Coast Guard, about one fifth the size of the Marine Corps, is under the Department of Homeland Security). The Corps is nonetheless larger than the entire armed forces of many significant military powers; for example, it is larger than the active duty Israel Defense Forces.

Mission

The United States Marine Corps serves as an amphibious force-in-readiness. Today, it has three primary areas of responsibility as outlined in 10 U.S.C. § 5063, originally introduced under the National Security Act of 1947:

The seizure or defense of advanced naval bases and other land operations to support naval campaigns;; The development of tactics, technique, and equipment used by amphibious landing forces; and; "Such other duties as the President may direct.";

The quoted clause, while seemingly a consequence of the President's position as Commander-in-Chief, is a codification of the expeditionary duties of the Marine Corps. It derives from similar language in the Congressional Acts "For the Better Organization of the Marine Corps" of 1834, and "Establishing and Organizing a Marine Corps" of 1798. In 1951, the House of Representatives' Armed Services Committee called the clause "one of the most important statutory—and traditional—functions of the Marine Corps." It noted that the Corps has more often than not performed actions of a non-naval nature, including its famous actions in the War of 1812, at Tripoli, Chapultepec (during the Mexican-American War), numerous counter-insurgency, and occupational duties in Central America and East Asia, World War I and the Korean War. While these actions are not accurately described as support of naval campaigns nor as amphibious warfare, their common thread is that they are of an expeditionary nature, using the mobility of the Navy to provide timely intervention in foreign affairs on behalf of American interests.

Read more at Wikipedia.org