1st Marine Division

The Big One
1st Marine Division

The 1st Marine Division was activated aboard the battleship Texas on February 1, 1941. It is the oldest and most decorated division-sized unit in the United States Marine Corps.

Division regiments were in existence as early as March 8, 1911, when the 1st Marine Regiment was formed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It saw action in Haiti in 1915, in the Dominican Republic in 1916, and throughout the Caribbean during World War I.

The 5th Marine Regiment was created at Vera Cruz, Mexico, on July 13, 1914. It served in Santo Domingo in 1925 and participated in 15 major engagements during World War I. These include Belleau Wood, Chateau Thierry and St. Mihiel. On August 11, 1917, the 7th Marine Regiment was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It spent the duration of World War I in Cuba and was disbanded after the war. The regiment was reactivated in 1941.

The 11th Marine Regiment was formed in January 1918 at Quantico, Virginia, as a light artillery regiment. The regiment went to France as an infantry unit, providing a machine gun company and a guard company. Decommissioned and reactivated twice between world wars, the regiment again served as infantry in Nicaragua. Reformed in 1940 as a full-fledged artillery unit, the 11th Marines joined the 1st Marine Division.

Guadalcanal was the first major American offensive of World War II. Launched on August 7, 1942, this operation won the division its first of three World War II Presidential Unit Citations (PUCs). Others won were for the battles of Peleliu and Okinawa. The Old breed was the unit chosen to land at Inchon, Korea, September 15, 1950, adding three more PUCs to its list of decorations.

The first award was for the Inchon landing; the second for the division's Attack in the opposite direction fighting its way out of the Chosin Reservoir against seven Chinese Communist divisions. An estimated 37,500 Chinese casualties fell trying to stop the marines march out of the Frozen Chosin. Battles between April and September earned the Division its sixth PUC.

The 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, returned to Guantanamo Bay for two months in 1962 when the Russian missile crisis arose there. More than 11,000 Marines of the 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade participated in the Naval blockade, which forced the withdrawal of the missiles from Cuba.

Less than three years later, the division was again on the move. In 1965, the 7th Marines participated in Operations Starlite and Piranha, the first major engagements for American ground troops in South Vietnam. March 1966 saw the 1st Marine Division headquarters established at Chu Lai. By June, the entire division was in South Vietnam, its zone of operation the southern two provinces of I Corps, Quang Tin and Quang Ngai. Between March and October 1966 to May 1967, the Division conducted 44 named operations. Major engagements included Operations Hastings and Union I and II. In these operations, 1st Marine Division units decisively defeated the enemy.

During the 1968 Tet offensive, the division was involved in fierce fighting with both Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army elements. It was successful in beating back the enemy drive in its operational areas.

Following six hard years of combat, the 1st Marine Division turned home to Camp Pendleton in April 1971, closing another chapter of dedicated service to Corps and country. In 1975 the Division supported the evacuation of Saigon by providing food and temporary shelter at Camp Pendleton for Vietnamese refugees as they arrived in the United States.

In the early morning of 24 February 1991, the 1st Marine Division pushed into southern Kuwait and began the long-awaited allied ground offensive aimed at ending Iraq's six-and-one-half-month occupation. The division's successful breach of the first obstacle belt triggered a timed sequence of attacks by coalition forces arrayed along the entire northern border of Saudi Arabia.

It was fitting that the commanding general of I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF), Lieutenant General Walter E. Boomer, selected the lst Marine Division to lead the attack. In August 1990, division units were among the first dispatched by President George Bush to assist the defense of Saudi Arabia. Until the United States Army's VII Corps began its movement towards Iraq, the division was the northernmost deployed American ground force.

The Division had been continuously in the field since the beginning of Operation Desert Shield. Its units had spent the long months in the desert training and rehearsing for an anticipated ground war against the Iraqi Army and division Marines were physically, psychologically, and professionally ready. Following the start of hostilities, the 1st Marine Division proved its capabilities in a series of artillery raids, deception operations, combined arms raids, and screening operations, that made it the first to bring the ground war to the Iraqi army. The attack followed 38 days of constant allied air attacks and the ground offensive swept everything before it in an almost bloodless campaign. It would take only 100 hours for the coalition forces to rout the Iraqi army and retake Kuwait.

Phase one of Operation Restore Hope kicked off with the early morning amphibious landing of Marines from the Camp Pendleton-based 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit in early December 1992. The successful landing and subsequent security operations illustrated the effectiveness of forward deployed forces and helped validate the Navy/Marine Corps team's strategy for the 21st century.

Landing forces were met with no organized resistance and port areas were secured, while combat engineers began making repairs and upgrades to the facilities.
The first elements of the 1st Marine Division, commanded by Major General Charles E. Wilhelm from Camp Pendleton, and three Maritime Propositioning Ships from Military Sealift Command also arrived.

In the second and third phases of the operation, Marines were joined by U.S. Army forces and assisted in establishing bases at Baledogle, Baidoa, Bardera, and other outlying areas identified as humanitarian relief sectors. Once free passage of relief supplies was established to the various relief sectors, the Marines, U.S. Army and coalition forces focused attention on the criminal elements operating in the northern sections of Mogadishu.

Daily, around-the-clock patrols throughout the port city resulted in the seizure of nearly 5,000 weapons and pieces of equipment over a five-month span. Meanwhile, over 15,000 metric tons of food was successfully distributed from 38 different food sites during the operation.

The final phase of the operation involved the transition from U.S peacekeeping force to a U.N. peace keeping Force. U.S Marine involvement in Operation Restore Hope officially ended May 4, 1993 when operations were turned over to United Nations forces.

Today the primary mission of the 1st Marine Division is to execute amphibious assault operations and other such operations as may be directed. The Division is supported by Marine aviation, and force service support units and is prepared to be employed, in conjunction with a Marine aircraft wing, as an integral part of a Marine Expeditionary Force in amphibious operations. The 1st Marine Division is currently composed of the 1st, 5th, 7th and 11th Marine Regiments; Headquarters Battalion; the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion; the 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion; 1st Tank Battalion; and the 1st and 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalions. These units represent a combat-ready force of over 15,000 men and women.

When task organized with units from the Marine Aircraft Wing and the Force Service Support Group, an efficient, self-supporting Marine Air Ground Task Force is created.
Headquarters Battalion provides command, control and administration for the 1st Marine Division. Within the battalion are a headquarters company, a service company, division headquarters, military police company, a communications company, and a truck company. The division headquarters is located in the Headquarters (11) Area, while the Headquarters Battalion and its companies are located in the Margarita (33) Area. The Senior Control and Management Platoon, the Photo Imagery Interpretation Unit and the Interrogator-Translator Teams are all in this Battalion.

The 1st, 5th and 7th Regiments consist of one headquarters company and four infantry battalions each, one of which is deployed outside the continental United States at all times. The infantry battalions are the basic tactical units that the regiment accomplishes its mission of locating, closing with and destroying the enemy by fire and close combat.
The 1st and 5th Regiments are located in the Horno (53) and San Mateo (62) Areas. The 7th Marine Regiment is located in Twentynine Palms, California.

The 11th Marines consist of a headquarters battery and four artillery batteries. The 11th Marine Regiment is the primary source of fire support for the 1st Marine Division in amphibious assault and subsequent operations ashore. It provides direct and general fire support to front line units as required by the infantry commanders. The 11th Marines organic weapons consist of all 155mm howitzers (M114A2 and M198 towed howitzer).

The divisions self-propelled 155MM (M109) and 8-inch (M110) howitzers are the organic weapons of the 4th Battalion at Twentynine Palms, California. The Pulgas (43) Area is home to the 11th Marines.

The 1st Combat Engineer Battalion performs many specific functions while fulfilling its mission of providing both tactical and logistical engineer support to the 1st Marine Division. These include engineer reconnaissance; temporary road repair; erection of prefabricated bridges; construction of bridges from available materials; construction of rafts and obstacles; supervision of the placement and cleaning of mine fields and fortifications; demolition; obstacle breaching from the high water mark inland; and supervision of major camouflage operations. The battalion shares the San Mateo (62) Area with the 5th Marine Regiment.

The mission of the 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion is to transport the surface assault elements of the landing force from amphibious shipping to inland objectives during the amphibious assault and to provide support to mechanized operations ashore. The amphibious assault vehicles are primarily utilized to transport personnel in tactical operations. The battalion is located in the Del Mar (21) Area.

Training is a vital and ongoing function in the 1st Marine Division. Only through an effective training program can the division remain ready to fulfill its mission at all times. The division training program is directed toward maintaining the basic skills of every Marine: preparing each Marine to achieve the performance objectives of his MOS, molding individual Marines into effective fighting machines and effecting the smooth, coordinated unit interaction required to accomplish the mission of the 1st Marine Division.

Order of Battle Korea

(Order of Battle includes the 1st Marine Air Wing)

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