| By CHARLES R.
SMITH Charles R. Smith is a
historian assigned to the U. S. Marine Corps Historical Center.
 Marine Corps
history is replete with accounts of the Corps' combat prowess and the heroism and
tena-city of individual Marines in places such as Belleau Wood, Iwo Jima, and Hue City.
Much less storied are the significant innovations Marines have made in the doctrine,
operational concepts, weaponry, and equipment of warfighting in this century.
The Corps' "force-in-readiness"
function, evolved over the past century, is the primary catalyst for many of these
innovations. When the United States entered the 20th century as an emerging major power,
the nation's need for a potent yet compact force, wholly dedicated to combat readiness and
skilled in the art of warfighting, became increasingly apparent.
Today it is hard to imagine a Marine
Corps in which excellence in marksmanship was not the rule, but such was the state of the
Corps in the 1890s. Through the leadership of a few Marines, beginning with Commandant
Maj. Gen. Charles Heywood, the Corps developed the marksmanship techniques and training
that would lead to the domination of competitive shooting and the accurate rifle fire
identified with latter-day Marines. The creed "every Marine a rifleman" became
reality on the battlefields of France in World War I, in the Pacific during World War II,
and in the wars in Korea, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf.
The Corps' attention to improvements in
individual weapons, and its policy of insisting that every Marine qualify in their use,
have paid great dividends. Marines provided the impetus for improvements in the M-14, and
later M-16 rifle, leading to today's more accurate and reliable M-16A2.
The development of amphibious warfare
techniques and equipment is the area where Marine Corps innovation has played the most
important role in warfighting doctrine. From the time of the Barbary Wars in the early
19th century, the Navy-Marine Corps team had proven to be a forceful instrument for
projecting U.S. power and protecting U.S. interests. The lessons of the Spanish-American
War made it apparent that offensive assault missions from the sea could best be filled by
the Marine Corps. Marine visionaries and pioneers, who saw the close relationship between
the exercise of sea power and the more narrow issue of seizing a hostile shore against
entrenched opposition, developed and codified over the next several decades the doctrine
needed to conduct an amphibious assault.
Writing to the General Board of the Navy
in February 1922, Maj. Gen. John A. Lejeune asserted the importance of having "a
mobile Marine Corps force adequate to conduct offensive land operations against hostile
naval bases." This fresh direction for the Corps culminated in publication of the
Tentative Landing Operations Manual in 1935. Annual fleet landing exercises were conducted
with the Navy until the outbreak of World War II.
With the developments in doctrine and
techniques came the need for specialized equipment to lift men and weapons ashore against
hostile fire. After experimenting with the British-designed "Beetle boat" and
"Christie tank," a ramp-type boat designed by Andrew Higgins was adopted and the
LCVP (landing craft, vehicle, personnel) and LCM (landing craft, mechanized) became a
reality--landing craft that would hit every beach from Guadalcanal to Normandy. Marine
pioneers, foreseeing the need for a vehicle that could operate on land and water, pushed
for the development of a military amphibian vehicle based on Donald Roebling Jr.'s
"Alligator" rescue tractor. From the arrival of the first LVTs (landing vehicle,
tracked) in July 1941, Marine innovators continued to be a driving force for improvements
and modifications of the LVT throughout World War II.
During World War II many additions and
variations were made on the tactics and techniques involved in amphibious operations.
Perhaps the greatest improvements came in the use of naval gunfire instead of artillery to
support landing forces, the perfection of close air support, and the development of fire
support coordination centers to act as clearing houses for battlefield requests for close
support.
Marine aviators made impressive
contributions in the tactics and techniques of aerial warfare. Beginning in Nicaragua in
1927, Marine aviators experimented with dive-bombing, and later developed and adopted the
tactic of relying on ground troops to direct air attacks, and demonstrated the effective
use of aircraft in medical evacuation and resupply. These techniques and skills, further
developed in World War II, were refined into arts in Korea and Vietnam.
The Marine Corps pioneered three material
innovations during the Korean War that proved successful and were adopted by the other
services--the thermal boot, individual body armor, and the helicopter; all were first
combat-tested in Korea's rugged hills.
While helicopters had been flown
experimentally toward the end of World War II, it was the Marine Corps that, beginning in
1947, pioneered the development of combat techniques using the rotor-driven aircraft as a
means of enhancing its amphibious assault capabilities. The Corps also developed tactics
for "vertical envelopment" as an extension of assault operations. In addition to
the practical use of the helicopter, several refinements of earlier Marine Corps
fixed-wing close air support proved to be decisive factors in a number of Korean War
battles.
In the post-Korean War period the Marine
Corps focused on further development of the Fleet Marine Force to support its
force-in-readiness mission, along with adapting amphibious techniques and equipment to
meet Cold War exigencies. Among these pioneering efforts were the reconfiguration of a
number of former attack aircraft carriers into helicopter carriers and the development of
the short tactical airfield and fuel-handling systems.
Vietnam occasioned a refinement in the
evolution of tactical mobility through the expanded use of helicopters, along with the
development of the fire support base concept and participation in pacification--more
specifically, civic action, which became an integral part of Marine operations in Vietnam.
In the 1970s and 1980s Marine innovators
continued to invigorate the traditional force-in-readiness concept of ground combat units
supported by air with the establishment of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force structure and
the flexible rapid-deployment force (RDF). The RDF, in turn, provided the impetus for the
Navy-Marine Corps Maritime Prepositioning Ship program which puts preloaded supply ships
in strategically important locations in the world's oceans.
The introduction of the high-speed LCAC
(landing craft, air cushion) greatly increased Marine Corps operational mobility and
reach. Similarly, the introduction of the AV-8A Harrier vertical/short takeoff and landing
attack aircraft (the most forward-deployed U.S. or coalition tactical aircraft in the
Persian Gulf area during Desert Storm) represented a major evolutionary development in
Marine Corps aviation. The MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor, AAAV (advanced amphibious assault
vehicle), and LCAC promise further enhancements to Marine ground firepower and mobility in
the future.
Marine Corps thinkers and doers have made
major contributions to the development of warfighting concepts, weaponry, and equipment
during this century. This legacy is reflected today in the mission of the Marine Corps
Warfighting Laboratory, enabling the Corps to face the dawn of the 21st century with a
confidence born from a proud heritage of innovation in doctrine and technology.
|
