Scuttlebutt & Small Chow USMC History List
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On this date, May 25, in the year...
1775: The first recorded mention of American Marines is cited in
an
account which describes eight Connecticut Marines escorting
money for
troops to Albany, New York, for further shipment to Ticonderoga.
These
Marines are often referred as the "Original Eight."
1779: Marines participated in the capture of the British
schooners St.
George, Dove, Hazard, and the sloop York by the Oliver Cromwell.
1862: Marines, commanded by Captain Charles G. McCawley,
reoccupied
the Navy Yard at Gosport, Norfolk, Virginia.
1912: The 2nd Marine Regiment of 40 officers and 1,252 enlisted
men,
commanded by Colonel James E. Mahoney, embarked in nine United
States
battleships for Guantanamo, Cuba, to assist in forestalling a
revolution.
1942: Companies C and D, 2nd Raider Battalion, and the 37mm
battery of
the 3rd Defense Battalion, arrived at Midway on board the USS
St.
Louis.
1945: The JCS approved a directive calling for the invasion of
Japanese home islands, scheduled for 1 November.
On Okinawa, pilots from Marine escort carrier Gilbert Islands
flew
their first combat air patrol and close air support strikes.
1947: The 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, followed the rest of its
regiment from Taku, Hopeh, China to Guam.
In China, some 200 Marines were successfully evacuated by
ship from
Chinwangtao (120 northeast of Tientsin) where they had been
isolated
for a week by Chinese Communists.
1949: Company C, 7th Marines, departed Tsingtao for the United
States,
the last Marine Corps unit to serve in the waters off Mainland
China.
1955: Final elements of the 1st Marine Division departed from
Korea
for Camp Pendleton, California.
1961: President Kennedy requested funds to increase the Marine
Corps
to 190,000, following an earlier request to raise strength from
175,000 to 178,000. This would permit manning the Fleet Marine
Force
at a high level, particularly the aviation wings, and the
forming of
the nucleus of a fourth division.
1965: After a meeting between rebel leaders and McGeorge Bundy,
Presidential Assistant for National Security Affairs, the major
phase
of the Dominican crisis ended when a military truce was put into
effect.
1966: Five armed Cuban soldiers intruded into the U.S. Naval
Base,
Guantanamo, but were driven away by Marine fire.
General Wallace M. Greene, Jr., CMC, and Lieutenant General
Richard
C. Mangrum, Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, stated
that the
Federal Government should be rebuilding the fleet which was
proved to
be worn out and inadequate by the Vietnam war. They urged that
the
Merchant Marine be kept strong in times of peace to meet the
needs in
times of war.
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