BETWEEN WARS 47 - United States Marine Corps of... · BETWEEN WARS 47 "Jiggs," the Corps' bulldog mascot purchased by Smed-iey Butler at Quantico in 1921, became known far and wide

BETWEEN WARS 47

"Jiggs," the Corps' bulldog mascot purchased by Smed-iey Butler at Quantico in 1921, became known far andwide as the athletic teams were called "Fighting Bull-dogs." (Quantico Photo 012—3225—3—75).

robberies and interference with mail distribution.Losses due to mail theft amounted to millions ofdollars that year. On 7 NovenTher 1921, the Presi-dent told the Secretary of the Navy to provideenough Marines to protect the mails, and 53officers and 2,200 enlisted Marines from Quan-tico's 5th Regiment hurried off. The actual orderto send Marines was dated 10 November—theanniversary of the Corps' birthday. The Marineswere used to guard mail distribution centers, postoffices, and mail trains. General Vandegrift re-called: "We armed our people with .45 automaticpistols, 12-gauge riot shotguns, and Thompsonsubmachine guns. We publicized both their arma-ment and Butler's personal orders, "Come backwith your shields or upon them." By March1922 the situation had improved so dramaticallythat the Marines were allowed to return home.

Airfields No. 1 and 2 were officially dedicatedas "Brown Field" in May 1922 in memory ofSecond Lieutenant Walter V. Brown, the footballstar who was killed in an airplane crash in Junethe preceding year. At the same time, a causewayacross Chopawamsic Creek and adjacent swampswas named after Captain John A. Minnis who hadbeen killed in September 1921 during a nightflying exercise off Shipping Point. Apparently,Minnis was trying to avoid a searchlight beamand flew too low, crashing into the Quantico Creekbank. The area crossed by the Minnis causewaywas later to be filled in and become a more ex-tensive, modern airfield.35

General Butler's summer maneuvers for 1922took place at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. About4,000 Quantico Marines participated in the annualdrama, complete with a platoon of light tanks andheavy artillery. Quantico's 1st Aviation Group, asit was called then, took part in the maneuverswith three Martin bombers, six De Havillandl)H.4s, six Vought VE-7s, and observation bal-loons.

On the way to Gettysburg, Butler marched hisMarines through Washington, D. C., where theywere reviewed by President Harding from thesouth portico of the White House. Harding alsomade the trip to Gettysburg and, along withthousands of Civil War buffs from all over theEast Coast, he witnessed the Marines reenact thefamous Pickett charge. The Marines' camp atGettysburg was named, "Camp Harding."

Although the Marines played Civil War gamesto draw favorable publicity and attention, theyalso executed modern attacks over the Gettysburgterrain and learned much concerning coordinatedstaff work and modern tactics. Most of theMarines came from the 10th Regiment.36

A student officers' Basic Course was convenedduring 1922 after plans had been laid two yearsearlier. The first class consisted of 17 new secondlieutenants and 11 Marine gunners (warrant of-ficers) and was designed to train young officersto be infantry leaders as well as to be proficientin all the myriad duties of Marine lieutenants.

The 1st Regiment left Quantico in late 1922for Santo Domingo. Units of the 1st were dis-banded piecemeal over the next two years as con-dition.s permitted, and its personnel were absorbedby other units or returned to Quantico.37

By late fall of 1922 Quantico's new militaryschools were in full swing. The Field OfficersSchool had 21 students, 40 company grade officerswere enrolled in the Company Officers Course,and 22 students were in the Basic Course. At the

48 QUANTICO: CROSSROADS OF THE MARINE CORPS

Dedication ceremonies of Brown Field at Quantico, May 1922. The two markers were in memory of Captain John A.Minnis and Lieutenant Walter V. Brown. The markers were removed later to make way for the new channel of the Chop-awasmic Creek. (USMC Photo 516005).

end of the year, amphibious landings were stagedat Culebra and Guantanamo Bay by small unitsfrom Quantico.8

Quantico received four more torpedo planesfrom the Navy in April 1923. These aircraft wereflown to Quantico from California in 11 days. Allarrived safely and on the same day after one ofthe longest air delivery projects on record. Theachievement was hailed as one of the most note.worthy accomplishments by American aviators.39

During the summer months General Butler ledhis Marines to the Shenandoah Valley of Vir.ginia for training exercises which culminated ina reenactment of the Civil War battle of NewM.arke. Cadets of Virginia Military Institute tookthe part of Confederate troops, as did their prede-cessors of the 1860s, while the Marines playedthe part of Union troops—who lost the battle. Thetrip there was on foot; it took 30 days, 28 daysof which were through heavy rain.40

Landing exercises were held in Panama andoff Cape Cod, Massachusetts, by battalion.sizedorganizations from. Quantico during the fall of1923.41

In the Commandant's report to the Secretaryof the Navy submitted after the close of the fiscalyear ending 30 June 1923, he indicated thatQ uantico housed the headquarters and auxillarytroops of the 4th Brigade, the 5th Regiment (in-fantry), part of the 6th Regiment (infantry), the10th Regiment (artillery), and assorted support-ing units of engineers, signal troops, and gas de-fense personneL

The Commandant pointed out that much con-struction at Quantico had been completed duringthe preceding fiscal year. Concrete foundationshad been placed under all the temporary woodenbarracks left over from World War I, and henoted that many would have to be replaced verysoon. Officers' quarters had been built fromthese temporary barracks when they became ex-cess following postwar reductions in force, andother materials had been obtained from dis-mantled buildings from the Naval Base, HamptonRoads, Virginia. Expense to the taxpayers forthis work, the Commandant said, was kept to aminimum through the use of salvaged materialsand Marine labor.

BETWEEN WARS 49

Quantico Marines went to Culebra during fleet maneuvers in 1924. Landing exercises in Virginia and in the Caribbeantested the amphibious war/are doctrine and techniques developed at Quantico. (USMC Photo 515096).

Up in Washington, the Marine Corps was stilllobbying to make the offensive amphibious war-fare concept a reality, and to ensure the perman-ence of the Advanced Base Force or a similarorganization. Lejeune told the Navy's GeneralBoard in February 1922 that there were tre-mendous advantages to be realized by having ahighly mobile Marine Corps force that could con-duct offensive land operations against a hostilenaval base, and he strongly urged that there besufficient personnel and equipment maintained incomplete readiness for such a venture. Such forceswere to be located on the East Coast and theWest Coast as nuclei for whatever Marine Corpsorganizations would be necessary to ensure suc-cess of a naval expedition.42

Stemming from these discussions and recom-mendations submitted from within the Corps dur-ing 1922, the title, "Advanced Base Force," wasdropped in 1923 in favor of "Marine Corps Ex-peditionary Force," a less restrictive title moreconsistent with what the Corps had been doingsince before the Spanish American War, and cer-

tainly more in keeping with what the Corpsforesaw as necessary.

The term "Expeditionary Force" applied to allMarine units—permanent or temporary—whichwere available for duty with the Fleet. Quantico'sportion became the East Coast ExpeditionaryForce and the San Diego group, formally addedin 1925, became the West Coast ExpeditionaryForce.43

On 5 January 1924 Smedley Butler left Quan.tico on a leave of absence from the Marine Corpsto become the Public Safety Director for Phila-delphia.

Summer maneuvers in 1924 were held in thevicinity of Sharpsburg, Maryland, where morethan 3,000 Marines from Quantico conductedfield exercises and wrapped up their training withthe staging of the Civil War battle of Antietamwith a few modern embellishments. On the wayhome, the reinforced brigade marched throughWashington, D.C., where it was reviewed by Presi-dent Calvin Coolidge.


Also in 1924 the Basic School at Quantico com-pleted a move to the Marine Barracks!, Navy Yard,Philadelphia, due to the shortage of suitable class-rooms and officers' billeting at Quantico. At Phila-delphia the school trained about 30 students peryear in courses varying from three to 11 monthslong, but averaging six, depending on the de-mands of expeditionary duty. The Basic Schooltechnically remained a part of Marine CorpsSchools at Quantico, although it operated prettymuch on its own. Three years later, this situationwas remedied, and although the school remainedphysically separate, it was firmly under Quanticocontrol.

By the end of 1924 Quantico had 14 full-timeinstructors in its schools; five in administration,four in tactics, two in law, and three intopography.

On the other side of the world, 1924 was anespecially active one for Marines in the Pacific.Since August 1920, Marines from Pacific stations

and the Asiatic Fleet had been landing bit-by-bitin China to reinforce legation detachments andprotect American nationals while Chinese war-lords fought each other for control of northernChina. Two years after the first landings, abattalion had been organized from fleet Marinedetachments and landed at Tientsin. In August1924, the 4th Regiment was pulled out of SantoDomingo, Dominican Republic, and returned toSan Diego in anticipation of a need in China.

Although no major units left Quantico forChina duty, numerous small units and individualreplacements were sent to the Pacific to beef upunits in China and to replace Marines pulled offother Pacific duty.

Two landing exercises involving reinforcedregiments were held at Culebra and Panama dur-ing 1924. In the Caribbean in 1924 the 1st AirSquadron left the Dominican Republic in Julyand returned to Quantico. By 18 Septemberthe last Marines had left Santo Domingo and

Twice during the 192Os, Quantico Marines answered the President's call to gnard the U.S. mails against theft, (Quan-tico Photo 012—1150—4—75).

BETWEEN WARS 51

come hack to Quantico, leaving the security of therepublic in the hands of a Marine-trained policeforce.

As Marines rotated hack from the Caribbean,Quantico collected, evaluated, and studied thedata produced by experiences in the field. Avariety of manuals and textbooks were producedconcerning operations against insurgents andwere distributed throughout the Corps. The firstof these, produced in 1922, The Strategy andTactics of Small Wars, laid the groundwork forlater counterinsurgency operations by Marines.This book was expanded and revised to becomeSmall Wars Operations, a Quantico textbookin 1935. By 1940 an updated version, SmallWars Manual, was put out by the GovernmentPrinting Office.45

The 1st Regiment was reorganized again duringMarch 1925 and later that year Marines fromQuantico had a grand opportunity to put theirclassroom work and amphibious warfare lessonsto practical test. Joint Army and Navy trainingexercises were held off Oahu, Hawaii, in Marchand April 1925. About 1,500 Marines—half ofthem from Quantico—took part in this first hugeexercise and simulated a 42,000-man landing force.The staff for this Marine Corps Expeditionary

Force consisted of staff and students from theField Officers School at Quantico which had sus-pended classes for this far more realistic classroomin the field."

The main unit from Quantico was the 692-man1st Provisional Battalion of the 10th Regiment,which had trained for a week near San Diegobefore embarking for Hawaii with infantry unitsfrom the West Coast.

From the Corps' point of view, the exercises inthe Pacific dramatically pointed up the need forspecial landing boats to move Marines and theirequipment from ship to shore, and the need formore extensive classroom work to perfect thisvery complex maneuver. There was still very muchto learn. The Commandant of the Marine Corpsordered the schools at Quantico to include morecomprehensive instruction on amphibious opera-tions in both the field grade and company gradeofficers schools at Quantico.47

In 1925 only about a half dozen hours of in-struction at each of the schools were devoted tolanding operations. After the Hawaii exercisesand the Commandant's directive, this block of in-struction increased almost tenfold by the follow-ing year. For the 1927—1928 school year massiverevisions of the curriculum were implemented

The town of Quantico as seen from an aircraft over the Potomac River on 25 May 1925. The USS Henderson is

docked at the pier. The ship is named after Archibald Henderson, 5th Commandant of the Marine Corps. Visible in theupper left of the photograph is the Post Headquarters. (USMC Photo 515892).


and the courses were greatly expanded. Thatportion devoted to amphibious operations wasalmost tripled over that in the 1926 school year,and experts from other military services were in-vited to address the Marine students.

To expand the audience of the expandingMarine Corps schools, correspondence courseswere added in 1926 that essentially paralleledthe resident instruction and were opened to bothregular and reserve Marine officers as well assenior enlisted men. Courses such as "InfantryBasic," "The Infantry Company," and "InfantryAdvanced," were popular. Special courses weredevised as the need arose or commanders askedfor them, for example, "The Tenth RegimentArtillery Course." In those days, the number ofstudenas enrolled in correspondence courses aver-aged about 400 per year.

Aerial observation courses were inaugurated atQuantico during mid-1926 in response to theneeds of Marines fighting in the Caribbean. Asdive-bombing and other aviation support ofground troops techniques were coming to lightthrough experimentation in the Caribbean, thedevelopments were fed back to Quantico wherethey were incorporated into the schools and fieldtraining problems. Marine aviators conducted twoextensive courses at the School of Aerial Observa-tion at Quantico during 1926, and students workeddirectly with the 5th Regiment to perfect air-ground coordination. As procedures were refined,they were given back to the Marines in the Carib-bean for further test and use in a complete cycleof integrating field experience with classroom andfield training.

On 1 September 1926 Quantico's First Avia-tion Group was renamed Aircraft Squadrons, EastCoast Expeditionary Force.48

President Calvin Coolidge called out theMarines again on 20 October 1926 to protectthe U.S. Mail from a resurgence of robberies.Some 2,500 Quantico Marines were among thosedispatched to guard distribution points and mailtrains. The troops came primarily from the 5thand 10th Regiments. By the end of the year, thesituation had returned pretty much to normal andthe Marines were relieved from postal duty to getprepared for more expeditionary duty. AllMarines were off postal duty by 20 February1927. This time, Marines were needed in Chinaand in Nicaragua.

In China the situation that erupted in 1920grew progressively worse and American diplo-matic missions and the large international settle-ment were threatened by Chinese warlords. On

9 February 1927, Marines from the Asiatic Fleetlanded and on the 16th of the following monththe 4th Marine Regiment landed at Shanghai. Butstill more Marines were needed and less than twomonths later the 6th Regiment unloaded at Shang-hai to join the 4th Regiment as the 3d Bi-igade.General Smedley Butler left his post as Philadel-phia's Public Safety Director to command thisbrigade.

Trouble in the Caribbean was in Nicaragua andthe first large Marine unit that landed there inearly 1927 was a battalion of Quantico's 5thRegiment which had been rushed over fromGuantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Cuba's constitution after the Spanish.AmericanWar was accepted by Cuba and the United Statesin June 1901, and a provision provided for aU.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay. SmallMarine units remained at the base which servedprimarily as a training area for Caribbean forces.

The number of Marines at Guantanamo Bayfluctuated over the years as the force was builtup and then reduced according to the unrest andinsurgencies in Cuba and the anticipated needfor intervention by U.S. forces, or the need forincreased protection of the naval base.4°

Beginning in March 1926, battalions of the 5thRegiment had been going to Guantanamo Bay forfive months at a time for training. It was one ofthese battalions that was called when trouble brokeout in Nicaragua.

When the president of Nicaragua resigned inlate 1909, the United States refused to recognizehis successor because of his anti.American senti-ments and activities. In 1910 American troopslanded to prevent a government victory over itsopposition and the revolution succeeded. Whena new civil war broke out in 1912, Marines fromPanama landed to support the new president,Diaz. For a number of years Marines kept thegovernment in power and maintained an uneasypeace. By August 1925 things seemed peacefulenough and Marines were pulled out.

Another revolution broke out and with the aidof 2,000 Marines landed during January—March1927, Diaz returned as a compromise presidentand things were put back in order. Marines sup-ported the government during numerous laterrevolts instigated by a revolutionary leader namedSandino. Finally, an acceptable new president wasinaugurated in 1933 and the Marines left forgood. Compromises were made with opposingfactions and order was maintained by a Marine-trained National Guard. The last Marines wereout of Nicaragua by 2 January 1933.°

BETWEEN WARS 53

Marines of the 5th Regiment hoard the USS Henderson for Nicaragua in February 1927. (USMC Photo 529003).

Q uantico's aviation units were involved in the1927 expeditionary service. Two observationsquadrons were trained and readied at Quanticoduring the early part of the year, and one, con-sisting of six aircraft, was shipped to China inMarch in less than three days after the word togo was received. In May a squadron of aboutthe same size was sent to Nicaragua with onlya day-and-a-half advance warning.

During the campaigns in Nicaragua FirstLieutenant Christian F. Schilt earned the Medalof Honor for his determined support of groundtroops, flying in desperately needed supplies andtaking out wounded Marines while under heavyenemy fire. His actions and those of many othercourageous Marine aviators laid the groundworkfor the air-ground teamwork that evolved into theMarine doctrine of close air support.

As one group of Marine aviators flew in theCaribbean wars, others from Quantico became

famous by taking part in countless air shows,flying demonstrations, and aircraft races in theUnited States and Canada.

The 11th Regiment was organized again inMay 1927 for duty in Nicaragua where it serveduntil September and was disbanded. In March1928 it was formed again for Nicaraguan serviceand served until the end of Aug&st 1929, whenit was disbanded while en route to Quantico. The6th Regiment, disbanded at Quantico in October1925, was formed again in March 1927 as unitsleft for China or the Caribbean. It was disbandedagain the end of March 1929.

While activity in the Caribbean was at a peakin 1927 and activity at Quantico slowed to sup-port the "banana wars," the Marine Corps' offen-sive role in amphibious warfare as discussed inthe Navy's Orange Plan, a restatement of MajorEllis' Pacific operation plan, was elaborated inJoint Action of the Army and Navy. Issued by


the Joint Board, this publication defined the re-sponsibilities of the services in joint operations.The functions assigned to the Marine Corps con-firmed the responsibilities in the Orange Planand directed that the Corps be prepared for "...land operations in support of the Fleet for theinitial seizure and defense of advanced bases andfor such limited auxiliary land operations as areessential to the prosecution of the naval cam-paign." ' The board also said that, ". . . Marinesorganized as landing forces perform the samefunction as . . . the Army, and because of theconstant association with naval units will be givenspecial training in the conduct of landing opera-tions." 52 The offensive amphibious mission ofthe Marine Corps had been confirmed.

Immediately after World War I with the reduc-tion in Marine strength, the town of Quantico re-turned to its prewar occupations of selling timberand railroad ties, commercial fishing, arid ship.ping. There was also sulphur mining nearby thatthe town took advantage of. In the early 1920sas the Advanced Base Force and then the East

Coast Expeditionary Force made their home atQuantico, the town was revitalized and numerousbusinesses were established to serve the Marinegarrison.

The town of Quantico was established in late1927 and was officially incorporated on the firstday of 1928. A mayor and town council wereelected, and the population of the town was about1,000—including Marines who lived there. Duringthe 1920s and 1930s, the town's progress closelyfollowed that of the neighboring Marine base. TheMarines quickly became the town's major busi-ness, and Quantico came to be known as the"town that cannot grow," surrounded on threesides by Marines and on the fourth by thePotomac River. Travel writers of the period des-cribed Quantico as "a little town . . . stretchingout from the railroad station, (with) neon-festooned restaurants, little hotels and other struc-tures."

Others used these words to describe the sur-rounding area: "Great arterial highways werepaved and widened for trucks and cars that dashed

Marines returning Jrom Nicaragua in 1933 march up Potomac Avenue. Wailer Hall is visible on the hill. (LeatherneckMagazine).

BETWEEN WARS 55

through the coimty on north-south and east-westjourneys. Service stations in flamboyant colorsand neon-decorated eating places rose overnightto contrast with the peaceful charm of a country-side redolent of bygone days."

Among the many improvements at the baseitself in the years after World War I were a newrifle range, a new machinegun range, paradegrounds, officers' quarters, and, completed in the1930s, an officers' club. Much of the improve-ment work, renovations, and repairs were doneby Marines themselves.

Since Quantico's founding, cOntinuous effortshad been made to obtain appropriations for theconstruction of permanent buildings to replace thehastily-built World War structures. The buildingsthrown up during the war were only temporaryand were not expected to last more than a coupleof years.

In his annual report to the Secretary of theNavy, the Commandant said in mid-1924:

The housing situation - - - is in urgent need ofremedy. The barracks and many other buildings areof wartime construction and have reached the stageof deterioration where they are practically hyondrepair. The labor of the Marine garrison has heenutilized to the greatest extent possihle, without in-terference with the necessary training, in performingmaintenance work and certain new construction whichhas been urgently required. The results have beenparticularly gratifying, both as to the amount ofwork performed and to the extraordinary low cost ofperforming this work. It is believed, however, thatunless appropriations are available to assist in thework of new construction that the task of keepingthe post in suitable condition will exceed the capa-city for accomplishment which the Marines of thispost have demonstrated.M

Although Marine Corps leaders tried long andhard to interest Congress in maintaining the base,the government economy waves that swept the na-tion following World War I left Quantico at theend of a long pipeline of funds. Coupled with thelack of money was the reduced strength at Quan-tico which made maintenance and renovationeven more difficult. Reports indicate that weedsran wild in spots, duck-board walks were rottingand some little used buildings were falling apart.55

Finally, the 69th Congress authorized the Secre-tary of the Navy to begin construction of per-manent structures at Quantico. This act, approvedby President Coolidge on 15 February 1927gave the Navy permission to replace a numberof temporary structures of World War vintage.The building plans called for enough barracksfor a regiment, three storehouses, a commissary,bakery, cold storage plant, ice plant, disciplinary

barracks, motor transport garage and repair shop,power plant with equipment, apartment houses forofficers, sidewalks, landscaping, and an electricaldistribution system. Appropriations came to over$2,200,000.

Another $1,650,000 was made available for con-struction in late December 1927, and by that timeconstruction of the buildings was well underwaywith some of the smaller ones already completed.The first major permanent buildings—three largebrick barracks facing Barnett Avenue, were com-pleted in 1929.

During 1928 the professional schools at Quan-tico were almost closed down because of the per-sonnel needs of the force in the Caribbean. ManyQuantico instructors were shipped out to meet theneed for experienced officers in Nicaragua.

The move of Quantico Marines to the Carib-bean on more expeditionary duty included anobservation squadron tasked with support of theground troops in Nicaragua and Haiti.

For many years Haiti had been having diffi-culty maintaining a stable, solvent government,and keeping the opposition in line. UnitedStates concern with Haiti was partly economic,but there was also a fear before and during WorldWar I that Germany might try to build up in-fluence in Haiti and perhaps even acquire ter-ritory. In July 1915 a Haitian mob murdered thepresident because of his massacre of politicalprisoners, and chaos reigned. U.S. Marines im-mediately intervened to restore order, a new presi-dent was elected, and a treaty was imposed. Thetreaty allowed the United States to train a localconstabulary, and a brigade of Marines remainedto do the job.

Marines were involved in suppressing revoltsduring the early years of the treaty, and in 1922Brigadier General John H. Russell was appointedU.S. High Commissioner. Under Russell, con-ditions improved, education was formalized, pub-lic works were built, and stability returned. By1931 the state of martial law established byMarines in 1915 was finally lifted. In 1930 anAmerican civilian commissioner had been ap-pointed.

A treaty was finally worked out in 1933 thatwas agreeable to all parties and the Marines werewithdrawn in August 1934. The Marine-trainedconstabulary maintained order from that pointon.57

In 1929 the 11th Regiment was disbandedwhile en route to Quantico from Nicaragua, andthe 3d Brigade was disbanded in China.


By April 1929 new construction was beginning to replace the wooden barracks. (USMC Photo 531598).

General Butler returned to Quantico to takecommand in July 1929, after his tour as bri-gade commander in North China. Butler waspromoted to major general upon his return and,at age 42, was the youngest major general everto have served in the Marine Corps to that point.58Butler took up where he had left off several yearsearlier, pushing varsity sports of football, base-ball, and basketball, putting the "QuanticoMarines" in the big leagues throughout the EastCoast. As before, Quantico teams competed withthe best the area had to offer. The football teamhad slacked off a bit during Butler's absence,and upon his return he set the players buildingthe team back to the status it once had.

The possibly apochryphal story goes that whenthe team was up to Butler's standards, he inviteda Navy team to play his Marines in the partiallycompleted stadium. In October 1928 Bufler and

his officers watched the Marine team get trampledby the Navy to a score of 42-0 at the end of thefirst half. As Butler fumed, the Navy Band played"Anchors Aweigh" as part of half.time cere-monies, and the Navy Drum, Major proceeded tokick the Marines' mascot, Sergeant Jiggs, downthe field. Butler raged, and when the spectaclereached the 50.yard line, he stood up, pointed tothe Navy side of the stadium, and screamed,"Chaaarrrge!" The angry Marines poured out ofthe stands and a good old fashioned riot brokeout. Fortunately, the Navy Band quickly struckup the "National Anthem," and the rioters stoodat attention. The story says that it took 16choruses before order was finally restored. EvenGeneral Butler took part in the fight, ending upwith a split lip.

The Marines lost the game and Butler re-

portedly got a telegram from a high official in

BETWEEN WARS 57

Major General Smedley D. Butler leads a cheer at afootball game at Franklin Field, Philadelphia, on Armis-tice Day, 11 November 1930. The Quantico team wasplaying an American Legion team. (USMC Photo307658).

Washington asking him to immediately deempha-size football and other body contact sports. Toa friend, Butler responded with a typical, "Itwas almost worth it, watching a squad of chargingMarines in action."

Butler became a "spit-and-polish" general, earn-ing the nickname, "Old Gimlet Eye," for hislegendary ease in noting inspection discrepanciesfrom incredible distances and even in the dark.He decided to make Quantico the showplace ofthe Marine Corps, and built a tradition of pre-cision drills, parades, immaculate roads, andgrounds.

As part of this cleanup effort, Butler gave thetown of Quantico his close attention and cleanedup the prohibition bootleggers and other nefariousactivities that frequently spring up in the vicinityof military bases. Butler explained:

Thn little town of Quantico had been loadingup my Marines with bootleg poison. Before I cameat least 70 men were in the brig for drunkennessevery pay day. I boycotted the town, and the mer-chants drove out the bootleggers in double quicktime. They didn't want to lose the Marines as cus-tomers, their chief source of revenue. When the townwas dried up, I led a parade down the main street,with our bands playing. Legitimate business wasbriskly resumed."

Polo in the Corps had long been a popularsport, but before 1929 there had been no organ-ized Marine team in the United States. In Julyof that year a group of polo enthusiasts, veteransof the playing fields of China and Haiti, organizedthe Marine Corps Riding and Polo Association atQuantico. The polo teams did not reach theprominence of football and baseball at Quantico,but they did meet a variety of other service teamsaround the area during the 1930s. The pages ofthe Quantico Senlry newspaper from 1935 ondepict polo as a very popular sport among Quan-tico's officers.

In 1929 Butler initiated another unique Quan-tico tradition by appointing Mrs. Katherine"Mother" De Boo the Official Hostess for the com-mand. Mrs. De Boo, wife of Sergeant MajorMichael De Boo, had come to Quantico in 1925.

Her home on base quickly became a cordial,friendly haven for hundreds of Quantico enlistedMarines who needed help, understanding, or justa motherly woman to talk to. Her smile and warminterest in Marines earned her the honorary name,"Mother," and she represented friendliness andsecurity for young men away from home.

On every Mother's Day, sie would receiveflowers, gifts, and messages from Marines all overthe world. Mrs. De Boo also was known for intro-ducing lonely young Marines to equally lonelyyoung women in the northern Virginia area, andshe is credited with laying the groundwork formany happy, lasting marriages.

In the summer of 1929 General Butler calledon Mother De Boo for a major assignment onbehalf of the command. Traditional friendshipbetween Quantico Marines and the citizens ofBaltimore, Maryland, had flourished through theexchange of sporting events. A friendly rivalrygrew over the years, but the city and Quanticoalso shared much friendship and good will.

To repay Baltimore for its many gestures ofcourtesy, Quantico had invited a delegation ofdistinguished visitors to tour Quantico duringthe summer of 1929, to dine with Marines, and beentertained in high style. As most of the visitorswere women, General Butler asked Mother De Booto be their escort and he appointed her the officialMarine Corps hostess for Quantico.

From that day forward, Mrs. De Boo served asQ uantico's hostess in a wide variety of functions.She welcomed visiting parents, chaperoned girls,participated in weddings, arranged dinners, wit-nessed baptisms and, in times of sorrow, becamean understanding and sympathetic friend.


Wherever Quantico Marines went, Mother DeBoo was with them, She went with the Marinesto the New York World's Fair and was askedto review the parading Marines from Quantico,and was the honored guest at a special dinner.

When the Quantico Marines played the Ameri-can Legion football team in Philadelphia in 1930,Mother De Boo served as hostess along with Mrs.Smedley Butler. The story goes that as the twoladies were standing in a crowded hotel lobbywhere the Marine contingent was quartered, thedoorman stared at Mrs. De Boo each time aMarine passed her and greeted her as "Mother."Finally, the doorman turned to her and asked,"Lady, are all these men your boys?" MotherDe Boo proudly replied that they were. Theastonished attendant gasped, "What a remarkablewoman!"

"Mother" was a source of consolation and goodadvice to Marines. She was described as beingas tender as a mother with a baby, yet she ap-parently also could be as caustically critical as atough first sergeant. Mrs. De Boo was knownnationally as word of her efforts on behalf ofMarines spread. Leading stars of the screen andtheater paid her tribute. Olsen and Johnson,Kate Smith, Kay Kyser, Bob Hope, Rubinoff,

and many others saluted her in song and onprograms.

In the fall of 1941 she made a trip to theWest Coast to visit the Marines there and posedfor photographs with Dorothy Lamour, JimmyLyden, and Freddie Bartholemew. On ChristmasEve 1941 she participated in a national radiobroadcast about Christmas in a Marine noncom-missioned officer's home. She extended Christmasgreetings over the airwaves to Marines every.where, wishing cheer to "the fightinest men inthe world."

During her final illness in the hospital at Quan.tico, she spent most of her time helping Marinepatients write letters, greeting visiting parents,listening to young men's troubles, and helpingout wherever she could. As word of her illnessspread throughout the Corps, thousands of cards,calls, messages, letters, and bouquets of flowersflowed in from Marines throughout the world. Along procession of daily visitors paid tribute toher.

During this last illness she recorded a radiomessage to be broadcast to Marines fighting inthe Pacific. Marines who fought on Guadalcanallater wrote back that they had heard her messagewhile on the island.

"Mother" DeBoo and the cast oJ the Bob Hope Show visit Private Philip Hughes. USMC, at the U.S. Naval Hospital,Quantico, on 6 November 1942. From left: Jerry Colonna; Bob Hope: Pvt Hughes; Frances Langford; Mrs. Mary E. Fen-ton, a Quansico "Grey Lady" who arranged the visit; Mrs. Clarence Hughes, mother of the patient; and "Mother" DeBoo.(Photo courtesy of Mrs. Mary F. Fenton, USMC Photo 529537).

BETWEEN WARS 59

By 1935 the construct ion of Turner Field on a land fill had begun to take on its final shape, while active aviationunits operated south of the rerouted Chopawamsic on Brown Field No. 2 (Quantico Photo 6—28—35).

Mrs. Katherine "Mother" De Boo died at Quan.tico in April 1943 at the age of 65.61

In 1930, flying activity continued at a highpace with reserve officer training, night flying,cross-country flying, and aircraft support oftroops in training. Despite all this activity, how-ever, Quantico's squadrons were not in the bestpossible shape. On 25 July 1930, Smedley Butlerdashed off a letter to the Commandant of the corpsinviting attention to the shortage of airplanes. infact, Butler said, one squadron was short twoaircraft, another's planes were all obsolete, andthe third squadron had only one aircraft suitablefor anything other than spraying mosquitoes.62

As activity increased and aircraft became larger,faster, and heavier, it soon became obvious thatthe existing Brown Field runways were inade-quate. Work began in 1930 on a new airstrip near

the mouth of Chopawamsic Creek. The old No. 1Field was a single, cross-wind runway borderedby hazardous trees, hills, a swamp, powerlines,and a railroad. Much of the existing field east ofthe railroad tracks had to be cut away as fill dirt,and the creek channel was rerouted. Consider-able dredging was necessary and the marshlandbetween present Air Station headquarters andwhat later became Larson Gymnasium had to befilled in to make the new airfield. Hangars alongold Brown Field No. 1 were taken apart and car-ried piece by piece to the west side of the railroadtracks where Field No. 2 was located.63

The challenge of building an airfield out ofcreeks and swamps was not easily overcome.Brigadier General Edward C. Dyer, a Quanticoaviator at the time, recalled some of the problems:

60 QUANTLCO: CROSSROADS OF THE MARINE CORPS

The Potomac River served for the simulated combatlandings of the advance base exercises held at Quanticoin the lQ2Os to put theory into practice. (Quantico Photo012—1150—5—75).

They had trouble filling in the place and makingthe proper foundations for the hangars, and thiswas to plague us years later, when the concreteramps fell through when we had heavier equip-ment . . - they put down piling after piling afterpiling as a foundation for the hangars. They put thesepilings down and they just disappeared in the mud.I know one night as I understand it a bulldozer wasleft out in the field and it disappeared overnight.Just vanished.'4

In August 1930, Brigadier General RandolphC. Berkeley, the first general officer to headQ uantico's schools, came to Quantico and setabout the task of formalizing embryo MarineCorps amphibious operations doctrine. The ap-pointment of a general officer to direct MarineCorps Schools was significant in that it demon-strated the importance placed on the professionaleducation system by the Coimnandant of theCorps.

Berkeley formed a special committee underColonel Charles F. B. Price, consisting of selectedofficers of the Field Officers School and, in 1931,the committee began work on a manual of MarineCorps landing operations. Berkeley later expandedthe task of this committee and charged it withpreparing the• basic doctrinal publication forlanding operations and small wars. This laterboard was named the Landing Operations TextBoard.es

Along with this textbook group he formed aLanding Lighters Board, more commonly calledthe "Boat Board," to investigate the need andrequirements for Marine landing craft and aCugriculum Beard to ensure that Qua*ntico'scourses were up to date with developments inlanding operations. This latter board came upwith the recommendation that the Marine Corps

concentrate its small war and landing operationinstruction and training problems using onlyMarine Corps organizations, weapons, and equip-ment. This recommendation was important inlight of the fact that the Corps until that timehad borrowed almost all instruction material usedfrom the U.S. Army.

In June 1931, a Corps-wide change put"Marines," in regimental titles and organizationssuch as the 5th Regiment became the 5th Marines.

On the other side of the world, the Japanesemilitary conquest of Manchuria began anew afterthe "Mukden Incident" of 18 September 1931.The 1st Marines was disbanded at Quantico inNovember 1931, and in January 1933 the 5thMarines followed suit after returning from Nica-ragua.eG

The Commandant's report to the Secretary ofthe Navy at the close of fiscal year 1933 reportedsignificant revisions in the "Marine-izing" of thetraining at Quantico. Training problems, for ex-ample, were no longer based on Army tables oforganization and equipment, but on Marine Corpsdata. Committees had been formed to developappropriate textbooks on those aspects of war-fare which were uniquely Marine. The developingscience of naval gunfire support of landing opera-tions was to be pursued, and special emphasisin the schools was to be given to amphibiousoperations and small wars.

Instructors and students underwent indoctrina-tion on the evolving roles and missions of theCorps, and time was specifically allowed for indi-vidual student research on military campaigns ofthe past—particularly those which includedMarine-type operations. The new science of am-phibious warfare was rich with ideas for researchprojects, and the students at Quantico contributedmuch toward an evolving doctrine.

Brigadier General James C. Breckinridge tookup where Berkeley left off at Quantico and madea special point to complete the job of doing awaywith Army texts and instructional materials, andset his staff of instructors to the task of rewritingthe entire school curriculum with a strictlyMarine Corps orientation. All Army manuals werefinally discarded and everything became "Marine."

Breckinridge insisted that his instructors behighly qualified officers in their fields of specialty,that they be highly skilled instructors, but mostof all that they be "experts" in what was fre-quently referred to as "Marine Corps science."There was still a lingering fear that the Marine

BETWEEN WARS 61

Corps would become just another army unless itwere unique in as many respects as possible.

By the early 1930s, the Corps had had suffi-cient experience with expeditionary forces operat-ing in combination with the fleet, and was suf-ficiently convinced of the accuracy of Ellis' pre-dictions of the Corps' role in future war, thatserious thinking was being given to establishinga permanent striking force as part of the fleet.This new concept called for a permanent structureunder a standing staff that would be integratedinto the fleet and under operational control ofthe fleet commander. It replaced a system thatconsisted of hurriedly thrown together organiza-tions that may or may not have had experiencewith the Navy, and which operated with no stand-ardized structure or experienced staff.67

Major General Ben H. Fuller was Com-mandant of the Corps in 1933 and he put his as-sistant, Brigadier General John H. Russell, towork on this idea. Two large tasks were requiredto be accomplished before the concept became areality, a firm doctrine had to be established anda force of Marines had to be organized with theappropriate staffs and supporting elements toexecute the doctrine.

Work was underway during 1933 at Quanticoto develop the necessary doctrine. Efforts bystudents and staff, however, were often inter-rupted by requirements in the Caribbean, es-pecially with the mobilization of the 7th Marinesfor duty in Cuba. Finally, Quantico asked the

Commandant for permission to discontinue theField Officers School temporarily so that all mightdevote full time to the task of developing a doc-trine in the shortest possible time.

The Commandant agreed and on 30 October1933, Quantico was told to begin work on amanual for landing operations, and work wasto start no later than the middle of November.On 14 November classes at Quantico were sus-pended and work began.68

On the other aspect of implementing the newconcept—the formation of a permanent, properlyorganized, trained, and equipped force—Russellhad suggested in August 1933 that the old ex-peditionary force idea be done away with andthat the new force, to be called either a Fleet BaseDefense Force or a Fleet Marine Force, be estab-lished in its place. Much groundwork had beenlaid concerning the formation of such a force,and Russell's proposal came as no great surpriseto Navy and Marine planners. It did, however,force a decision.

After a few months of deliberation, the Sec-retary of the Navy bought the idea and the nameof "Fleet Marine Force" was picked as being themost descriptive of the offensive as well as de-fensive missions of the force instead of the morelimiting "base defense" title.

In late 1933 the Marines in Haiti and Nicara-gua began returning to Quantico as the situationin the Caribbean improved. The availability ofthese combat troops and their equipment made

A 75mm pack howitzer battery of the Fleet Marine Force, ready for action. (USMC Photo 529211).


Early exercises of the Fleet Marine Force demonstratedfor ship-to-shore operations. (USMC Photo 515152).

possible the formation of a new fleet-oriented as-sault force, the Fleet Marine Force.

Navy Department General Order No. 241 of 7December 1933, officially established the FleetMarine Force: "The force of Marines maintainedby the Major General Commandant in a state ofreadiness for operations with the Fleet is herebydesignated as Fleet Marine Force (FMF), and assuch shall constitute a part of the organization ofthe United States Fleet. . . " On 20 December1933, Quantico's aviation units became AircraftOne, Fleet Marine Force.

Within the first few days of January 1934, thestudents and staff at Quantico had come up withan outline for a manual that was to be the basisfor the Fleet Marine Force doctrine, and a con-ference was held on 9 January with represen-tatives from Headquarters Marine Corps, Quan-tico, the new Fleet Marine Force, the Navy, andthe Army to discuss the outline and assign thewriting of various chapters to committees formedfrom the attendees.

By the middle of June 1934, the tentative man-ual had been completed and was submitted to theCommandant for approval. Initially called theTentative Manual for Landing Operations, thetitle was changed to Manual for Naval OverseasOperations within a month after it was completed.Quantico schools used rough versions of the man-ual for classes during the 1934—1935 school year.A noteworthy feature of this first manual was the

the need for landing craft that would improve the conditions

doctrine of "close air support"—which traced itsinception to the efforts of Quantico aviators whohad gone to the Caribbean with the 15th Regi-ment in 1919, and who had developed, tested,and refined this principle through a decade anda half of operations.

Beginning in 1934 the new Fleet Marine Forceconducted annual exercises, and the results ofthese practical tests of organization, doctrine,and coordination—plus the results of classroomstudies—provided material for revising the origi-nal draft of the manual. Revision boards wereconvened yearly several months after the conclu-sion of the annual fleet exercises to make thenecessary changes to the landing manual.

The revision board of 1935 changed the titleto the Tentative Landing Operations Manual andwide distribution was made throughout the Ma-rine Corps and Navy. In 1937 the manual becamethe Landing Operations Doctrine, U.S. Navy, andafter the 1938 board it was published as FleetTraining Publication 167 but retained the Land-ing Operations Doctrine title. A major changewas issued in mid—1941 incorporating the latestdevelopments in equipment, communications, andorganization, and was used by the Marine Corpsas it entered World War II. The Army borrowedit in 1941 and published a verbatim copy titledFM 31—5, Landing Operations on HostileShores.69

BETWEEN WARS 63

The organization of the new Fleet Marine Forcecalled for two reinforced brigades, one to bestationed at Quantico and one at San Diego, Cal-ifornia. Brigadier General Charles H. Lyman wasthe first commander of the Fleet Marine Forceand maintained his headquarters initially atQuantico. Later, command of the Fleet MarineForce moved to San Diego under Brigadier Gen-eral Douglas C. McDougal.

The 1st Brigade had been known as the 1st Ad-vance Base Brigade since March of 1914 when itwas formed for duty in Veracruz, Mexico. In1915 elements of the brigade were sent to Haitiand in the following a year a major portion wentto Santo Domingo. In early 1917 the brigade be-came the Provisional Brigade, and in July 1921it became the brigade headquartered in Port AuPrince, Haiti.

The 1st Brigade had spent 19 years in Haitiand was disbanded on the way back to the UnitedStates. Almost all of its Marines were sent toQuantico to fill up the ranks of the new FleetMarine Force. When enough of these Marines andtheir equipment were on hand, the 5th Marineswas organized again and the Commandant im-plemented the Navy's General Order No. 241 byissuing Marine Corps Order No. 84 on 18 Decem-ber 1934, and the Fleet Marine Force became aphysical reality.

Within a short time, the Quantico brigade of theFleet Marine Force consisted of the 5th Marinesof two infantry battalions, the 1st Battalion of the10th Marines (artillery), an engineer company, abrigade headquarters which included signal, in-telligence, motor transport, and chemical units.and Aircraft One of six aircraft squadrons. Alight tank section was later added.

As the Fleet Marine Force became organizedand started functioning, it made a significant im-pact on Quantico's schools. Maintaining the FleetMarine Force became the main concern of the

A LCM(6) with load of one 6X4 truck in trainingoperations in August 1943. (U.S. Navy Photo 85148).

Corps, and the schools' curriculum became ori-ented toward this goal. Before long the curriculumand training was aimed at preparing officers forduty with the Fleet Marine Force.

Formation of the Fleet Marine Force and thebeginning of work on a manual for amphibiousoperations were not the only highly significantevents at Quantico in 1933.

Along with the realization that a special forcewas needed and that force required a specialdoctrine to ensure its success, it was apparentfrom Marine Corps experience that special equip-ment was needed to make this force and its doc-trine most effective. Furthermore, the items re-quired were just not available in the mlitary in-ventory.

In 1933 the Major General Commandant di-rected the establishment of a Marine Corps Equip-ment Board at Quantico to examine what wasavailable from civilian industry that could beeasily adapted to Marine Corps use, and to pro-vide him with factual information on the ef-ficiency and practicality of equipment beingconsidered. Development of new equipment forthe Corps was not a function of this early board.

At first the 11 members of the new board didtheir equipment evaluating in addition to theirregular assignments, but as the Fleet MarineForce became a reality and doctrine was formal-ized, the board grew in size and importance andits members found themselves with fuiltime jobs.

One of the most obvious equipment require-ments for the Marine Corps was that of a suitableship-to-shore boat that could carry troops andequipment. This need had been recognized longbefore the establishment of the Equipment Board,but no satisfactory solution to the problem hadbeen found. It became one of the first and mostimportant of many special problems faced bythe board.

Marines over the years had conducted theirlanding operations using standard ships' boats.These were too slow for assaults; they were vul-nerable to rough seas and surf and could notcarry heavy equipment. The standard Navy 50-foot motor launch was also unsatisfactory forartillery and other bulky items.

A civilian boat builder named Andrew Higginsfrom New Orleans visited the new EquipmentBoard in 1934 to talk about the Corps' need fora suitable boat. No one had any money at thetime to purchase a prototype from Higgins, andhe returned home without accomplishing any-thing more than stirring up interest.

In 1935, after amphibious doctrine had been


set down and the Fleet Marine Force set abouttesting its effectiveness, the Navy turned to thecivilian world and asked for bids for commercialboats that would meet the Corps' needs.

By early 1936 the Navy had five modifiedcivilian boats available for testing by Marineunits. Testing by the 5th Marines began off CapeMay, New Jersey, and continued for severalyears. Higgins did not respond to this first re-quest for bids. But in late 1936, as testing waswell underway, Higgins spoke up again and an-nounced that he had the boat that could fill thejob. Negotiations between Higgins and the Navybegan.

While the Marines were testing one batch oflanding craft and working with Higgins to adapthis version, a picture story was published in 1937in Lije magazine about a weird tractor used in theFlorida Everglades as a rescue vehicle. Accord-ing to the story, the strange craft could travel onwater as well as on land.

News of this innovation eventually made itsway to the Equipment Board and a member wasimmediately sent to Clearwater, Florida, to checkout the story's claims. He submitted an enthusias-tic report to the board upon his return, and thetractor's builder, Donald Roebling, son of awealthy manufacturer who had built the vehicleas a hobby, was asked to submit plans for aMarine Corps version!2

Higgins' "Eureka" boat, meanwhile, was ac-cepted for testing at Hampton Roads, Virginia,in 1938 and was tentatively accepted for opera-tional use in 1939, after yeoman service duringthat year's fleet exercises.

It was not until 1940, however, that the NavyDepartment had sufficient funds to officially adoptthe Higgins boat as a primary landing craft forMarines. Also in 1940 Roebling had come upwith a design for a Marine version of his "alliga-tor," and a test model was shipped to Quanticoin November. By then the Navy's financial situa-tion had improved and the Higgins boat wasadopted.

The Alligator received extensive testing atQuantico in the creeks, rivers, and swamps, andwent to the Caribbean with the Fleet MarineForce at the end of the year. Marines wereecstatic over the capabilities of the craft, andafter some design changes, an order for 200 ofthe Landing Vehicle Tracked (LVT) was givento Roebling in February 1941. The first onesrolled off the assembly line in mid—1941!'

In May an Amphibian Tractor Detachmentwas organized at Quantico. The unit of four offi-

cers and 36 enlisted Marines went to Dunedin,Florida, and began training with the new vehicles.Later in the year the unit grew to 25 officers and00 men and was authorized to organize and traintwo tractor battalions.72

While the Fleet Marine Force was testing theAlligator in the Caribbean, Higgins was back atQuantico to talk with the Equipment Board aboñta photograph of a Japanese landing craft thatfeatured a bow ramp. The Marines were im-pressed with this innovation and convinced Hig-gins of the necessity for such a feature. In lessthan a year he built his own version of the Japa-nese boat, and it received extensive testing. TheNavy and Marine Corps quickly accepted the newmodel, and the 36-foot Higgins boat, or LandingCraft Vehicle Personnel (LCVP), became partof the Marine Corps inventory.

Once the Equipment Board had found a goodfriend in Andrew Higgins, they presented himwith another problem that the Corps had beenwrestling with for years—the need for a largelanding craft to ferry vehicles, tanks, and artil-lery to the beach. No suitable boats had beenfound for this purpose, either within or wfthoutthe Navy.

Higgins had a commercial 45-foot boat thatmight just do the job. When Higgins sold the

Harry Lee Hall, the officers' club, was constructed in1935 and named in honor of Major General Harry Lee,former Commandant, Marine Corps Schools, Quantico.Engineers from the 10th Marines cut the stone from anearby quarry. (Quantico Photo 012—3523—16—76).

BETWEEN WARS 65

Corps his bow ramp version of the 36-foot landingcraft, he also provided the Corps with a 45-footboat with a bow ramp to satisfy the heavy equip-ment requirement. This boat, too, was quicklyaccepted, except that the contract called for in-creasing its size to 50 feet to accommodate thegrowing size for artillery and tanks. This Higginsboat became the Landing Craft Mechanized(LCM).

In 1934 the Marine Corps came up with theidea of the Platoon Leaders Course, selectingstudents from certain colleges that did not haveReserve Officers Training Corps.73 In the springof 1935, platoon leaders classes were organized atQ uantico and at San Diego. Under this new pro-gram, college graduates were appointed secondlieutenants in the Marine Corps Reserve aftertwo six-week summer training periads, and weregiven further training as new lieutenants at theBasic School. Lieutenant Colonel Clifton B. Gatescommanded the first session at Quantico when200 students reported in July 1935. Units of the1st Brigade assisted by organizing and conductingfield exercises and demonstrations.74

During April 1934 the East and West CoastFleet Marine Forces joined for maneuvers at

Culebra, Puerto Rico. From 19 January to 13March 1935 Fleet Marine Force units took partin Fleet Landing Exercise No. 1 at Culebra, un-der command of Brigadier General Charles H.Lyman. From 1935 until World War II theseannual Fleet Marine Force exercises became atradition. Exercises were held either in the Carib-bean or off Southern California, and they enabledthe Fleet Marine Force to develop and test doc-trine, equipment, and organization.75

Near the end of July 1935 work began on ahard-surfaced, wet weather parade ground atQuantico, which is now used by Officer Candi-dates School. On 31 September aircraft fromQuantico took part in the Cleveland Air Showwhile Quantico's VO—9 Squadron took part inhurricane relief work in the Florida Keys.76

Headquarters of the Fleet Marine Force movedfrom Quantico to San Diego, California, effective9 August 1935, as the Corps' attention becamemore and more directed toward the Far East.

When General Thomas Holcomb was in com-mand at Quantico in mid-1935, he established aresearch department at the schools which wasfocused on amphibious warfare. Detailed studieswere made of every amphibious operation in his-

The leaders of the Corps celebrate the Birthday of the Corps at Qiwntico on 10 November 1935.David D. Porter, Louis M. Little, Frederic Bradman, Major General Commandant John H. Russell,Richard P. Williams, and Thomas Holcomb. (USMC Photo 516305).

From left: GeneralsCharles H. Lyman,


A dress parade at Quantico in 1937. Motor Transport Bldgneck Magazine).

tory, and a comprehensive library on amphibiouswarfare was set up that quickly became the bestin the world on the subject.77

In the mid-1930s, Quantico brought the Ma-rine Corps its first newspaper. Chaplain AugustHohi and Mrs. Ruth Hanmer had planned a news-paper for some time and in May 1935 the Quan.tico Sentry was conceived and published as anewspaper "for Marines by Marines and writtenwith the dignity and traditions of the U.S. Ma.rine Corps."

When the first issue began circulating, the op.tirnism paid off. Even then Quantico was thoughtof as the crossroads of the Marine Corps, and itwas only appropriate to those Marines of the1930s that such a showplace should have the firstMarine Corps newspaper. Within a short time de-mands poured in from all over the world wher-ever Marines were stationed for copies of theSentry.

Within a year special sections of the news-paper were set aside for important news fromSan Diego, Parris Island, Norfolk, Pensacola,and the Virgin Islands. The Sentry was strictly acivilian effort, unhampered by military regula-tions. Nothing was sacred. Freedom of the pressflourished and the Sentry became known as anewspaper of unique importance the world over.

One of the most spectacular aviation feats upuntil that time took place during Fleet LandingExercise No. 2 in the Caribbean at Culebra,Puerto Rico, during 12 January to 17 February1936. The 1st Brigade took part in the exercisesas it had the year before, and Aircraft One went

2013, on the left, faces Barnett Avenue beyond. (Leather-

along. The aviators, under Lieutenant ColonelRoy S. Geiger, conducted a 50-plane flight in for.mation to Culebra from Quantico and return, adistance of about 4,800 miles—most of it overthe open sea. During the field exercises, the avia-tors carried out a variety of ground support andreconnaissance missions without a single mishapto personnel or equipment, either while in theCaribbean or on the long trip there and back.78

During the summer of 1936, 900 1st BrigadeMarines again staged a Civil War battle, thistime at Manassas, Virginia, for the First Battleof Bull Run. Spectators were estimated at 50,000.The Marines, who took the role of the defeatedUnion forces, included elements of the 5th Ma-rines and 10th Marines artillery. Like all theCivil War dramas, the participating organizationscarried Union and Confederate flags and took thenames of Civil War organizations. Marines woreblue dungarees to simulate Union uniforms, andeven Civil War chevrons were sewn on for theevent.79

The efforts at Quantico's airfield to fill in theswamps and reroute Chopawamsic Creek con-tinued during 1936. The vast project, which hadbegun in 1930, was not completed until the endof the decade. However, the field-to-be was for-mally dedicated on 1 July 1936 in honor ofColonel Thomas C. Turner who had been killedin Haiti during the last months of 1931 in anaircraft accident.8°

For the last three months of the year, the 1stBrigade busied itself with extensive field exercisesand amphibious landings along the Potomac.

BETWEEN WARS 67

raphy, forms for plans and orders, infantryweapons, organization, tactics, landing operations,and small wars. These were not ignored in theJunior Course, but included as "refresher" sub-jects.

A mess hail, Quantico, 1940. (USMC Photo 529261).

Testing the new landing craft recently acquiredby the Marine Corps was included in these exer-cises.

By late 1936 the schools at Quantico had 14officers enrolled in the Senior Officers Course(formerly the Field Officers Course), 45 in theJunior Officers Course (the old Company OfficersCourse), and 7 in the Base Defense WeaponsCourse. All courses were nine months long. TheBasic Course at Philadelphia was five monthslong with 94 second lieutenants enrolled. in theCorrespondence Course, located at Quantico, en-rollment numbered more than 3,800 students inPeiping, Guantanamo Bay, Shanghai, Hawaii, Pa-nama, the Philippines, and the Virgin Islands.

The staff of instructors numbered 36 at Quan-tico and 16 at Philadelphia. The instructors wereall graduates of at least one military school ofhigher education, including Quantico's schools, theNaval War College, Army schools, or the Ecolede Guerre in Paris. The Corps had two officersat the Ecole de Guerre and one at the Ecoled'Application d'Artillerie at Fontainbleau,France. These officers were destined to join theQuantico staff upon graduation.

By the mid-1930s the Basic Course built on theprevious general education of new officers andlaid the groundwork for experience and furtherlearning. The purpose was to qualify officers forleadership in infantry units and for duty on bat-talion staffs. Instruction included administration,law, drill, topography, command, infantry wea-pons, and tactics.

After a number of years service, officers wereexpected to attend the Junior Course. By thattime they were presumed to know the fundamentalsubjects of their profession: map reading, topog-

The Junior Course featured tactical operations,with command functions of all units up to andincluding the battalion, and staff functionsthrough regimental level. Marine units were stud-ied as independent units and as part of a navallanding force. The seizure of advanced bases, theoccupation and defense of bases, small wars, andemergency operations were studied. The missionof the school was to train officers for wartimeduties of company and battalion commanders, andfor duty on battalion and regimental staffs bystudying employment of units to regimental size,and coordination of supporting arms—includingaviation.

At an equivalent level with the Junior Course,the Base Defense Weapons Course was designedto prepare officers for artillery service in the FleetMarine Force. The course consisted primarily oftechnical and practical instruction in base defenseweapons, mathematics, topography, gunnery, andthe tactics and techniques of base defense weaponsincluding actual field training and firing. A partof the course was devoted to landing operationsand the defense of advanced naval bases withemphasis on the relationship of naval, field,and antiaircraft artillery to the whole scheme ofdefense. One of the motivating factors behindestablishment of this course was the growing im-

Major "Tony" Biddie, USMCR began his visits toQ uantico in World War I and continued to give specialclasses in bayonet training, fencing, and boxing fromtime to time. Even though well into his 70s when WorldWar II began he once again volunteered and conductedclasses in self-defense. (USMC Photo 524715).


portance of aviation. The Marine Corps had added3.inch antiaircraft artillery and .50 calibermachineguns to its inventory to combat the avia-tion menace, and it needed officers trained to em-ploy these weapons effectively.

Upon completion of either of these two courses,the officer normally returned to his regular duties.The next stage of progression was the SeniorCourse. This was designed for field grade officersand captains selected for major. It was not a di-rect continuation of the Junior Course, but alogical next step after Junior Course graduateshad acquired field experience.

Part of the Senior Course was devoted to areview of topography, tactics, and techniques ofthe separate combat arms, map problems, andterrain studies based on traditional land warfare.It then moved into the field of naval landingoperations with emphasis on the Marine brigadeand the Fleet Marine Force acting independentlyor as part of the Fleet. Command and staff func-tions in all types of organizations and operationswere studied, as were small wars of the Carib-bean variety.

The final step in a Marine officer's formal edu-cation in the mid-1930s was considered to be theNaval War College. Courses at Quantico at alllevels were designed to adequately prepare Ma-rine officers for this final, top-level school.

Seven years was the minimum time expectedbetween the resident courses at Quantico, andthe whole sequence was intended to take up thefirst 20 years of an officer's career. In the inter-vening periods between schools, officers were ex-pected to keep abreast of new developments inthe rapidly changing military science through cor-respondence courses.

In early 1937 the Quantico Fleet Marine Forcetook part in Fleet Landing Exercise No. 3 inconjunction with the West Coast Marine brigadeand U.S. Army units. The exercise, which tookplace in the San Clemente and San Pedro area,lasted from 27 January until 10 March and in-cluded a number of Quantico pilots and aircraftflying crosscountry to San Diego to supportground troops.

Later in the spring, Quantico Marines aided thecity of Fredericksburg in recovering from a dis-astrous flood, and on 30 April, 1,200 Marinestook part in the reenactment of the Civil WarBattle of the Crater at Petersburg, Virginia, about90 miles south of Quantico. Their "Confederate"opponents were cadets of Virginia Military Insti-tute and the Virginia National Guard.41

A few weeks later during late May, President

Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Vice President,numerous Congressmen, and about 1,200 membersof the National Press Club had a grandiose pic-nic at Quantico.

Two hundred Marines were rushed from Quan-tico to Lakehurst, New Jersey, the same monthto guard the German airship, Hindenburg, whichhad crashed and burned on 6 May.52

The beginning of 1938 found the Quantico Ma-rines again taking part in amphibious operations.This time, Fleet Landing Exercise No. 4 tookplace at Culebra, Puerto Rico, from the middleof January until the middle of March, and wasthe most complex and comprehensive landingoperation to date. In February, the 6th Marinesleft China when things seemed to settle down.

The first several months of 1939 were taken upby Fleet Exercise No. 5 in the Caribbean, lastingfrom 13 January through the middle of May.Ground forces of the Fleet Marine Force wereagain organized into two brigades effective 30May. The 1st Brigade was to be at Quanticoand the 2d at San Diego, each supported by acorresponding numbered Marine aircraft group.Each brigade consisted of an infantry regiment,artillery battalion (howitzers), an antiaircraftartillery battalion, tank company, engineer, andchemical troops. Total Fleet Marine Force strengthnumbered about 4,600.83

The aviation side of Quantico had grown tofour squadrons of 69 aircraft, including H-planebombers, fighters, scout bombers, transports, andobservation planes. An aviator was assigned as anair liaison officer to the 1st Marine Brigade stafffor the first time to facilitate air-ground coor-dination and mutual support.84

At Quantico's schools, a doctrine for the suc-cessful execution and control of naval gunfire insupport of ground troops had evolved and re-ceived considerable practice in both the Carib-bean exercises and in Southern California.Bloodsworth Island in Chesapeake Bay had beenacquired for firing ranges, and special schools atQ uantico trained shore fire control parties andair spotters to implement the new doctrine andtechniques.

By the end of 1939 almost half of the 1,100hours of instruction at Quantico's schools wasdevoted to some aspect of landing operations.

Work had also begun on a new medical dispen-sary at a cost of almost one million dollars. Thisdispensary, being built on the old Shipping Pointland that was earlier the site of Confederate gunbatteries and more recently an important ship-yard, was to become the Naval Hospital, Quaritico.

BETWEEN WARS 69

By November 1932, the new borrocks were completed((JSMC Photo 529015).

The first Marine Corps Reserve Officers Classwas formed at Quantico in 1939. This six-weekcourse was instructed by 10 officers of the 1stMarine Brigade.

Major General Louis McCarty Little took overcommand at Quantico after tours as commanderof the Fleet Marine Force, of Marine Corps Baseat San Diego, and as Assistant to the Com.man-dant of the Marine Corps. During his tour atQuantico, many beneficial changes were broughtabout.

During Little's command, the chapel was im-proved and enlarged, Butler Stadium was finallycompleted, and a part of the new Hostess Houseintended for a post office was made into a loungeand game room for enlisted Marines. Old firetraps, especially in the 1100 block, were razedand modern dwellings erected. One hundred pre-fabricated houses for married noncommissionedofficers were constructed, and General Little per-sonally helped design nurses' quarters, porchesfor quarters, and garages.

and Bornea Avenue (with the vehicles on it) hod been relocated.

Sidewalks were finally built, parking lots pro-vided, roadways improved, and bridges built.Contractors who were having problems with thesettling ground at Turner Field received GeneralLittle's personal engineering assistance to solvethe problem. Under Little's supervision, an ex-periment was tried and laminations of asphalt,concrete, and soil were built up to make TurnerField the best of its kind.

The enlisted men's club was enlarged, the I am-ily hospital renovated, a bachelor noncommis-sioned officers' mess and club were created, andthe gymnasium was converted from an old moviehall. Little also purchased buses and beachwagons for the convenience of Quantico person-nel.

Newspaper reports of the time say that thegreatest monument the Littles left behind wasthe Post School—a building dedicated in early1942 that was the joint effort of Mrs. Little andmost of the teachers and administrators.85

Fleet Landing Exercise No. 6 was held in the


In the foreground is what is now Hockmuth Hall, headquarters of the Development Center. The building was builtin 1939—1940 as the original FBI Academy. In the rear is the Computer Science School. (Quantico Photo 012—3525—57—76).

Caribbean from 11 January to 13 March 1940,and involved the 1st Marine Brigade and the 1stMarine Aircraft Group under Brigadier Gen-eral Holland M. Smith, who gained fame a fewyears later as an amphibious leader.86

In the spring of 1940, the first students of theFederal Bureau of Investigation's new academymoved into a new, three-story colonial brickbuilding on Quantico's Barnett Avenue. Beforethis time, FBI training had been conducted atnumerous military installations around the Wash-ington, D.C., area—including Quantico. Thissituation was clearly unsatisfactory to FBI officialssince it meant that the FBI had no permanentfacilities of its own in one spot for its importanttraining. Students and training were spread allover the Washington-Virginia-Maryland country-side. A Marine Corps invitation to locate a pro-

posed FBI academy at Quantico was quicklyaccepted, and construction began in the fall of1939.

Quantico was an ideal spot for the academy. Itwas out of the rush of metropolitan Washingtonbusiness, all support facilities and weaponsranges were readily available, and—most of all—it permitted the fledging FBI Special Agents toall live, work, and train together at one location.

President Roosevelt declared a limited nationalemergency in June 1940 and the Corps beganin earnest the prodigious task of getting ready forwar. Expansion of the Marine Corps to 34,000was authorized by the President, and officers' re-tirements were halted in some cases. Within acouple of weeks, more than $1 million was au-thorized for emergency construction at Quanticoto improve the airfield and build a post exchangeand other buildings and facilities.87

BETWEEN WARS 71

One important task assigned to Quantico wasthe training of new officers. Colonel Lemuel C.Shepherd, Jr. set up a special unit at Quantico totrain potential officers in the ". . . fundamentalsof military discipline, and in the school of thesoldier, squad and platoon.. . and to select thosequalified for commission in order to provide cap-able and well-fitted officers for the Marine CorpsReserve." Soon thereafter, training officers be-came the primary job of Quantico's schools.88

During July 1940 the Joint War PlanningCommittee developed a plan for an expeditionaryforce to depart New York City around the middleof the month to occupy Martinique in the Carib-bean. Martinique was the Western Hemispherecenter for France's colonies and possessions. The1st Marine Brigade from Quantico was designatedas the initial landing force for this venture.

Three hundred recruits from Parris Island,South Carolina, arrived at Quantico on 15 Au-gust 1940, to continue their recruit training whichhad been violently interrupted by a hurricanewhich caused $3,000,000 worth of damage at therecruit training depot. Within a week, a hugetent city was erected along Barnett Avenue andtraining went on as usual. All recruit training atQuantico ended on 30 September, and almost 900new Marines had been trained on behalf of Par-ris Island. °

The 11th Marines was formed again at Quan-tico in September 1940 from a battalion of the10th, and became a part of the 1st Marine Divi-sion when it was formed the following year.

A formal plan for an amphibious assault onMartinique was published by the Navy duringOctober 1940. The plan called for the 1st MarineBrigade of about 2,800 Marines to make the

landing, followed by two Army regiments.°° Planswere announced in mid-October 1940 for forma-tion of a Marine Corps museum at Quantico, anda week later the San Francisco World's Fair of-fered its vast collection of automatic weapons andmachine guns to Quantico for the new museum.°'

During the fall of 1940 Quantico's aviators, aspart of Marine Aircraft Group One, kept busysupporting small unit special landing operationsin the Caribbean.

As the war year of 1941 dawned, Quanticowas busy getting ready for its expected role.

On 1 February the East and West Coast brig-ades of the Fleet Marine Force were officiallyactivated as the 1st and 2d Marine Divisions, re-spectively, and, around a core of experienced Ma-rines, new enlistees were placed to fill up theranks.°2 The nucleus of the 1st Division, the com-manding general, his staff, the 5th Marines anda battalion of the 11th Marines—amounting to3,000 men—were quartered at Quantico pendingcompletion of construction at New River, NorthCarolina. Shortly afterwards, the 1st Marineswas organized again at Quantico.

Another $1 million was authorized for addi-tional construction at Quantico for a new riflerange, barracks, and more work on the hospital.The Corps' strength was authorized to increase to60,000 under the current emergency.°3

One of the Corps' more unique schools thatwas hosted briefly by Quantico was the BarrageBalloon Training School formed in June 1941.Balloons were not new to the Corps or to Quan-tico; the Corps' first unit to use balloons wasformed at Quantico in 1918 to aid artillery spot-ting. The unit was disbanded in early 1919, al-

Married enlisted quarters in the 1940s. (USMC Photo A550971).


The Naval Hospital, Quantico (right center) and supporting buildings, located on Shipping Point. Quantico Creek isabove the complex and the Potomac River below. (Quantico Photo 012—352.3—54—76).

though experimentation with balloons of varioussorts continued at Quantico until late 1929.

As Marine planners saw new organizations andtechniques coming to light in the war in Europe,their thinking turned to adopting some of theseinnovations for the Corps. The use of barrage bal-loons for air defense was one of these. The re-sponsibility for air defense of advanced navalbases was given to the Marine Corps, and thisincluded the use of barrage balloons. After stud-ies based on British experience, the Corps wasauthorized in March 1941 to organize two balloonsquadrons, each to consist of 10 officers, 200Marines, 24 balloons, and 24 balloons in re-serve.

Several Marine officers attended the Navy'sballoon school at Lakehurst, New Jersey, in thespring of 1941, and then returned to Quanticowhere they established the Corps' Barrage BalloonTraining School on 12 June of that year. Dueto a lack of balloons—and, as a result, students—the school staff spent most of the time doingresearch and developing techniques for the use ofbarrage balloons. It wasn't until the school movedto New River, North Carolina, in September 1942that it went into full operation.

A couple of weeks after the Barrage BalloonSchool was formed, Captain J. B. Pollard, USN,became the first commanding officer of the new

Naval Hospital on 1 July. The original building,erected in 1939 as a dispensary for Marine Bar-racks personnel, cost almost $1 million. The hos-pital area included about 40 acres on old ShippingPoint.

Prior to establishment of the Naval Hospital—which served Marine families as well as Marines—dependents of Marines were treated at a "Fam-ily Hospital," and almost all families belonged tothe Family Hospital Association, an organizationsupported by donations, dues, and low cost treat-ment. Navy and Marine officers formed a HospitalCouncil that governed operation of the service.

The 1st Marine Aircraft Wing was organizedat Quantico on 7 July 1941. The new wing hadtwo fighter squadrons, two scout bomber squad-rons, one dive bomber squadron, and one utilityand observation squadron.°5

While the Barrage Balloon Training School wasgetting organized, Quantico formed another ofthe Corps' more unique organizations—the 1stParachute Battalion.56 The idea of dropping menwith parachutes was not completely new. As earlyas 1927, a dozen Marines had proved the value ofsuch a technique by parachuting from transportsflying near Washington, D.C. With the successfuluse of this technique by the Germans in Europeand an intensive U.S. Army parachute training

BETWEEN WARS 73

program, the Corps took another look at the valueof airdropped Marines.

The Commandant had tasked his planners inMay 1940 with coming up with a plan for. theemployment of such a parachute force, visualizingan infantry battalion with supporting artillery asan appropriate size. As more information andstudies were accumulated, this concept changed toone where each Marine infantry regiment was tocontain a battalion of Marines organized andtrained to be transported by air, and within thesebattalions there was to be a company of ara-chutists. The remainder of the air-transportablebattalion was to be trained as glider troops. Thisconcept, too, was later changed to one where theCorps was to have two complete battalions ofparachutists instead of parachute companiesdivided among the regiments.

Training of Marines in parachute operationsbegan at Lakehurst, New Jersey, in late October1940. This was exclusively tower training, and asMarines qualified in that two-week phase, theywere Sent to Quantico for additional training andconditioning before actually jumping from air-craft.

A company of parachutists was formed atQuantico on 28 May 1941, as Marines becamequalified in this new technique. About six weekslater a battalion headquarters was organized andthe 1st Parachute Battalion itself was formed inmid-August. With the addition of a trained com-pany from San Diego in late September, the bat-talion was two-thirds complete.

On 28 September, the ist Parachute Battalionleft Quantico for New River, North Carolina, formore training, where it remained until July1942, when it left for the Pacific and took partin the Guadalcanal landings.

The Sixth Reserve Officers Course began on1 November with 300 students most of whom hadjust graduated from the Third Candidates Course.The ROC also included 42 older officers taking a"refresher" course. The Reserve Officers Coursehad been recently extended to 14 weeks but was

shortened to 12 just over a month after it began,and later to six weeks. The schedule called. forfield trips and terrain exercises at most nearbyCivil War battlefields.

In September 1941, Major General Holland M.Smith was named commander of the AtlanticAmphibious Force consisting of the 1st MarineDivision, the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, and aBase Depot. The force was located at Quanticoexcept for the Base Depot which was at 'Charles-ton, South Carolina.

Also in September an officers' Aviation Special-ist School was opened at Quantico and by the26th of the month, the newly formed 1st MarineDivision completed a move to New River, NorthCarolina—later to become Camp Lejeune—sincethe division-size Fleet Marine Force had out-grown Quantico's facilities. A huge tent campawaited the division in North Carolina.

Q uantico's airfield was renamed on 1 December1941, from Base Air Detachment One, MarineBarracks, to Marine Corps Air Station, Quantico.The first commanding officer of the new air sta-tion was Major Ivan W. Miller, and his commandwas placed under control of the CommandingGeneral, Marine Barracks, Quantico. Simultane-ously, Cunningham Field at Cherry Point, NorthCarolina, became a Marine Corps Air Station fordevelopmental purposes to take some of the strainoff the Quantico aviation facilities.

Within days after Quantico's flying field be-came a full-fledged air station, all of Quantico'stactical aircraft squadrons began moving to theWest Coast. Quantico became a training base foraviators and an overhaul and repair facility foraircraft, rather than a home for Fleet MarineForce tactical air squadrons.97

With the departure of the 1st Marine Divisionand the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing shortly there-after, Quantico ceased to be a major trainingbase for Fleet Marine Force units, and its primarymission—with a few minor exceptions—came tobe the training of individual Marines instead ofentire organizations.

Documents

BETWEEN WARS 47 - United States Marine Corps of... · BETWEEN WARS 47 "Jiggs," the Corps' bulldog mascot purchased by Smed-iey Butler at Quantico in 1921, became known far and wide