Originally Posted November 24, 2024
Good morning Leathernecks, and on this the 24th day of November in the history of our beloved Corps:
In 1775, Marines join in the raid by Hancock and Franklin on Canso Harbor, Nova Scotia.
Marines in the Harrison participate in her fight with three British warships in Boston Bay.
In 1798, the French frigates L’Insurgente and Volontaire force the outgunned Navy schooner Retaliation and her Marines to surrender.
She is the only ship lost by the United States in the Quasi-War.
In 1856, a landing party of 287 Marines and sailors attacks and captures the first of the Barrier Forts, then repels three assaults by thousands of Chinese.
In 1901, after a rebel faction stops rail traffic across the Isthmus of Panama, 12 Marine officers and 233 enlisted land from the battleship Iowa (BB-4) and the Concord at Panama City.
In 1916, the U.S. declares a military government in Santo Domingo, with the goal of establishing a stable country, thus taking on an extended occupation.
In 1917, the 9th Regiment is organized at Quantico to serve with the Advanced Base Force.
In 1918, the Commandant issues demobilization plans that authorize the immediate release of reservists and those regulars who had enlisted for the duration of the war or who had valid personal reasons for discharge.
In 1933, Major C. L. Forndey and a Navy Commander set a new balloon record with an ascent of 61,237 feet.
In 1942, The 1st Marine Aircraft Wing established the South Pacific Combat Air Transport (SCAT).
MLG-71 moves from Parris Island to MCAS, Eagle Mountain Lake.
In 1943, the 2nd Marine Division launches an amphibious assault against Betio Island in Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands, with the 2nd and 8th Marines leading the way into murderous Japanese fire.
Only the use of amphibian tractors (LVTs) allows the leading waves to get through the shallow water covering the coral shelf around the island.
The Marines establish a beachhead at great cost.
the 2nd and 8th Marines depart Tarawa for a new base camp in Hawaii.
The 2nd Defense Battalion arrives on Tarawa from Samoa.
the 2nd Marine Division Scouts and 2/6 complete the conquest of Tarawa Atoll.
Total Marine casualties are 1,085 dead or missing and 2,233 wounded.
Losses among Navy personnel serving with Marine units are 30 killed and 59 wounded.
A regiment of the Army’s 27th Infantry Division makes an amphibious assault on Makin Atoll.
Major General Ralph J. Mitchell assumes command of AirSols.
In 1944, B-29s operating from Saipan bomb Tokyo.
This marks the first attack on the Japanese capital by land-based aircraft.
VMO-6 is commissioned at Quantico, VMSB-943 is redesignated VMTB-943 at El Toro.
In 1945, as U.S. Army forces arrive to assume the primary role in the occupation of Japan, the 5th Marine Division begins to reduce its area of responsibility on Kyushu and transfer its personnel to the 2nd Marine Division.
VMTB-242 is deactivated at San Diego.
In 1947, Major Bill Hendricks and Marine reservists started Toys for Tots in Los Angeles.
The Marine Corps Reserve adopted the program one year later.
In 1950, 1/1 assumes the mission of garrisoning Chinhung-ni, a town on the MSR just north of Sudong.
Thanksgiving was celebrated in Korea with a temperature of 20 degrees below zero.
the 41 Independent Commando of the Royal Marines (a company sized force commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Douglas B. Drysdale) is attached to the 1st Marine Division.
In 1959, more than 300 Marines from various Camp Pendleton units fight fires in Las Pulgas and Alysso Canyon areas in and near the base.
The 4th Marine Provisional Marine Force is deployed from Camp Lejeune and Cherry Point to stand by to protect U.S. citizens during a period of increasing tensions with Cuba’s Castro regime.
The units remain away from their home bases until 15 February 1960.
In 1962, the United States ends the Naval quarantine following an agreement for the withdrawal of Soviet offensive missiles.
Marine units deployed for the Cuban Missile Crisis soon begin returning to their home stations.
In 1963, two days after President Kennedy’s assassination, President Lyndon B. Johnson affirms continued military support for South Vietnam against Communist aggression.
In 1967, during the period 24 November through 27 November, Marines of the 1st Battalion 3rd Marines participated in OPERATION BALLISTIC ARCH a helicopter and amphibious assault operation 7 km (4 mi) south of the DMZ in Quang Tri Province.
In 1968, Operation Lancaster II, the series of 4th Marines search and destroy missions comes to an end.
Reported Enemy casualties are 1,800, while 359 Marines have been killed and 2,101 wounded.
during Operation Meade River in support of a South Vietnamese pacification program, the 1st Marines launches a cordon and search operation designed to encircle the entire Dodge City area, 36 square miles of flat farming land south of Da Nang.
The effort involves seven Marine infantry battalions.
It ends on 9 December with 1,023 enemy dead and 123 prisoners.
Marine losses are 108 dead and 510 wounded.
In 1970, a U.S. joint force (Army, Air Force, and Navy) conduct a heliborne raid at Son Tay, about 23 miles west of Hanoi, in an unsuccessful attempt to free American prisoners of war.
The men had been moved a few weeks prior to the operation.
In 1979, in Islamabad, a mob burns the U.S. Embassy as seven Marines defend the building and its 137 civilian occupants with tear gas.
One Marine is killed during the attack.
In 1992, Marines depart Subic Bay following the transfer of the base to the Philippines.
Saepius Exertus, Semper Fidelis, Frater Infinitas!
Often Tested, Always Faithful, Brothers Forever!
-Richard W. Pettengill, Corporal USMC
And damn proud of it!