Re: Shipboard Marines

JDLail@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> One duty no one else has mentioned is that a Marine served as a
> guard/orderly for the Captain. I believe this was limited to war ships.
>
> In fact I am under the impression that only suface warships had marine
> detachments but I can't remember where I heard or read that.


Because of all the bypassed islands in the Pacific, shore parties from
ships of many nations were needed to take Japanese surrenders in WW II.
There were even a few cases in the ETO. This is from A DIFFERENT WAR:
Marines in Europe and North Africa by Lieutenant Colonel Harry W.
Edwards, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret)
http://www.nps.gov/wapa/indepth/extContent/usmc/pcn-190-003125-00/sec6.htm

"Two cruisers, the Philadelphia and Augusta, provided gunfire support
for French Army troops on the western outskirts of Toulon. Four days
later these ships sent landing parties ashore, which included their
Marine detachments, to accept the surrender of German forces on the is
lands of Pomegues, Chateau d'If, and Ratonneau in the Bay of
Marseilles."

I've also read of a similar situation during Operation Torch.

After WWII, a large part of the Marine's duties on ships was guarding
the nuclear weapons. When they took them out, that lessened the the
need for Marine Detachments in large warships and subtenders.
The Marines in question would have gone to Sea School at MCRD San Diego
and been called a "sea-going bellhop" by other Marines. There's a site
at http://www2.bc.edu/~bucklesg/SeaDuty.htm by a former sea-going
Marine.


Joe
--

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