"The U.S. Marine Corps was created by an act of Congress approved July 11, 1798…According to this legislation the Corps was to be formed into as many companies or detachments as the President should direct. They were to act on board the frigates and armed vessels of the United States, to do duty in the forts and garrisons of the United States, and to perform any other required shore duty…No one knew whether the Marine Corps appertained more to the Navy or to the Army, for this act placed the Marines under the Navy regulations when afloat and under the Articles of War when ashore…Periodically, attempts were made to abolish it, to place it under the Army, or to more thoroughly integrate it into the Navy…In 1946 there had been attempts by the War Department and President Truman to reduce the Marine Corps to a small satellite of the Army or Navy through Senate Bill 2044, which left the job of defining missions of the armed services to the Secretary of Defense. Then Congress passed the National Security Act of 1947, which included among other things a charter for the modern Marine Corps. The act reaffirmed the Corps' status as a military service within the Department of the Navy and provided for the Fleet Marine Forces, both ground and aviation. It gave the specific mission of the Marine Corps as follows: seizing and defending advanced bases; conducting land operations incident to naval campaigns; having primary responsibility for development of amphibious warfare doctrines, tactics, techniques and equipment employed by landing forces; and, as in previous legislation, it assigned to the Marine Corps responsibility for providing guards for naval shore stations and ships' detachments, and for performing such other duties as the President may direct."
Maizie H. Johnson
(1970), 2007, CD-ROM, Graphic Images, Adobe Acrobat v6, PC or Mac, 98 pp.
ISBN: 9780788440427
101-CD4042
