quantico: crossroads of the marine corps pcn 19000307200 2 · 2012-10-11 · 22 quantico:...

CHAPTER III

THE GREAT WAR: QUANTICO IS BORN

At the turn of the century there was much con-troversy about the 5,400-man Marine Corps, itsfunctions, and its relationship with both the U.S.Navy and the Army. Movements were afoot togive the Corps to the Army and to remove Ma-rines from naval ships, countered by pressuresto retain the Corps as an integral part of thefleet.

Shortly after the Spanish-American War, theSecretary of the Navy convened The GeneralBoard of the Navy to consider the Corps' status,along with many other questions dealing withcomposition of the fleet and the naval defenseof the United States. The board was initiallychaired by Admiral George Dewey, a staunchsupporter of the Marine Corps based on exper-iences in the War with Spain.

With the precedents of Guantanamo Bay, thePhilippines, and China concerning the use ofMarines, the board's deliberations lasted severalyears and produced an agreement that the MarineCorps did in fact have a role in the seizure anddefense of bases in support of the fleet. As Ad-miral l)ewey said, "Marines would be best adaptedand most available for immediate and sudden callfor use in defending any advanced base."'

An "Advanced Base Force" was created to meetthe new requirements. At first a battalion-sizeorganization split between the east coast and thePhilippines, the unit went through a variety ofchanges of size, composition, and location.

In 1910 the equipment and supplies for theAdvanced Base Force were stored at Philadelphiaand at Olongapo in the Philippines and the Corpswas officially given custody of the material. Atthe same time, the Commandant was directed bythe Secretary of the Navy to ". . . take the neces-sary steps to instruct the officers and men underyour command in the use of this material." 2

On 18 April 1910, the Commandant submitteda proposal to the Secretary of the Navy foran Advanced Base School to be set up at NewLondon, Connecticut, for training Marine officers

20

in the attack and defense of advanced navalbases. The curriculum included practical fieldwork as well as classroom time. Among the sub-jects taught were field fortifications, obstacle con-struction, demolitions, mines, map reading, artil-lery, coastal defense, communications, and navalordnance. A year later the school was moved toPhiladelphia which became the home of the EastCoast part of the Advanced Base Force.'

By 1913 the concept of a Marine Corps Ad-vanced Base Force matured with a peacetimestrength of one 1,250-man defense regiment to bestationed at Philadelphia and another of similarsize at Mare Island, California. Wartime strengthcalled for at least 5,000 Marines, with 3,500 ofthese to be in the east.4

After a time of accumulating equipment, sup-plies, and training manuals, and forming specialsignal, engineer, and artillery units to supportthe infantry, the newly organized 1st AdvancedBase Brigade sailed from Philadelphia on 3 Jan-uary 1914, under command of Colonel GeorgeBarnett, for the first full-scale field exercises inthe Caribbean. This joint Marine-Navy exercisewas designed to test materials, organization, andtechniques.5

Although generally a success, the exercisepointed out many problem areas in coordinationand logistics, the resolution of which was to proveof great benefit to the Marine Corps in yearsahead.

Despite their embryo status, elements of theAdvanced Base Force proved their worth inMarine Corps operations in Veracruz, Mexico, inApril 1914, in Haiti in 1915, and in Santo Do-mingo in 1916. Further training and testing ofthis new force was interrupted by events inEurope which were rapidly approaching a climax.

The assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdi-nand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, on28 June 1914, brought to a head growing na-tionalism, political intrigue, and a long series ofdiplomatic crises in Europe. Austria-Hungary de-

QUANTICO IS BORN 21

dared war on Serbia one month later. Russia,which supported Serbia, mobilized on 30 Julyand Germany, which had treaty obligations toAustria, declared war on Russia on 1 August1914 and France on 3 August.

Germany invaded Belgium on 4 August andGreat Britain entered the war the same day.Within a month and six days after the assassina-tion of Archduke Ferdinand, the maj or powers ofEurope were at war with one another.

The first two years of war ended in a stale-mate. Germany and the other Central Powerswere successful on land while Britain was win-fling on the sea with an effective blockade of theCentral Powers. German retaliation for the block-ade prompted much anti-German feeling in theUnited States, especially after Germany sankthe British passenger ship Lusitania in May

1915, with the loss of hundreds of passengers in-cluding many Americans.

Successful Allied propaganda, German subma.rine warfare, and U.S. economic interests influ-enced American public opinion—toward the sideof Great Britain and her Allies. While PresidentWilson tried unsuccessfully to bring the opposingsides to the peace table, America began in late1915 and throughout 1916 to prepare for its pos-sible role in Europe's war.6

As part of this preparation for war, but alsoas part of the Advanced Base Force concept, aMarine Corps Recruit Depot was opened at ParrisIsland, South Carolina, in October 1915, takingover recruit training from Norfolk, Virginia. SanDiego, California, became a west coast Marinebase in January 1916, and facilities at MareIsland, California, were expanded.7

The 11th Marine Regiment presents its colors at a parade held on 20 June 1918 for legislators and members of theAllied Mission visiting Quantico. (USMC Photo 518476).

22 QUANTICO: CROSSROADS OF THE MARINE CORPS

In mid-1916 the strength of the Corps wasabout 11,000 officers and men. The National De-fense Act of 29 August 1916, authorized an in-crease to almost 15,600 Marines, with provisionsfor expanding the Corps to 18,100 in an emer-gency.8

The Marine Corps planned to use the additionalmen to fill out the Advanced Base Force to a war-time strength of 5,000 men, to provide 7,000Marines for duty with the Army, and to beef upother Marine detachments.9

The plan was to stretch expansion over oneyear from the National Defense Act. Recruitingproceeded at a leisurely pace and by the end of1916 the Corps had added no officers and lessthan 1,000 enlisted Marines.'0

Where to put these new Marines and the othersto come was a problem. San Diego and MareIsland had adequate facilities for the West Coast,but the war was going on in Europe and atten-tion was drawn in that direction. It soon becameapparent that the Marine Corps needed a suitablelocation on the East Coast to organize, train, andexercise its forces.

Until the expansion, the Corps had trained itsmen at Navy bases, but the Naval AppropriationBill of August 1916 tacked on to the NationalDefense Act allowed the Navy to increase enlistedstrength to 150,000 men, and the Corps wasbeing pushed out of its usual training sites asshore bases expanded in anticipation of the Navy'swartime needs.

Even without the Navy's expansion, the Corpsprobably could not have sheltered and trainedits new personnel with facilities then in use.Growth of the Corps in 1916 and 1917—pluslater increases—would rapidly have outrun allexisting facilities.

Aside from the expected requirements of warin Europe and the resultant expansion of theCorps, many senior Marine officers believed thatthe Corps needed an East Coast base just for theAdvanced Base Force. The force, a brigade ofinfantry plus artillery and service units, neededmore space for quartering, training, and storagethan the Philadelphia Navy Yard had. An areawith suitable tactical terrain for artillery andinfantry maneuvers and that could be reachedby water and rail was needed. This requirementhad been discussed by the Navy's General Boardyears earlier, but no decision was made.11

With these two important considerations—theneeds of the Advanced Base Force and antici-pated war requirements compounded by Navytakeover of traditional Marine training areas—

the Commandant of the Marine Corps, MajorGeneral George Barnett, began searching for anEast Coast base emphasizing that he ". - - didnot want a base within the limits of an activenavy yard as the industrial and other Navy re-quirements paramount there would probablycrowd out the Marine Corps activities." 12

Before the search got underway, however, Presi-dent Wilson in March 1917 used the emergencypowers in the National Defense Act of August1916 to further increase the Corps to 18,100 men.

Events then moved quickly and before a sitecould be found for a base, the United States de-clared war on Germany, 6 April 1917. On thatday, the Corps had 13,700 Marines, several thou-sand short of the strength authorized almost ayear earlier. These men were distributed among25 posts within the United States, over 2,200were serving on board 32 Navy ships around theworld, while almost 5,000 were in Haiti, theDominican Republic, and at eight other foreignduty stations'3

With the coming of war, the Marine Corps lostno time in its quest for an East Coast base.

On the same day that war was declared, theMajor-General Commandant appointed a board

- for the purpose of recommending a site inthis [Washington] vicinity for a temporary train-ing camp and maneuver field for the MarineCorps," and told the board ". . . this site shouldbe of sufficient size to accommodate approxi-mately 7,500 men, with the necessary maneuverfield and target ranges." Colonel Charles A.Doyen, Lieutenant Colonel George Van Orden,and Captain Seth Williams made up the board.14

The board made several tours in the vicinity ofWashington, D.C., and after checking some pro-posed sites, picked one for a camp of 7,000 men,and another close by for a maneuver area. Thelocations were inspected by other Marines andafter brief deliberations were ruled unacceptable.

On 16 April 1917, the Commandant sent theboard back into the field and they went the nextday to Quantico, Virginia, and inspected a pro-posed camp there. The land they looked at be-longed to the Quantico Company which was nothaving much success getting rid of it. Despitethe company's eflorts at selling lots and laying outstreets in the town of Quantico, the shipbuildingprogram and the tourist business, the QuanticoCompany was in financial trouble. It owned morereal estate than it could properly dispose of.'5

A few days after inspection of the Quanticosite, Brigadier General John A. Lejeune, Assistantto the Commandant of the Marine Corps, wrote

QUANTICO IS BORN 23


to his friend Brigadier General Littleton W. T.Wailer on 21 April 1917, saying:

I think we have about made arrangements herefor a very fine place for a temporary training groundon the Potomac at Quantico. It has very good waterfacilities and also some public utilities which wecan use. However, no final decision has yet beenreached. There will be ample ground at this placefor both military and infantry combat firing. Win-throp, Maryland, which is nearby can be used forknown distance firing.

On 23 April 1917, the board told the Com-mandant ". . . it is believed that the site at Quan-tico fulfills all requirements of a concentrationand training camp for the Marine Corps, and hasall the requirements for a permanent post, exceptthat it is not on deep water." 17

The recommendation was accepted and aftersome negotiations with the Quantico Company,the U.S. Government leased about 5,300 acresof land around the town of Quantico. The sitehad room for 7,000 men with maneuver areasand space for infantry and artillery target ranges.

When the war broke out, temporary recruit de.pots were opened at the Navy Yards in Philadel-phia and Norfolk to handle new enlistees.Philadelphia had a capacity of 2,500 recruits atone time while Norfolk could handle only 500.These facilities were used until the new recruitdepots at Parris Island, South Carolina, and theone at Mare Island, California, could accom-modate the new Marines. Both bases were fever-ishly building and expanding to take care of thetemporary increases in the Corps' size.

Recruit training in April 1917 was eight weekslong at Parris Island. At Mare Island, recruitsgot 12 weeks of training until a month after thewar started when training was cut to nine weeksand then to eight. Eight weeks remained thestandard for the rest of the war.

The Corps planned to take graduates of therecruit depots plus incoming officers and sendthem all to the new base at Quantico for realisticadvanced training that would prepare them forcombat in France. With a site located and a mis-sion in mind, the next step was to set up a camp.

On 2 May 1917, the Commandant appointedanother board ". - - for the purpose of selectinga site for temporary buildings at the MarineCorps Camp of Instruction, Quantico, Va." Thisboard was made up of Brigadier General Lejeune,Lieutenant Colonel Robert H. Dunlap, MajorSeth Williams, a Navy civil engineer, and aNavy medical officer, W. L. Mann.19

The visitors were not impressed by what theysaw.

An inspection between south and north-boundtrains showed a few sleepy houses along a dustyStreet which ended at a small wharf. The hills be-yond were covered with pine and a tangle of under-hush. Two hundred laborers were cutting a roadthrough the forest (now Barnett Avenue) - To theleft of the settlement was a swampy pond, and arutted wagon trail led to a cornfield. The entire areawas roughly segmented by three creeks that mean-dered down from the hills and fanned out into themarshes bordering the Potomac. The outlook was notpretty—a primitive corduroy road, connecting withthe outside world (half an hour from Quantico toTriangle was fast time), red clay, quagmires, andfive thousand acres in the camp.2°

Despite appearances of the area, the boardpicked sites for initial encampments and returnedto Washington, D.C.

On the 14 May 1917, the 9th Company of theArtillery Battalion from the Marine Barracks,Annapolis, Maryland, consisting of 91 enlistedmen, 4 officers, and 2 hospital corpsmen undercommand of Major Chandler Campbell, arrived atQuantico by boat and began to set up a trainingcamp for Marines.2' Hard on the heels of thefirst group, the remainder of the light artillerybattalion arrived.

Major Campbell was appointed the first com-manding officer (temporary) of "Marine Bar-racks, Quantico, Va,," by the Commandant on14 May 1917. Two days later, the Secretary ofWar asked his Navy counterpart to provide aregiment of Marines organized as infantry to ac-company the Army's expeditionary force toFrance.

On 18 May—four days after the base opened—the first Marines began pouring in for training.Initial plans were that Quantico would houseabout 3,500 men, with a headquarters, hospital,kitchen, messhall, bath house, barracks, store-houses, and utilities. To start with, though, every-one was housed in tents.

Almost before the Marines at Quantico couldget started, Congress authorized another increasein the Corps' strength to 31,300 on 22 May 1917.

A few days later, 29 May, the Secretary of theNavy directed the Commandant to ". . . organizea force of Marines to be known as the Fifth Regi-ment of Marines for service with the Army aspart of the first expedition to proceed to Francein the near future." 22 A base detachment of about1,000 men was to be sent later as replacements.

This decision followed much discussion withinthe Naval Service regarding employment of Ma-

QUANTICO IS BORN 25

Bridge at the main entrance to Quantico on Barnett Avenue. Old maps label the runoff River Styx. The long line ofbarracks was replaced by brick "letter" barracks in the l93Os. An underground storm sewer now runs through the filled-inrunoff. (Leatherneck Magazine Photo).

rines. The Chief of Naval Operations wantedMarines to serve only with the Navy during thewar, but the Commandant held fast to the ideathat Marines should fight alongside the Army,thus ensuring a greater role for the Corps andenhancing its expansion.23

The 5th Regiment had recently returned fromSanto Domingo, Dominican Republic, as part ofthe Advanced Base Force and disbanded in late1916. Upon receipt of the Secretary's order,elements of the former 5th were hastily recalledfrom Santo Domingo and Haiti, and the 5th Reg-iment was formed again 7 June 1917 underColonel Charles A. Doyen. Two companies weremade up from troops at Norfolk, Virginia. Onecompany was organized at Pensacola, Florida,and another at Quantico out of troops who hadjust arrived and barely unpacked. These fourcompanies completed the 1st Battalion underMajor Julius S. Turrill who had taken commandof Quantico from Campbell on 25 May. Thecompanies from Norfolk and Pensacola met atQuantico and after brief but intense training,Major Turrill took his battalion to Philadelphiato join the rest of the 5th leaving command ofQuantico with Colonel Albertus W. Catlin.

Two more battalions were formed at Philadel-phia out of Marines who had belonged to the old5th Regiment of the Advanced Base Force.

On 14 June 1917 the initial contingent of the5th sailed for France on board the transportsHenderson, De Kaib, and Hancock, arriving on27 June. A second increment left on the 17th. By2 July the entire regiment was in Europe.24

Thus, just 10 weeks after the declaration ofwar which found the Corps spread around theworld, the 5th Regiment of 70 officers and 2,700

5th Marine Regiment boards the FISS Henderson fromthe pier at Potomac Avenue in Quantico. The departureof Marines for service in France during World War Iand for expeditionary duty in the Carib bean was a fre-quent event. (Quantico Photo 012—1280—3—75, courtesyof LtCol C. T. Lamb, USMC (Ret.)).


enlisted Marines—about one-sixth of the enlistedstrength of the Corps—left for war and formedone-fifth of the first increment of American troopssent to Europe.25

As Marines from recruit depots poured intoQuantico, the Corps was also building up itsofficer strength.

After war was declared the Corps drew its of-ficers from numerous sources. Naval Academygraduates, former Marine officers, former Navyofficers, Marine warrant officers and noncommis-sioned officers, reserve officers, National NavalVolunteers, graduates of civilian military colleges,civilians with prior military experience, and othercivilians who passed nationwide competitive ex-aminations were put into Marine officer uniforms.

Officers from civilian life were first sent toMare Island, California; San Diego, California;Parris Island, South Carolina; or to the MarineCorps Rifle Range at Winthrop, Maryland, forindoctrination pending completion of facilities atQuantico.2°

In keeping with tradition, the Corps drewlarge numbers of its officers from enlisted ranks.Shortly after war began, commanders throughoutthe Corps were allotted a quota of officer can-clidates based on unit strength, and were requiredto convene boards of at least three officers to ex-amine potential officers among enlisted Marines.Board reports were sent to Headquarters MarineCorps where another board reviewed the applica-tions and selected the best qualified.

The first group of 345 new officers drawn fromcivilian life, Marine enlisted ranks, and othersources, arrived at Quantico in July 1917 to begintraining as troop leaders. The new lieutenantswere formed into four companies and underwenta three-month course at the "officers camp ofinstruction," graduating in October 1917. Thisschool was only temporary and was not formal-ized until months later.27

This first officers training school at Quanticocan trace its beginning to 1891 when MarineCorps General Order No. 1 established the Schoolof Application at Marine Barracks, Washington,D.C., as the first formal resident school for Ma-rine officers. The school opened 1 July 1891with seven officers who had recently graduatedfrom the Naval Academy. After 12 years theschool moved to Marine Barracks in Annapolis,Maryland, and was renamed the Marine Officers'School in 1909. In 1910 it moved to the NavalDisciplinary Barracks, Norfolk, Virginia.28

Under the 1916 expansion of the Corps, 23new officers commissioned from the ranks went

Moving day at the Marine Camp, Quantico, duringWorld War I. (USMC Photo 517945).

to the Marine Officers' School for a short time inSeptember 1916 before going to a combat unit.More small groups followed, but many new offi-cers were rushed off to join units leaving forFrance without any formal schooling. Withoutstudents, the school all but closed, and it wasdecided to move the instructional effort to Quari-tico where individual replacements and new unitswere being formed for the war. Quantico waswhere all new officers were going and that shouldbe the place where they received their training.

The Officers' Training School at Norfolk wentout of business in July 1917 and became thenucleus of the Officers' Camp of Instruction atQuantico where weapons, tactics, and troop lead-ing were taught new lieutenants before theyjointed units en route to France.

As the 5th Regiment left for France and newMarine officers assembled at Quantico, the for-mation and training of the 5th Regiment BaseDetachment had begun at Quantico under Lieu-tenant Colonel Hiram I. Bearss. The 1,200-mandetachment, organized into a machinegun com-pany and four rifle companies, lived in tentsamidst a cornfield which is now a parade field,and left for Philadelphia at the end of July onthe way to France.29

Also in July the Secretary of the Navy hadoffered another regiment of Marines to the Sec-retary of War and the Army quickly accepted.On 26 July orders came down to Quantico toform the 6th Regiment of Marines under Colonel

QUANTICO IS BORN 27

Catlin as the next major contingent of Marinesto go to France and fight alongside the Army.

The 6th, which had more time to get organizedthan its predecessor, was brought to strength byvolunteer recruits and a large proportion ofyoung college men who had enlisted in drovesshortly after war was declared. Experienced Ma-rines were drawn from all posts of the Corps.Battalion and company officers were all regularofficers while junior officers were in most casesrecently commissioned.

A machinegun battalion was formed at Quan.tico on 17 August consisting of a headquartersand two companies armed with 16 Lewis gunseach. Initially named the 1st Machine Gun Bat.talion, the unit trained intensely under Britishmachinegun instructors fresh from France. Twoadditional companies were added later.

The Marines who arrived at Quantico duringthe summer of 1917 to form these new organiaa.tions had few favorable observations. Accordingto one early arrival: "The mode of transportationin those days was mostly ox-cart, horse andwagon, and home saddle horses. Many times I

have seen those ox-carts and wagons boggeddown in the mud of what is now Broadway (themain street in Quantico town). The mud on thestreet was almost knee-deep on rainy days." 30From those 1917 Marines, Quantico quicklyearned the title of "Slippery Mud Virginia."

Another observed that:

I the area of the Marines' reservation there wasnot a single brick or stone building except the oldhotel, a relic dating back almost to the Civil War.There were a few temporary wooden shacks, but notmany, one of them the old Quartermaster's Depot ona spur of the railroad. Only a few fathoms of con-crete had been laid on Barnett Avenue destined tobe Quantico's Main Street. Contractors were working

feverishly to extend this roadway. Everywhere elsewas mud, a slippery, red, gumbo-like variety, intowhich the foot sank ankle-deep after a rain.

In the village, outside the military reservation,were two brick buildings, occupied by the bank anddrug store. There were also two wooden shacks,tenanted respectively by the town barbershop andby a restaurant presided over by Pete-the-Greek, aworthy destined to serve ham and eggs to hungryMarines for a score of years.

Up and down the unpaved road between the rail-road station and the wharf toiled a miscellaneousassortment of vehicles consisting largely of ox-cartsloaded with 'hay. Rumor had it that after a hardrain, these hay-wagons would frequently sink intoholes in the street until only the horns of the oxenand the heads of the drivers were visible. Roadsconnecting Quantico with the rest of the UnitedStates were practically nonexistent. A trip to Wash-ington in wet weather was an adventure rankingwith Admiral Byrd's dog-sled journey to the SouthPole.

From Post Headquarters where I reported, Itrudged what seemed like miles through stickygumbo to the Officers' Training Camp, as it wasthen known, far beyond the spot where the pavingon Barnett Avenue ended. The School was backedagainst the R. F. and P. tracks, flanked by a coupleof ravines.3'

Summer of 1917 was considered to be one ofthe hottest ever recorded. One resident recalledthat a Carter's Little Liver Pills thermometernailed to a company barracks often registered 110degrees in the shade. With the heat, the muddisappeared temporarily and dense clouds of reddust took its place.

Others who arrived in the summer of 1917 ob-served that ". . . there was a town - . - just a fewwooden houses and a store and that was all.We spent the first night sleeping in an open-airdance pavilion on the edge of town." Crudewooden barracks were built on land speckled withtree stumps and corn stubble. Barracks as well

Je/jery Quad cargo trucks at Quantico in 1918. During the fall rains, the unpaved streets became a quagmire of mudthat reoujred the use of chains on the solid rubber-tired wheels. (USMC Photo 518095).


as tent camps were built on the edge of Quanticotown.

As the Marines came, the town of Quanticofound itself in a unique situation—the Potomacwas on one side and Marines were everywhereelse. The only road into town ran through Ma.rifle Corps property and there were many seriousmeetings between town and Marine officials tosettle a myriad of delicate situations.

Another Marine remembered Quantico as be-ing "hot as a pistol or muddier than a pigsty."Another pointed out that ". . . we didn't have anylaundry at first so we built a ramp over the Po-tomac River, stood in the river, washing out ourclothes on the ramp."

"There wasn't any water," another remarked."We borrowed from farmers' wells until they ranout, then asked the railroad if we could tap theirwater tower. They said no. We tapped it." 32

Sanitation was a problem from the start. Withinthree weeks from the opening of the base therewere 1,000 Marines on board with no provisionsfo:r garbage disposal and no sewer system.Various types of field incinerators were tried, aswas burying in large pits. The incinerators didn'twork properly and the pits filled faster than 15laborers working full time could dig new ones.Another project was to load waste on lighters anddump it several miles down the Potomac, butthis did not work out. Finally, a huge hillside in-cinerator was built which managed to keepabreast of the problem.33

In the early days all water was hauled by cartsfrom two wells near the railroad bridge overLittle Creek.

Mosquitoes were another big problem andmuch time was spent by medical personnel com-bating this menace. Troops slept under nettingwhenever available, and hundreds of Marinesworked hard filling in swamps and spraying wetareas to destroy mosquito breeding grounds.Meningitis, pneumonia, influenza, measles,mumps, and chicken pox added to the health andsanitation problems.

On 17 August 1917, the post hospital witha 100-patient capacity moved from tents to a newwoodframe building. By that time enoughwooden barracks had been built to house all

troops except the 5th Regiment Base Detachment,and most of the tents came down. Some of thebuildings had been ferried across the Potomac onNavy barges from the old Marine Barracks atStump Neck, Maryland.

Brigadier General John A. Lejeune took com-mand at Quantico in late September 1917, andrecalled:

Although a sufficient number of barracks build-ings to house the personnel were completed, a largeamount of construction work still remained to bedone, including concrete roads and streets. A greatgymnasium building, containing a large assemblyhall and other desirable facilities such as the postlibrary, was in process of construction also . . . thelack of housing facilities for married officers atQ uantico was a serious handicap, as it was neces-sary for all but a few who obtained rooms at thesmall hotel there to seek shelter for their families in

Tent drill on the grounds in front o/the old hospital on Picnic Point, now the site of Ellis Hall. (Leatherneck Mag-azine).

QUANTICO IS BORN 29

Fredericksburg, Alexandria or Washington, and tocommute to Quantico."

General Lejeune himself commuted daily fromWashington, D.C.

The hotel to which Lejeune referred was builtin the l880s on "Rising Hill" overlooking thetown of Quantico. It played an important role inQuantico's efforts to become an excursion centerbefore the Marines arrived, and served as officers'quarters from 1917 on. Officers who lived theresaid it had "eight more bathrooms than the Em-porium in Kansas City."

The Quantico Hotel became Marine Corps prop.erty in 1918 and was renamed "Waller Hall" inmemory of Major Littleton W. T. Wailer whohad become one of the Corps' heroes because ofhis exploits on the island of Samar in the Philip-pines during 1901.

When the Marines took over, the building be-came a bachelor officers' quarters. Waller Hallserved as officers' quarters and an officers' clubuntil 20 October 1968, when it had to be closedbecause of structural failure. As the building wasbeing torn down, it was discovered that it hadbeen built over one of the Evansport Confederategun positions.35

Only days before Lejeune took command atQuantico, the 1st Battalion of the 6th Regiment—which had been training at Quantico since theend of July—left for Philadelphia and boarded

the Henderson there on 16 September 1917 forFrance. Two other battalions of the 6th remainedat Quantico for a short time.

Along with getting the units ready for the warin France, General Lejeune had another seriousproblem to contend with.

On 13 September 1917, exactly one monthafter the new hospital opened, it received the firstcases of the then-dangerous influenza on whatlater was named "Black Friday."

Within twenty-four hours of General Lejeune'sassumption of command, 130 Marines had beenadmitted to the hospital with influenza and 233were admitted the next day. Over 1,600 Marineswere down with the disease by the end of Septem-ber; barracks were converted to hospital wardsand the small staff of medical personnel workedaround the clock. The epidemic lasted throughmid-December 1917. More than 4,000 cases hadbeen treated with 140 deaths.36

But influenza did not halt the organization andtraining of Marines.

Stemming from a decision in June 1917 to in-crease the Philadelphia-based Advanced BaseForce to 8,000 Marines organized into two in-fantry regiments with supporting units and artil.lery, the 8th and 9th Regiments were formed atQuantico in the fall of 1917. At that time theUnited States expected the European war wouldlast longer than it did, and officials feared that

Wailer Hall, the former Quantico Hotel, served as quarters for bachelor officers beginning in 1917. (Quantico Photo012—0244—1—77).


the German Fleet would reach the high seas andthreaten the Caribbean. If so, an advanced navalbase would be needed in the Caribbean to defendthe Panama Canal and other important posses-sions. Marines would be required to defend thisbase, plus serve as a general backup force incase of an unexpected emergency.37

The 8th Regiment was formed 9 October 1917,and Colonel Laurence H. Moses took commandon 3 November. With 40 officers and 1,200 enlisted Marines, he moved the regiment to Texasto protect the critical oil industry from expectedGerman sabotage. The regiment remained in GaLveston throughout the war, training and perform-ing arduous guard duty.38

The formation of the 8th was followed closelyby the departure of the 3rd Battalion of the 6thRegiment, which left Philadelphia on 30 Octoberon board the Von Steuben for France.

The regimental commander of the 6th, ColonelCatlin, had sailed for France on 16 Octoberaboard the De Kaib with his staff, machinegun,and supply companies.

The 9th Regiment was formed 20 November1917, and began a long period of organizationand training. It eventually was sent to the Carib-bean—mostly to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but alsoto other Caribbean islands. It never saw servicein France.

The Advanced Base Force Headquarters re-mained at Philadelphia with some supportingUnits.

With the departure of the 8th and the estab-lishment of the 9th Regiment, winter came toQ uantico and Marines in training there werefaced with another set of extremes.

A resident at the time recalled:

The oldest known aerial view of Quantico Marine Camp about 1919, with the old gymnasium the large building in theleft foreground. (USMC Photo 530212).

QUANTICO IS BORN 31

When winter came the cold proved as intense as theheat had been six months before. The thermometertook a nose-dive. Gossips reported that a minimumof 17 degrees below zero was reached. The ice onthe Potomac reminded all and sundry of Russia'sWhite Sea in the winter. Sixteen-inch shells fromthe Naval Proving Ground at Indian Head, Maryland,failed to penetrate and skipped along the surface ofthe ice fields for miles to the great alarm of a fewhardy souls who occasionally went skating. BobbyNelson, then a first lieutenant, and Aide to the PostCommander, bushkowed a yoke of oxen and draggeda couple of these monster shells ashore. They weremounted on concrete bases and stood before theold Officers' Club on the bluff overlooking the Po-tomac. - .

During that especially cold winter of 1917—1918, General Lejeune described the feeling heexperienced as his Marines completed their train-ing and embarked for France:

it was a heartbreaking winter for those ofus who were left behind. Unit after unit entrainedand departed for the mysterious land where battlesraged . . . always at six o'clock in the morning thedetachments left. What bleak, cold, wintry morningsthey were. Once the thermometer registered 14 de-grees below zero. All of those left behind stood alongthe railway tracks and shouted three lusty cheersfor their departing comrades, while the bands playeduntil instruments froze. As we turned away to re-sume our daily tasks, how heavy-hearted we were! °

One of the last units to leave in 1917 was the1st Machine Gun Battalion initially formed dur-ing August. The battalion left Quantico in earlyDecember and on the 8th boarded the De Kaib atNewport News, Virginia, for France. Upon ar-rival it was redesignated the 6th Machine GunBattalion.

By the end of 1917, scores of 50-man barrackshad been completed, with separate niesshalls,kitchens, and lavatories for each barrack. A coldstorage plant with a capacity of 15 tons of icedaily and 15,000 cubic feet of cold storage, and alaundry for government linen were under con-struction. The buildings were of simple construc-tion but were screened and double-floored.41

Meanwhile, the Quantico Company whichleased the land to the Marine Corps still wasn'tdoing well financially and made an offer on 8December 1917 to sell the Corps, ". . . all ofthe property now covered by your lease at Quan-tico," and another piece of real estate, for$500,000. The offer contained a threat that thecompany might ". . . be forced to make someother disposition of its property to take care ofits financial obligations" if the U.S. Governmentdid not see fit to purchase it.42

The Corps leaped at the opportunity, and on 2January 1918 the Commandant appointed aboard to make a recommendation as to the landrequired at Quantico for the quartering, instruct-ing, target practice, and maneuvering of onebrigade. The board's report was to be an estimateof the land required for a Marine Corps baseconsidering both the requirements for a wartimestaging base and a permanent East Coast locationfor the Advanced Base Force.

The board, consisting of Brigadier GeneralLejeune, Lieutenant Colonel Dunlap, and MajorHenry L. Roosevelt, made its report on 25 Jan-uary 1918.

Congress accepted the board recommendationand enacted legislation approved by PresidentWilson on 1 July 1918. The legislation authorizedthe President to acquire the land as a permanentMarine Corps post and the sum of $475,000 wasappropriated. The parcel of land included all thatoccupied by Marines in training plus a 1,200-acrepiece west of U.S. Highway 1. President Wilson'sproclamation making Quantico a permanent basewas not issued until 4 November 1918. On 11December 1918, almost a month after the warwas over, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Danielsauthorized the Marine Corps to take official pos-session of the land.

Although the Quantico Company had originallyoffered the land for sale at $500,000, and duringthe course of negotiations the price even went to$575,000, the land was finally sold for $475,000.

As 1918 dawned at Quantico the hospital whichhad suffered through the influenza epidemic hadexpanded to hold 400 patients and had sevendispensaries scattered around the base with acombined staff of 50 officers, 25 female nurses,and 500 corpsmen.44

The final unit of the 6th Regiment, the 2dBattalion, left Quantico in early January andembarked at Philadelphia on 19 January on theHenderson, arriving in France on the 5th ofFebruary.

Once all of the 6th Regiment and 6th MachineGun Battalion had arrived in France, it combinedwith the 5th Regiment to form the 4th MarineBrigade—the largest tactical unit of Marines everassembled up to that time. Together with the 3dArmy Brigade, the Marines formed the U.S. 2dDivision.45

The 4th Brigade, consisting of an average of258 officers and 8,200 enlisted Marines, sufferedabout 12,000 casualties in France during thewar.46


No sooner had the last unit of the 4th Brigadeleft Quantico than General Pershing in Francecalled for three replacement battalions. Quanticowas asked to organize and train these battalions,which were upped in number to five in short or-der. All were sent overseas during the first threemonths of 1918. When the 4th Brigade becameactively engaged in June 1918, it suffered morethan normal battle casualties and two replacementbattalions were sent from Quantico nearly everymonth during the rest of the war.47

The Corps' first two artillery regiments, the10th and 11th Regiments, were formed at Quan-tico during January 1918.

The War Department had approved a Navyproject to send heavy artillery to join the Amer-ican Expeditionary Force. The units were to beequipped with 14-inch railway guns and 7-inchconverted naval guns on caterpillar mounts.

The Marine Corps was given the task of com-ing up with the 7-inch gun regiment, while theNavy was to man the railway guns. The Marineunit was to be part of extensive operations plan-ned for 1919—which never came about.

The 10th Regiment, formed 14 January 1918,absorbed a battalion of 3-inch guns which hadbeen part of the Advanced Base Force, and abattery of 4.7-inch artillery, both already intraining at Quantico in hopes of being expandedinto an artillery regiment. The 10th continued totrain with 3-inch artillery despite a Departmentof War prohibition against 3-inch field artillerybeing sent to France, and waited until July 1918

before it received any 7-inch guns. Even then itreceived only two and got no more before war'send. It never saw service in France.48

The 11th Regiment, formed four days after the10th, was organized into six heavy artillery bat-teries as part of the Advanced Base Force head-quartered in Philadelphia. The regiment'sbeginning can be traced back to 16 November1917, when four infantry companies had been sentfrom Philadelphia to Quantico to train as artil-lerymen in anticipation of receiving 8-inch how-itzers. In April 1918 two of the 11th batterieswere taken away to form an antiaircraft battalion,and a third went to the Virgin Islands in theCaribbean as a coast defense unit shortly after-ward. It wasn't until June 1918 that the 11th re-ceived its first 8-inch howitzer and then no moreuntil August. In September the regiment wasdisbanded and its remaining batteries formed aseparate artillery battalion equipped with 3-inchguns. Its regimental designation was given to aninfantry regiment. The artillery unit remained atQuantico until after the war and never saw activeservice.49

During the spring of 1918 nine Marine De-tachments of Battleship Force One were removedfrom their ships and sent to Quantico to provideroom for seamen in training. These Marines,many of whom were trained as battleship guncrews, were absorbed into Quantico's artilleryunits.

The second year of the war also saw the be-ginning of more formalized training at Quantico

Artillerymen of the 92d Company, 10th Marines, with a 75mm gun being pulled by a Quad truck. (USMC Photo518083).

QUANTICO IS BORN 33

for units that were formed for duty in France,and for individual Marines who were still pour-ing in from recruit depots and the officer selec-tion program.

The "officers' camp of instruction" which hadbegun informally in mid-1917 became the "offi-cers training camp" and officially convened inApril 1918 with a class of 600 officer candidates,divided into companies with a major in commandas chief instructor, and with experienced captainsand lieutenants to assist.5°

Instruction was given in infantry drill, interiorguard, bayonet, bombing (hand grenades), in-fantry tactics, military engineering, topography,administration, military law, gas warfare, seaduty, and marksmanship.

Of this first class, 164 of the new lieutenantshad come from enlisted ranks of the 4th Brigade

in France. The training was intensive, rugged,and competitive. Relatively few of the studentsfailed the course, attesting to the thoroughness ofthe training as well as the efficiency of the selec-tion process.

Most members of this first class graduated inJuly 1918. Three hundred completed the courseon 15 July and the rest on 15 August. The secondclass of 570 convened 20 August 1918 andgraduated on 16 December.

The course had been extended three weeks toallow for a second although less crippling in-fluenza outbreak. The third and final class of thetraining camp graduated in July 1919 after thewar, and the graduates were appointed secondlieutenants (provisional), Class 4 Marine CorpsReserve, and assigned to inactive duty.

Topography was one of the subjects studied by second lieutenants in the Officers' Training Camp in 1918. The train-ing camp was a forerunner of the modern officer education programs. (USMC Photo 530214).


A month after the officers training camp wasorganized as a formal school, Quantico formedthe "Overseas Depot" on 19 May 1918, with thedual purpose of training individual Marines asreplacements and of forming and training entireunits to serve with the American ExpeditionaryForce.5'

Prior to organizing the depot, the 5th and 6thRegiments, the 6th Machine Gun Battalion, theBase Detachment for the 5th Regiment, and tworeplacement battalions had been formed and sentto France. It must have been apparent that a bet-ter system was needed, especially with increaseddemands for individual Marines and entire com-bat-ready units, and the depot was born.

Aside from the usual administrative staff, thedepot had specialist schools for technical trainingof infantry, including machinegun training, andfor coordination of supporting arms; it had atactical department for instruction in tacticslearned in France; it had schools for trainingfirst sergeants, mess sergeants, cooks, clerks,and armorers; and it had an officers' school,bayonet, bombing, gas, automatic rifle, and scout-sniper courses, and a mines and sappers school.

Most of the depot's instructors were veterans ofthe fighting in France, and on the staff were twoFrench and four Canadian officers fresh from thebattlefield.

As Marines completed training and instructionin any of the depot's specialty schools, they wereformed into platoons—the principal trainingunits—fleshed out with recruits fresh from eightweeks of training at Parris Island or Mare Island.About 85 percent of the troops arriving at thedepot were directly from the recruit depots.

Depot-trained platoon leaders and noncommis-sioned officers formed nuclei of qualified per-sonnel in the platoons who could continue thetraining of newly arrived recruits. Officers camefrom the officers' schools in the depot after com-pleting the officers' training camp nearby. Wherenoncommissioned officers were not school grad-uates, they were experienced in combat skillseither through service in France or other MarineCorps duty.

When four platoons were completed theyformed a company with the company headquar-ters made up of other depot graduates. Whenenough companies were ready, battalions wereorganized and instruction continued by battalionofficers under depot supervision.

Two entire regiments were formed by the depotthrough this technique. In the case of regiments,the system for smaller units continued except

supervision of the organization ceased and depotfacilities were merely made available to the regi-mental commander.

About 90 percent of depot training for organ-ized units was in the field rather than the class-room.

The depot organized and trained the 3d, 4th,5th, 6th, 9th, 10th, and 11th Separate Battalions;the 2d and 3d Machine Gun Battalions; the 5thBrigade Machine Gun Battalion; the 2d and 3dSeparate Machine Gun Battalions; and the 11thand 13th Regiments—for a total of about 16,000officer and enlisted Marines, over one-fourth ofwhom were also graduates of the depot's special-ized schools.

Aside from depot schools, another 69 officersand 2,084 enlisted Marines graduated from theMarine Corps School of Machine Gun Instructionat Utica, New York, before being integrated intothe depot's unit organization.

Medical personnel at Quantico gave the Ma-rines instruction in field sanitation, use of gasmasks, first aid, and personal hygiene—importantsubjects for the environment the Marines wouldencounter in France.

All doctors and hospital corpsmen who couldbe spared from instructor duties or from treating

Marines learn how to assemble and disassemble theLewis machinegun while blindfolded. (USMC Photo531475).

QUANTICO IS BORN 35

the sick and injured trained in the field with Ma-rines. Most of the corpsmen who served in Francewith the 4th Marine Brigade were trained atQuantico. All together about 750 corpsmen weretrained at Quantico and sent to France.

On 24 May 1918, Brigadier General Lejeuneleft Quantico for France, and was replaced incommand by Colonel Smedley D. Butler.

Aviation, too, had its beginning at Quanticoduring 1918. Balloon training for Marines hadbegun in Philadelphia shortly after the formationof the Marine Aeronautic Company there in early1917. A year later, on 28 June 1918, a ballooncompany was activated at Quantico as part of thenewly formed heavy artillery force.53

This unit, commanded by Captain Arthur H.Page—the first Naval Academy graduate to enterMarine aviation—consisted of captive balloonsand seaplanes. At first the unit had two kite hal-loons and two Caquot (free) balloons, and laterduring November received three R—6 seaplanesand one N—9 seaplane. The unit provided ob-servation and spotting for elements of the 10thRegiment, the artillery organization formed earlyin 1918.

The Balloon Company operated in an area justsouth of Quantico town on the river while theseaplanes worked out of the mouth pf Chopawam-sic Creek. A temporary hangar consisting of littlemore than a roof and posts was built north ofthe present Marine Corps Air Station. The corn-

pany trained with Quantico's artillery organiza.tions throughout the war, but never left Quantico.Its kite balloons, however, did have the distinc-tion of making the first air flight from the newMarine base.

On 1 July 1919 the Balloon Company wasdeactivated. Its equipment and personnel wereabsorbed into Squadron C, Northern BombingGroup recently returned from France and sta-tioned at a temporary Marine Flying Field thatlater became the Marine Corps Air Station. TheBalloon Company's hangar was eventually dis-assembled and shipped to California for use byother similar organizations.

The 13th Regiment (infantry) was organizedat Quantico on 2 May 1918. Anticipating a longwar in Europe, the President had directed inApril that an additional brigade of Marines beformed as part of the American ExpeditionaryForce and authorized the necessary replace-ments.54 The new brigade, the 5th, was to consistof the 13th Regiment, the 11th Regiment (whichwas to be infantry instead of artillery), and the5th Brigade Machine Gun Battalion.

Quick on the heels of authorizing the newbrigade, on 1 July 1918 Congress granted an in-crease in the Corps' strength to 78,800 officers andmen.

This large expansion did not come as a sur-prise to those at Quantico. General Lejeune re-called:

In 1918 a Balloon Company was formed at Quantico and practiced inflating an observation balloon, the first officialaviation unit and aircraft based at Quantico. (USMC Photo 530224).


The officers at Quantico were strenuous advocates ofan additional expansion of the Marine Corps by fiftyor seventy-five thousand men, and the proper propor-tion of officers, so that at least a Marine Divisioncomplete in all its parts, could he sent overseas.It was in this way only that the artillery, signalcorps, engineer and medical units could participatein the active operations of the war. This was ourconstant topic of discussion, and when any of usvisited Headquarters, the question was agitated there.There seemed to be some opposition to such a largeexpansion on the ground that the Corps could notmaintain its efficiency under such conditions. Theadvocates of the plan maintained vigorously that thefailure of the Corps to utilize all of its strength,both actual and potential, in the great emergencythen confronting the world would impair its efficiencyto a far greater extent than would a temporary ex-pansion to the limit of its capacity. Finally, theQuantico enthusiasm had its effect and estimates forseventy-five thousand men were submitted to Con-gress, and appropriation therefore was made in thenaval bill which became law on July 1, 1918. Thisbill also provided funds for five or six thousand re-serves, so that the total authorized strength of theCorps for the remaining period of the war amountedto about 80,000 men and 4,000 officers.'

it was not until August 1918, however, that thesecond phase expansion recruits were availableto form new units. It was only then possible toform the 5th Brigade.

Organization of the 13th Regiment was com-pleted in August and the unit left bit-by-bit forFrance. Colonel Butler, who had passed commandof Quantico to Brigadier General Charles A.Doyen on 30 June, commanded the 13th and leftwith his staff on 15 September from Hoboken,New Jersey.

On 5 September, Quantico was tasked withforming the brigade headquarters for the 5thwith Brigadier General Eli K. Cole as brigadecommander. Cole and his staff left Hoboken withButler's group, on the Von Steuben, arriving inFrance on 25 September.5e

The 11th Marine Regiment completed transi-tion from artillery to infantry by mid-Septemberand its headquarters plus the 1st Battalion sailedfrom Philadelphia on the De Kaib on 29 Septem-ber. The 2d and 3d Battalions left Brooklyn onthe Von Steuben and Agamemnon on 16 October.

The 5th Machine Gun Battalion formed forthe new brigade was organized during Septemberand October 1918, and reached France only eightdays before the Armistice.

On 11 November 1918 an Armistice was de-clared in Europe and the fighting came to a halt.Quantico had sent almost 30,000 Marines to jointhe American Expeditionary Force and another1,600 for naval duty ashore. A few weeks after

the Armistice, the Corps reached an all-time highstrength of 75,100 Marines.57

Although the war in Europe was over, therewere still several thousand Marines in training atQuantico and the Corps still had an importantmission in the Caribbean.

On 26 November 1918, eight days after theArmistice, the 14th and 15th Regiments wereformed at Quantico out of more than 2,000 Ma-rines still training. Two weeks later on 11December 1918, the Secretary of the Navyauthorized the Marine Corps to take formal pos-session of Quantico as a permanent Marine Corpsbase.

The 15th Regiment under command of ColonelJames C. Breckinridge left Quantico in mid-Feb-ruary 1919 and embarked at Norfolk for theDominican Republic where it served for three-and-a-half years maintaining the peace. The 14thRegiment under Colonel Richard M. Cutts re-mained at Quantico awaiting a call that nevercame and finally disbanded on 19 June 1919. InJuly 1919 Congress had provided sufficient fundsto maintain the Corps only at an average strengthof 27,400 Marines.

Demobilization of Marines had begun ninedays after the Armistice. Separate units and in-dividual Marines returned to Quantico, Philadel-phia, and Hampton Roads, Virginia, where theywere mustered out. Major units remained inFrance for some months after the conclusion ofhostilities.

On 8 August 1919 the famed 4th MarineBrigade, as part of the 2d Division under MajorGeneral Lejeune, paraded in New York City. Thebrigade was commanded by Brigadier GeneralWendell C. Neville. After the New York parade,duty and proceeded to Washington where it wasreviewed by President Wilson. The next day thebrigade completed its trip to Quantico and de-mobilization began. By the middle of August the5th Brigade had returned to Hampton Roads,Virginia, where it was mustered out.

Almost all temporary wartime Marine Corpsorganizations except those in the Caribbean andone battalion in Europe had been demobilized bythe end of August. The demobilization of thewartime Marine Corps was one of the largest ef-forts that ever confronted the Corps, and Quan-tico played the major role.

In Europe the 15th Separate Battalion had beenorganized during August 1919 for service in con-nection with the Schleswig-Holstein plebiscite

QUANTICO IS BORN 37

when citizens of that region were to choose be-tween Germany and Denmark.

The battalion of 26 officers and 700 enlistedMarines, made of troops from the 4th and 5thBrigades, rendered honors to General Pershingon 1 September 1919 upon his departure fromEurope. On 9 September the battalion took partin a ceremony commemorating the entrance ofthe United States into the war and in Decemberthese last Marines returned home. On the 30th ofthat month, the battalion was back at Quanticoand was disbanded.

In October 1919 Major General Lejeune re-turned to Quantico to take over command again,with Colonel Butler as chief of staff.

In front of the white building that once wasthe headquarters and administration building forMarine Corps Base, Quantico, later the MarineCorps Museum, and now the home of the MarineCorps Association, stands a weather-beaten statueof a lone, battle-weary Marine—"Iron Mike"—dedicated to the memory of the officers and menof the United States Marine Corps who gave theirlives in World War I.

The model for the statue was Carl J. Millardwho, while recuperating in Paris from woundsreceived at Belleau Wood as a private in the 75thCompany, 6th Regiment, was assigned temporar-ily to military police duty. While in Paris he metAmerican sculptor Charles R. Peyre. Peyre hadgone to France to do a statue of an Americansoldier as a memorial to the U.S. Army for serv-ice in France. He completed a work of art depict-ing an American fighting man accurate to the lastdetail—including the Marine Corps emblem onMillard's helmet.

The Army refused to accept the statue becauseof the emblem, and "A Crusade for the Right,"as the statue was officially titled, was purchasedby the Marine Corps through donations fromthose who had served in France. The statue cameto Quantico at the end of the war where it re-ceived the nickname, "Iron Mike" from QuanticoMarines.

A plaque in front of the statue is dedicated tothe 6th Regiment; south and north side plaquesare dedicated to the 5th Regiment and the 6thMachine Gun Battalion. The tablets were pres-ented by the American Legion on 10 November1921, the Marine Corps' 146th Birthday—which

Iron Mike" stands in memory of those thousands ofMarines who passed through Quantico during World War1, especially those who served in France. (Quantico Photo012—3466—1—75).

ushered in a new era of importance for QuanticoMarine Base.

CHAPTER IV

BETWEEN WARS

The year 1919 was a busy one at Quantico. Thel5th Regiment, formed out of Marines trainingat Quantico at war's end, left in mid-Februaryarid landed in Santo Domingo, Dominican Re-public, on 8 March to protect American interests.Along with the 15th went the 1st Air Squadron,marking the first instance of a Marine air-groundtask force being deployed.1

Like other Latin American republics, the Do-minican Republic had experienced much unrestduring the years after the Spanish-American War.President Jimenez took over in 1914 and thecountry was peaceful for a time, but rivalry be-tween jimenez and his Defense Minister, Arias,prompted Jimenez's resignation in 1916. TheUnited States—who believed Arias to be the chiefobstacle to a stable government—landed Marinesin Santo Domingo and elsewhere in May 1916.The Dominican government refused to accept U.S.reforms, and a U.S.-sponsored military govern-ment was established at the end of November1916. Marines were frequently called on in sub-sequent years to suppress revolts and maintainmartial law. The 15th Regiment was one of theorganizations that took part. It wasn't until late1922 that a stable civilian government was estab-lished in the Dominican Republic, and Marinesfinally left in September 1924. Peace was main-tained by a Marine-trained constabulary.

With the return of Marine aviation units fromFrance and the closing of the Marine FlyingField at Miami, Florida, a piece of land wasleased south of Chopawamsic Creek along thePotomac for an operating field for aviation units.The aviators at first wanted their field furthernorth of Quantico, but Headquarters MarineCorps insisted it be near the Marine Barracks.3

Aviation Squadron C arrived 13 June 1919,fresh from France where it had been part of theNorthern Bombing Group's Day Wing. Thesquadron included Marines drawn from Miami,the aviation units in the Azores, and other or-ganizations from the European theater. The avia-

38

tors immediately set to work creating two flyingfields, a 2,000-foot strip on a piece of land stick-ing out into the Potomac east of the railroadtracks and running northeast-southwest, calledField No. 1, and Field No. 2 of 2,500 feet run-ning north and south on the west side of thetracks.4

On 10 July 1919, the Submarine Chaser 542was given by the Navy to Quantico, and, undercommand of Marine Captain Charles M. Jones,it operated on the Potomac between Quantico andWashington, D.C., carrying military passengers,official mail, and flying Marine Corps colors.Later in the month, two companies of Marinesfrom Quantico assisted civil authorities and othermilitary units in maintaining order in Washing-ton, D.C., following race riots.5

During September a second unit of the North-ern Bombing Group, Squadron A, arrived atQuantico and, with the aviators already on thescene, began building an air facility in earnest.Barracks were built of prefabricated buildingsshipped up from the recently closed field atMiami, and work on three landplane hangars andtwo seaplane hangars started. An operationsbuilding, a quartermaster storehouse, shops, offi-ces, and a recreation building were planned forField No. 1, between the railroad tracks and thePotomac.

The new airfield was physically separate fromthe Marine Barracks, connected only with a rail-road trestle across Chopawamsic Creek. For vehi-cles it was necessary to go in a round-about wayvia dirt roads out to Highway 1, then north forseveral miles, and finally a few miles back intothe Marine Barracks area6

Quantico Marines rendered honors to King Al-bert of Belgium, the Prince of Wales, and otherEuropean heads of state during their postwarvisits to Washington, D.C., in October 1919.

With the end of World War I, the war to endall wars, the traditional postwar disillusionment

BETWEEN WARS 39

with the military set in and the world disarmedin anticipation of a long peace. The military serv-ices were cut back and forced to make do withwhat they had on limited budgets. There was thenplenty of time to reflect and study the lessons ofthe Great War and to incorporate its destructiveinventions into future plans. There was also timeto test new ideas and concepts.

Marines in France had done such a good joband had earned so much public and military re-cognition that many within the Corps advocatedthat a corps of elite infantry be built and be-lieved that in this direction lay the future. Othersinsisted that the Corps' basic mission of seizingand defending advanced naval bases—a roleestablished before the war—was the right path tofollow.7

Within this latter group was an awareness thata corps of infantry with nothing else going for itwould duplicate the roles and functions of theArmy, a predicament that could take away theCorps' identity and perhaps force its integrationwith the Army.8

Major General Lejeune had his own ideas onthe future of the Corps. Lejeune, affectionatelycalled "Old Indian" by his troops, "Hell onWheels" by his Aide-de.Camp, and whose mottowas, "Keep going all the time and always for.ward," was an ideal choice for command ofQuantico. He had had a unique series of dutyassignments up to this time. Before the war hewas Assistant to the Commandant in Washington,then at Quantico as commander of the embryobase that formed and trained thousands of Ma.rifles for war, and next in the war itself as com-mander of the Army-Marine 2d Infantry Divi-sion.9

Lejeune attributed the carnage of the frustrat-ing trench warfare in France to "intellectualbankruptcy" on the part of Allied military lead-ers. He believed that the armed forces had beenremiss in their formal education by not pro-ducing farsighted military leaders who could haveanticipated the requirements of a new war andplanned to operate effectively with new weaponsand technology.'0

He had also seen first hand that 20th centurywars were to be far more complex than before,with the introduction of new weapons and instru-ments, machineguns, artillery, electronics, avia-tion, advances in artillery and naval ordnance.To Lejeune these innovations meant that Marineofficers had to receive more intensive and formaltraining than ever before. Lejeune decided thatthe Corps would pioneer new military thinking

and concepts and his base at Quantico would bethe seat of learning for the Corps.'-'

Lejeune's thinking, however, was not limitedto professional military schools. He was also con-cerned with the continuing education of enlistedMarines and with the general postwar moraleand esprit. He recalled:

After the discharge of the men belonging to the4th and 5th Brigade in August 1919, the inevitablepostwar reaction had set in and it was our task torestore the morale of the officers and men on dutyat Quantico. With this end in view, military forma-tions, reviews, inspections and drills were re-insti-tuted . . . a reorganization of all post activitieswas effected, and many economies were introduced."

Just one month after Lejeune assumed com-mand at Quantico, he formed three vocationalschools; Automotive Mechanics, Music, and Type-writing and Shorthand. Lejeune explained:

Anyone familiar with the training of Marines willadmit that as a steady diet, more than two hours ofpurely military training a day will make an enlistedman muscle bound and cause him to grow stale,except in time of war under the attendant excitementand enthusiasm. . . . Heretofore an enlistment in theregular service of the United States has been con-sidered a waste of time unless a man intended tomake it his life work and it certainly was, as far aspreparing him for any duty in civil life. - - - Menwho had professions or trades when they enteredthe Corps necessarily ceased to advance during theperiod of their enlistment, and a man who does notcontinually advance goes backward; no man canstand still.'3

The work day for Quantico Marines under Le-jeune was divided into three periods. From re-veille until the noon meal the men underwentmilitary instruction and training. From then untilthe evening meal they took part in vocational in-struction or recreation of some sort. The policysimply stated was, "Play or go to school everyafternoon."

The vocational schools were referred to by Le-jeune as a "university" and equated to West Pointor Annapolis. Catalogues of the courses were tobe circulated throughout the civilian world. I.e.jeune proposed that top graduates of the schoolsbe sent to civilian universities for graduate train-ing at government expense, and he envisioned thecombination of military-vocational training as aperfect background for commissioned officers inthe Corps. Plans were that heads of labor and in-dustry would visit the schools and help with post.service employment. Groups of students were alsoto visit industries related to their schooling.'4

This ambitious program, Lejeune believed,would enable the Corps to close its recruiting of-


A study hour class at the Marine Corps Institute, 1920. (USMC Photo 520630).

fices and merely pick the best prospects from longwaiting lists. Officers were not excluded from thevocational schools. in fact, Lejeune encouragedofficers to participate, believing that contact withenlisted men in a classroom environment was animportant leadership lesson. Military training forofficers also ceased before the noon meal, allow.ing all but the instructors to either attend voca-tional training in the afternoon or participate inrecreation.

But for the officers, Major General Lejeune hadother plans prompted by his dissatisfaction withofficers' training and by the impact of WorldWar I. When Lejeune took over Quantico afterthe war, the wartime Officers Training Camp stillexisted. Its buildings, equipment and a few in-structors remained after demobilization. Withaugmentation from other organizations at Quan-tico, Lejeune opened the Marine Corps OfficersTraining School in the fall of 1919 in a framebuilding on Barnett Avenue.

Some of the subjects which had been taughtduring the war were retained while others wereadded to keep pace with war experiences and newtechnology. Tactics, topography, and marksman-ship were expanded to include more field train-ing, and the "lessons learned" and far-reaching

changes from the war were reviewed, studied,and incorporated. The first postwar class of 29officers began a 22-week course in late 1919.

A few months later another school, the MarineOfficers Infantry School, was opened on the 12January 1920 and the Officers Training Schoolstudent body increased to 66, but dwindled to 31students by graduation due to resignations, trans-fers, and expeditionary duty.

Seventeen officers were enrolled in the first classof the Infantry School. The faculty consisted ofofficers with much combat experience and hadthe job of developing a comprehensive course ofinstruction from scratch.

In a speech on 12 April 1920, Quantico's Chiefof Staff, Colonel Butler, described the profes-sional and vocational school system as ". - - a re-volution. It is something new. The old officers ofthe Marine Corps would turn over in their gravesif they knew what we were doing because in theold days, they did nothing but soldier. We wantto make this post and the whole Marine Corps agreat university." '

Running two schools, however, proved unsatis-factory due to duplication of effort, and in thefollowing summer these two schools, the OfficersTraining School and the Infantry School were

BETWEEN WARS 41

Barnett Avenue looking north. Duncan Club was the SNCO Club. The Post Exchange burned in 1938. (LeatherneckMagazine).

combined as the Marine Officers Training Schoolunder Colonel John C. Beaumont. Beaumont soonworked up a plan for a course for field grade of-ficers (major and above, modeled after theArmy's Command and General Staff School) andone for company grade officers (captain and be-low). The schools were to cover tactics, topo-graphy, law, administration, and engineering,among other subjects. A third course called theBasic School designed to indoctrinate new Ma-rine lieutenants in the duties of infantry leaderswas also planned.

The first Field Officers Course convened on 1October for a 9-month session. The Company Of-ficers Course did not start until July 1921 becauseof the lengthy proceedings of a selection boardconsidering temporary officers for permanentrank. This first course lasted until June 1922. TheBasic School convened in mid-1922.

With the establishment of these three schoolsfor officers at three levels in their careers, thefoundation for the institution later to become theMarine Corps Education Center was laid. Thetitle, "Marine Corps Schools," first appeared incorrespondence and reports by Lejeune in 1921.It seems that this name in the early days referredto both the vocational and professional schoolsat Quantico and was retained even after the voca-tional schools became correspondence courses andmoved away.

On 1 April 1920 the vocational schools wereredesignated the Vocational Schools Detachment,and then on 1 July 1920 were combined underone staff and called the "Marine Corps Institute,"with the job of serving Marines desiring to con-tinue their education while in the Corps.'6 Thisnew title was apparently first used in a press re-lease by Secretary of the Navy Daniels, who wasthoroughly impressed with the schools' foi-mationand purpose.'7

Vocational training had become so popularthat when a battalion of Marines shipped out

In 1924, 3,000 Quantico Marines marched to Sharps-burg, Md, for field exercises which culminated with thestaging of the battle of Antietam. Long treks to CivilWar battlefields and the reenactments of historical battleskept the Marine Corps in the public eye during the leanyears of the 1920s and 1930s. (Quantico Photo 012—1150—7—75).


on board the Henderson for expeditionary duty, itcontained 650 students who asked to continuetheir classes even while on board ship andserving in the Caribbean. As a result, the voca-tional school initiated correspondence training,and the Marine Corps Institute became the oldestcorrespondence school in the Armed Forces.18

Major General Lejeune became the Comman-dant of the Marine Corps on 1 July 1920, andwas succeeded in command at Quantico by Brig-adier General Butler. Butler had pinned on hisstar only a few weeks earlier, 4 June. WhileLejeune moved to a higher position in the Corpswhere he could bring more influence to play inimplementing his ideas on education and thefuture role of the Marine Corps, Butler, a staunchsupporter of Lejeune's philosophies, led Quanticointo one of its most colorful eras, keeping Marinesbusy with drills, long hikes, maneuvers, and shambattles, and placing the Marine Corps in the pub-lic eye whenever possible.

Butler realized the importance of military edu-cation for the core of professional officers and ofvocational training for young enlisted men want-ing to learn a civilian skill. He continued Le-jeune's concepts and knew that education was astrong drawing point for inducing enlistments.

In addition, Butler understood the importanceof top quality sporting events and of favorablepublicity in attracting men to the Corps. He ap-parently realized that good Marine Corps pub-licity would do much to counteract waninginterest in the military, and he started vigorousprograms to these ends. Education, colorful de-monstrations, and first class athletic teams wereButler's tools for attracting recruits and keepingthe public aware that there was still a MarineCorps.

In the summer of 1921, Butler instituted thefirst in a long series of well-publicized and well-attended public maneuvers at famous Civil Warbattlefields around Quantico. Under his personalcommand during June and July 1921, a reinforcedMarine brigade complete with heavy equipment,lS5mjn guns pulled by 10-ton tractors, and ele-ments of Quantico's air force reenacted the Battleof the Wilderness at the battle site west of Fred-erickshurg, Virginia.19

The brigade included the 5th Regiment, whichhad been disbanded at Quantico in August 1919but formed again in July 1920, and the 6th Regi-ment, disbanded with the 5th and reformed inDecember 1920.

Any public event in northern Virginia relatedto the Civil War was guaranteed to draw a big

Lieutenants Lawson Sanderson (left) and Walter Brownhelped institute varsity football and baseball in theMarine Corps, first on the West Coast and then at Quan-tico in 1919. (USMC Photo 531433).

crowd, and this first large-scale maneuver wasno exception. Thousands of spectators watchedthe Marines go through their paces, and Presi-dent Warren G. Harding was present in a canvas"White House"—at the Corps' request.

On the sports scene, Butler was the drizing forcethat put Marines in the public spotlight throughthe "Quantico Marines" football team. MarineCorps football was born at the Mare Island Train-ing Station in 1916 under Colonel Lincoln Kar-many, post commander and an ardent footballenthusiast. His first call for players netted agroup of former college stars from Oregon, Wash-ington, Minnesota, Montana, Utah, Nebraska,and Florida. Under the quarterbacking ofLieutenant Walter "Boots" Brown, the teamquickly won the West Coast championship, untiedand undefeated, trouncing such football powersas University of California, U.S.C., Oregon, St.Mary's College, and the Olympic Club of SanFrancisco. The Marines won the Service Cham-pionship and played in the Tournament o Rosesclassic on New Year's Day 1918, in Pasadena,California.

Football at Quantico began in 1919. Playersfor the Quantico team came from throughout theCorps; many were former collegians.

For the 1920 football season, Lieutenants Brownand Sanderson, both with aviation units at Quan.tico, rebuilt the team and embarked the "QuanticoMarines" on a football venture that was to lasthalf a century and garner widespread publicityand recognition not only for Quantico but forthe Corps as well.

BETWEEN WARS 43

Walter Brown, the impetus behind Quantico'steam, the quarterback and foremost star, waskilled in an aircraft crash in June 1921, whilereturning from bombing exercises in ChesapeakeBay. Quantico's airfield was shortly afterwArdsnamed Brown Field in honor of the young foot-ball star and aviator.

After Brown's death, the team was reorganizedand the Corps combed posts and detachmentsworldwide in search of football talent. FrankGoettge showed up at Quantico from Haiti for the1921 season and became one of the most promi-nent athletes in Marine Corps history, leading thefootball team to national prominence."

Under Butler's dynamic leadership, enthusiasmfor football reached incredible heights typified bythe game with the University of Michigan atAnn Arbor on the anniversary of the Corps'birthday in 1923. Thousands of Marines andfriends of the Corps chartered special trains totake them to the game, and many Marinespledged their slight pay for long periods in orderto meet the cost of the trip.2'

During the team's first four seasons at Quan.tico it played 42 games, winning 38, losing twoand tying two. ft met Army and Navy teams anda myriad of civilian colleges and athletic clubs,drawing up to 60,000 spectators for some games.The team, which came to rank with West Pointand Annapolis—but with more color and betterpublicity—even drew Cabinet.level spectatorswhen it played near Washington, D.C. No matter

where the team went, it was invariably accom-panied by General Butler, the post band, andthousands of Quantico Marines to cheer theirplayers on.

Butler's boundless enthusiasm for the footballteam and for putting Quantico "first," spilledover into an ambitious project without peer—thebuilding of the Quantico football stadium. Thestadium, according to Butler, was to be "theworld's largest stadium."

General Alexander A. Vandegrift, a youngofficer at Quantico in 1921, recalled:

we had to excavate a large quantity of earthwith old-fashioned steam shovels. Together with about150 men from my battalion we worked some 80 dayson the stadium. A fitness report of mine detailed ouraccomplishment: we moved 19,307 cubic yards ofearth, 200 excavations for concrete pillars were dug,197 pillars were poured, 30 rails were laid, 381 con-crete slabs were placed, and concrete footings werepoured for all stone walls. Grass seed was plantedover the sanded field, and the field was leveled fromside to base wall.

No appropriations were available for buildingthe stadium, but this did not deter Butler and hisMarines. Plans called for spending only about$5,000 for the whole project, and this was to befor cement only. Marines provided all the labor.Iron was salvaged from World War I bases thathad closed, and sand and gravel was obtainedfree from local contractors. The Richmond, Fred-ericksburg and Potomac Railroad was talked intocontributing used rails for the steel required.23

Butler Stadium, a self-help project of the first order, was If terally carved out of forest, rock, and earth by Butler'sMarines. (Don C. Mi cheau Collecti on. Personal Papers Section, Mar fue Corps Historical Center).


A civilian employee serving at Quantico at thetime recalled that with the aid of only a fewtrucks, picks and shovels, and much determination,Marines cut trees, pulled stumps, and removedhuge rocks. A stream ran right through the pro-posed site, and Butler solved this problem by asix-foot concrete pipe that carried the water outof the playing field.21

There was no rank connected with working onthe stadium project. Butler and his officers pitchedin and worked alongside Marine privates. Numer-ous "Butler legends" exist about this effort. Onetells how Butler noticed a Marine bandsmanwatching the other Marines work without doingany himself. When queried, the handsmananswered that he was a musician and didn't wantto hurt his hands. From that point on, the entireband played continuously whenever as much asone Marine was working.

The Sccretary of the Navy at the time criticizedthc effort as a bunch of"... damned foolishness."Other critics noted the tremendous expense ofMarine labor when Marines should, they said,he doing other things. Other critics pointed outthat little thought had apparently been given towhere all the people would come from to fill sucha huge stadium, or how they would get there con-sidering the limited transportation of the day.25

Nevertheless, Butler started a stadium. Workwas interrupted many times for long periods asthe demands of expeditionary duty and trainingexercises took Marines away. The stadium wasnot completed until after World War II, althoughit was used for a variety of sporting events beforethat time.

But all at Quantico was not football, buildingstadiums, and fighting Civil War battles duringthe early years of the 1920s.

])uring October 1920 the title of Quantico'scommander was changed from Commanding Of-ficer to Commanding General as an indication ofQ uantico's importance as well as to be consistentwith the ranks of its commanders since earlyWorld War I.

By mid-1920 the aviation complement totaled13 officers and 157 enlisted Marines, flying avariety of aircraft ranging from the De HavillandDH-4 and Curtiss JN-4, JN-6, and N-9 to ob-servation balloons.26 The self-help efforts at theflying field had resulted in the completion of twosteel hangers, 14 temporary barracks, a recrea-tion hall, and a variety of storehouses by the endof 1920.

In April 1921 Major Thomas C. Turner led apair of Quantico's DH-4 De Havillands on the

longest flight ever undertaken up until that time.The marathon trip was made from Washington,D.C., to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic,and return, without navigation devices or evensurface ships to help point the way.

After two months of intensive bombing prac-tice, five Quantico aircraft took part in thebombing of a former German battleship and anold U.S. battleship during July 1921, off Virginiaas part of Army General Billy Mitchell's projectto prove the value of bombing by aircraft. Itwas during the return trip from one of the practiceruns that Lieutenant Brown of the Quantico foot-ball team lost his life as he apparently becamedisoriented in the fog and crashed in the Potomacjust off the landing field.

Quantico received five Martin torpedo planesfrom the Navy in September 1921, and used themin training support of ground forces. Other air-craft of Quantico's growing air force took partin a variety of training exercises and cross-country trips intended to develop the full poten-tial of this new weapon of war, and to increasethe proficiency of Marine aviators.

During August 1921 a border dispute betweenPanama and Costa Rica flared up and a battalionof the 5th Regiment was dispatched to the areabut stayed on board ship for four days before re-turning home.27

The Advanced Base Force, headquartered inPhiladelphia since before World War I, wasmoved to Quantico in October 1920 because of itsgreater facilities and better training areas, andsince that was where all the troops had ended upafter the war.28 One of the reasons for this movewas probably to help justify Quantico's existenceand to aid Marine Corps pleas for money fromCongress to rehabilitate the base. The 1st Regi-ment was the basic combat unit of the AdvancedBase Force.

A year later in 1921, a young Marine officerby the name of Earl Hancock Ellis made a namefor himself throughout the Marine Corps—andhistory.

As a result of the Spanish-American War theUnited States emerged as a world power. In thosedays of short-range ships, the need for far-flungbases to support the fleet and the new world posi-tion of America was apparent. The Marine Corps'mission of seizing and defending advanced navalbases emerged from the Spanish-American Warand the deliberations of the Navy's pre-war Gen-eral Board.

The Versailles Treaty that ended World War Igave Japan control over many former German

BETWEEN WARS 45


islands in the Pacific and radically changed thebalance of power in the Far East. Following thetreaty, Japan possessed a ring of island outpostssupported by a growing modern fleet—an out-growth of the naval conferences following WorldWar I—that posed serious obstacles to any otherwould-be Pacific power.

The Washington Conference of 1921 confirmedJapan's status in the Pacific and ensured herdomination of the northeastern coast of Asia witha screen of islands preventing easy penetration.

Major Ellis was considered by many to be abrilliant stat! officer with a unique ability to pre-dict the future. Since 1913 he had been predictingth:rough lectures at the Naval War College thatsomeday the United States and Japan would waragainst each other. With the developments follow-ing World War I, he was more convinced thanever of the accuracy of this prophecy. He relatedthe Japanese position in the Pacific to U.S. navalstrategy, and urged that the military begin pre-paring for this inevitable conflict. Ellis developedOperation Plan 712-H which was a step.by-stepmilitary plan for moving across the Pacific againstJapan by amphibiously assaulting key Pacificislands. The plan, "Advanced Base Operations inMicronesia," was approved by HeadquartersMarine Corps in July 1921.

With the Commandant's backing, Ellis' prophe.sies became official Corps doctrine for fightingthe inevitable war in the Pacific. The advancedbase concept and the seizure of enemy-held islandswas a basic part of the plan, and the importanceof being able to successfully wage amphibiouswarfare became apparent to Marine Corps plan.ners.

Ellis died in the Pacific during late 1922 whileon a leave of absence to gather first-hand informa-tion about the islands he predicted the UnitedStates would someday battle over. At the time ofhis death, he was in the Palau Islands—whereMarines would fight just over 20 years later aspart of an island-hopping campaign that cameincredibly close to the plan Ellis had proposed.2°

Ellis' proposals became part of the Navy'sOrange Plan in 1926. This was the basic plan forexecuting a war against the Japanese and wasthe first real directive from higher headquartersassigning the Marine Corps a mission of offensiveamphibious warfare3°

General Lejeune, who approved Ellis' Pacificwar plan and the Corps' amphibious role, realizedthat new skills, new equipment, and new conceptsof warfare were required. He gave the impetus tobegin work in this direction, and chose Quantico

as the focal point for amphibious development.Lejeune remained Commandant until March 1929.Throughout this long term he m;ade amphibiousdevelopment his goal and supported the effort withhis sizable influence.

In Lejeune's mind, amphibious warfare was aprofessional challenge. Many military thinkerswere convinced an amphibious assault could notsucceed against' determined opposition as evi-denced by the British disaster at Gallipoli inWorld War I. But Lejeune had a vision and Galli-po11 was one of the prime lessons of the war thatwas to be studied, restudied, and studied again atQuantico. He was appalled by the failure at Galli-poli, but set the experienced officers at Quanticoon the road to finding a solution.

Another strong advocate of amphibious opera.tions was Colonel Robert H. Dunlap, commanderof the Advanced Base Force at Quantico in 1921.Dunlap, like Ellis, was considered by many to bea visionary and progressive thinker. Dunlapagreed completely with Ellis' predictions andrecommended role for the Marine Corps. Likemany Quantico officers, Dunlap made an exten-sive study of Gallipoli, identifying the mistakesmade and offering solutions. His findings werepublished and used extensively in Quantico'sschools, and his well.supported conclusions earnedmany supporters for offensive amphibious war-fare.3'

At Quantico in 1921 three hangars were com-pleted at the airfield, along with numerous ma-chine shops, offices, garages, and supply buildings.The 1st Separate Field Artillery Battalion whichhad been the 10th Regiment (artillery) untilApril 1919, was formed again on 1 January1921, and a portion of its batteries were shippedoff to the Caribbean to support the peace-keepingoperations there.3'

General Smedley Butler purchased the bulldog,"Jiggs," in 1921 to become the official Quanticomascot. The idea apparently came to him as aresult of the German's World War I nicknamefor Marines, "Devil Dogs," earned by Marinesfor their tenacious fighting at Belleau Wood inFrance.3 Jiggs became known worldwide andappeared at all sporting events where Marinesplayed, and everywhere else where his presencemight draw public attention and enhance themorale and esprit of Marines. Butler himselfsigned Jiggs' enlistment papers and appointedhim a sergeant major.

Later in 1921 the U.S. Post Office Departmentappealed to President Warren G. Harding forhelp in combating the growing number of mail

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