Evening star., 1951-02-04
Sprdwng Dynamic Quono Marches Marine Corps Specialists OFF New
By ChorIes J. Yorbrouqh
Stor Stoff Correspondent

QUANTICO. Va, Feb. 3.-These
history -steeped Potomac shores,
with a background of conflict
dating to 1907. are watching COM
bat specialists march off to war
again.
This is the place where far
seeing Marines picked up the
shattered concepts of amphibious
warfare the British left at CALI
poll in 1915 and fashioned them
into the Pacific island-hopping
wizardry of World War II.
These are the same skies and
the same Prince William County
hills where Marine airmen and
ground troops perfected the close
support which has already brought
plaudits from the Korean war;
the same proving ground for hell
Icopter rescue from battlefronts.
This too. is the place where
there are probably more combat
veterans per capita bearing more
battle stars than any active gar
rison in the country.
Marines "West Point" !
Here, on shore-line shelf fiat
tening out from high rolling land
to west, are the Marine Corps
Schools-a Marine university"
or the West Point of the corps.
Virtually 80 per cent of today's
Marine officers and many of its
nom commissioned specialists are
graduates.
There are no raw recruits-as
such-in Quantico.
It's Basic School is primarily
concerned with the indoctrination
and training of newly commits
stoned second lieutenants just out
of the Naval Academy. colleges
and universities or selected from
ranks of meritorious non-commis-
stoned officers.
Virtually all have had some
kind of military training. though
what they've had, unless they are
combat veterans from the last
war, is nothing compared to what
they get here.
At least two factors stand out
as the great differences between
troops here and those coming into
other military installations as
draftees or enlistees who just beat
the call.
At Quantico there are young men
who are here by choice: here be-
cause they remained in the active
reserve. That old, well-Worn but
still useful knot which ties Ma
rines together is almost visible
the esprit de corps.
Unlike a boot camp or basic
training center. Quantico imparts
that feeling of knowing its going
to war eventually-its men goI
clamly and seriously about their
business.
Standby for Orders.
They're professionals" one Of
icer remarked. They're not |
just standing by until they're
ordered"
The schools staff "know what |
is expected. And they know how
it is he added. |
Wrapped around the town of
Quantico like friendly f1anking
forces is the big 56,000-acre reser-
vation that runs the wide depth |
of Prince William County, across
into Fauguier County to Dorrells
Run and south to Aquita Creek.
This vast area, with almost
every kind of terrain except high |
mountains, is reverently designated
"Guadalcanal," but to the trainees
who have been over the big out
door classroom for war, it is still
the "boondocks."
Over it, on it and sometimes
under it, the new crop of Marine
officers get everything but a live
gun firing at them point blank.
Outside the brick classrooms,
they apply, under all and any
conditions. the tactics and tech
niques of warfare, with particular
emphasis on amphibious opera
tions.
Another phase of the course
supplies tactics. techniques and
equipment used by landing forces
At the end of four months cit