From: chf0@newshost.gte.com (Curtis Fennell)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Marines, are they needed?
Date: 28 Jul 92 13:01:21 GMT
Organization: GTE Laboratories, Waltham, MA


From chf0@newshost.gte.com (Curtis Fennell)


|> From jmc@sail.stanford.edu (John McCarthy)
|> 
|> Someone posted that the Marines exist to support Navy missions.  To
|> this layman it seems that the reverse is more nearly true and
|> will be more true in the future.  For example, Marines afloat
|> in the Adriatic provide a very credible threat to use force
|> in Yugoslavia.

The National Security Act of 1947 is the principal controlling
military legislation of this country and establishes the modern
military organization.  Responsibilities and duties of the Department
of the Navy are set out in sec 206, with the Marine Corps' duties
being set out in subparagraph "c" as follows:

"Sec.206(c) The Marine Corps, within the Department of the Navy, shall
be so organized as to include not less than three combat divisions and
three air wings, and such other land combat, aviation, and other
services as may be organic therein.  The Marine Corps shall be
organized, trained, and equipped to provide fleet marine forces of
combined arms, together with supporting air components, for service
with the fleet in the seizure and defense of advanced naval bases and
for the conduct of such land operations as may be essential to the
prosecution of a naval campaign.  In addition, the Marine Corps shall
provide detachments and organizations for service on armed vessels of
the Navy, shall provide security detachments for the security of naval
property at naval stations and bases, and shall perform such other
duties as the President may direct.  However, these additional duties
may not detract from or interfere with the operations for which the
Marine Corps is primarily organized."

		-From "The Marine Officer's Guide" Paragraph 301

This paragraph basically defines the Marine Corps' primary role as
"the seizure and defense of advance naval bases and ... the conduct of
such land operations as may be essential to the prosecution of a naval
campaign".  This is the Marines' main reason for existing.

However, there hasn't really been a sustained naval campaign since
WWII. So most of the Marines' combat duties since WWII have come from
the part of the paragraph that states "[the Marines] shall perform
other duties as the President may direct".  Naturally this covers just
about anything, from Embassy duty to Desert Storm. 

Another interesting aspect of this definition of the Marine Corps
mission is that it specifically defines the size of the Marine Corps
to be 3 divisions and 3 air wings.  The USMC is the only service to be
have it's size defined *by law*.  I couldn't find out why this was
from the Marine Officer's Guide, but as I recall, Marine legend on
this is that it was an effort by political supporters of the Marines
to keep opponents from gradually eliminating the Marines a piece at a
time.

Semper Fi,
Curt Fennell

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Newsgroups: sci.military,soc.history