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Marine Corp Reserve Battalions of the 1950s.


patches
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Way back quite a ways I posted this on Actor Barry Corbin's Marine Corps Reserve service in the early 60s. Never found out anymore as one will see.

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/134545-marine-corps-reserve/

 

BUT....I forgot to inform the forum of a dumpster find a couple of weeks ago of a fair stack of Leatherneck Magazines, all Korean War dated. A two family near me was being cleared out and I spyed these in the container and I grabbed them, I went back a little later hopeing to find more, or other stuff, visions of a Sea Bag or two filled with Korean War era Uniforms and Gear filled my mind as I rushed back :lol: but that was all, the rest of the stuff was debris and junk, oh well, at least I rescued these magazines :D

As I been looking at these so far, I've been noticing the mention of Reserve units of the Marine Corps Reserve, during this period, so I thought I would list the one's I have found so far. These units are totally differant in number and designation then the typical Marine unit were accustomed to seeing, I gather they numbered among themselves. And so far there is no online info on these unit's, so at least here we can have some idea as to these units existence.

Here is the one's I found so far, their number and city where based.

8th Infantry Battalion, Toledo Ohio

11th Infantry Battalion, Seattle Washinton State

13th Infantry Battalion, Los Angeles California

15th Infantry Battalion, Corpus Christi Texas

18th Infantry Battalion, Milwaukee Wisconsin

2nd Howitzer Battalion Los Angeles Cailfornia

If I find more I will add them, I still have to read a few more and double check the ones I already read.

 

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I just acquire 8x10 photos of USMCR training at Coronado CA. Back of photos has excerpt about training and it is from Technical Information Office, Reserve Liaison Section, Landing Forces Training Unit. I assume this is for some of the units you mention. All men are wearing camo helmet covers and have camo tents. I can seen EGAs stenciled on helmet covers in one image. I assume these are in the 50s sometime, but there are no dates. They are still using flamethrowers and M20 3.5" rocket launchers.

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I just acquire 8x10 photos of USMCR training at Coronado CA. Back of photos has excerpt about training and it is from Technical Information Office, Reserve Liaison Section, Landing Forces Training Unit. I assume this is for some of the units you mention. All men are wearing camo helmet covers and have camo tents. I can seen EGAs stenciled on helmet covers in one image. I assume these are in the 50s sometime, but there are no dates. They are still using flamethrowers and M20 3.5" rocket launchers.

Sounds interesting, can you post it here?

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Thank's for posting these, definetely mid 50s to early 60s, note the high top boondockers on the one guy in photo #2 on the ramp.

 

Not sure of course what unit this might of been, we do see one unit from California, an Infantry one, the 13th Inf Bn from L.A., but not sure how many Inf Bns were allotted to California, they may be from another state, hell these guys may be other then Infantry.

 

This whole topic I started admittedly is far from being complete, and understood even by me. Alot of questions arise, for one off the bat, just what other units were there besides Infantry and Artillery? Engineers, Amphibious Tractors, Tank? It would seem they would have to have them, not to mention a host of Support units.

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Since were here, here is Barry Corbin's 1962 AIT portrait ( Pendleton).

post-34986-0-25662400-1382936778.jpg

 

His bio states he was in the 40th Rifle Company based in Lubbock Texas, it's a bit sketchy, but he served around 2 years. So then, was there also Company level Marine Reserve Infantry units, Rifle Companies, besides the Infantry Battalions? or maybe this is an error and it was the 40th Infantry Battalion rather then Rifle Company? That it is not numbered in sequince would not be something out of the ordinary, but it's hard to say given the total lack of online info, that is of course if I didn't miss some site or page :lol:

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Found more Units and more information on the whole Marine Corps Reserve of the 50s.

 

Other units I found.

 

1st Infantry Battalion, Brooklyn New York

 

2nd 155mm Gun Battalion, Miami Florida

 

1st Engineer Field Maintenace Company, Baltimore Maryland

 

46th Special Infantry Company, Albany New York

 

 

Found out that all these numbered units and those like them of the Marine Corps Reserve were first formed in July 1951, during the Organized Marine Corps Reserve Program, believe all these units were disbanded in 1966 upon the reactivation of the 4th Marine Division, which became the Main Reserve unit of the Corps with elements spread out all over America.

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A few more units USMCR circa 1951-66

 

25th Special Infantry Company, Huntington, West Virginia

 

C Battery 2nd 155mm Gun Battalion, Texarkana, Texas (it would see that some units were spread out all over the place, as seen in the earlier post, 2nd 155mm Gun Battalion was located in Miami, so these type of Reserve Battalions may have had elements far apart)

 

VMF-543 Chicago, Illinios

Marine Air Reserve Group 18 Louisana, no city found

 

 

 

 

 

But here a good page on some of the other USMR Aviation units of the day, note the activation 1965 date of the 4th Marine Air Wing, this is around the time all these Reserve units apart from Aviation was disbanded and then controlled as units of the 4th Marine Division.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Aircraft_Group_49

 

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I have a bunch of documents from a guy who was in the 3d 90MM Gun Battery reserve unit from Omaha in the late 40's and early 50's. I believe they went to Korea, in fact weren't the reserves a very large part of the Marines early deployments to Korea?

 

In the late 1940's there was period when you could join a Marine reserve unit without having prior active duty service. You got your "boot camp" training during reserve drills. Thousands of these "no boot camp" Marines were called to active duty at the onset of the Korean War. See http://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/article/marines-who-never-went-boot-camp

 

Here's part one document from the Omaha reserve unit:

 

omaha.jpg

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At the outbreak of war in Korea in the summer of 1950, the entire Marine Reserve, or most of it, was tranfered in mass to the Active Marines. From the info I,ve found in these Leatherneck magazines is, that the Marine Corps Reserve was completly rebuilt starting in the Summer of 1951. These units formed from the summer of 1951 were not subjected to call up for Korean duty, only in the event of a general World War, which was always a possibility then, USSR and Red China you know, even though in more was then one we were already at war with them.

 

I also learned from reading these, that the Marines made use of the Draft during the Korean War, I was only aware up to this point of the Marines taking draftees. supposidly for the first time, during the Vietnam War.

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normaninvasion

And here it is, tell us, does it have unit listings from the various time period covered from 1916-66?

 

http://www.abebooks.com/Marine-Corps-Reserve-History-1916-1966/2811853103/bd

There is no Appendix listing all units. Appendix does list WW2 battalions and air squadrons. However, it is the official history and if you dig thru it, I'm sure you will find what you need. Its not to hard to find and believe I picked mine up for $10 on Amazon

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  • 2 years later...

Came across this page on Women Marines, in it we see a nice list of more USMCR units of the Post 1951 period, Page # 3 of this PDF File, now where starting to see more support units, in example 2d Depot Supply Battalion, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, 2d Communications Battalion, Brooklyn New York etc etc.

 

Also Seems these USMCR units had at least one female platoon of Female Reservists assigned to them in support. Curious as we see again the 13th Infantry Battalion, in the Leatherneck Magazine, it's listed as being out of Los Angeles, but on this page, it listed as being out of Washington DC, maybe it was allotted to the District of Columbia after a certain point??

 

http://www.marines.mil/Portals/59/Publications/A%20History%20of%20the%20Women%20Marines%201946-1977%20PCN%2019000309400_3.pdf?ver=2012-10-11-163151-753

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  • 6 months later...
  • 2 years later...

One more to add to the list. Discovered by member Blacksmith during a search for a named 50s Marine Helmet.

 

24th Special infantry Company, Port Newark, New Jersey,

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  • 1 year later...

Found a whole bunch, note the large number of Rile Companies,seems then they had both Infantry Battalions, and Rifle Companies, and at one point too, Special Infantry Companies, though I cant hazard a guess what the difference was between them all. All of these units were initially separate, but most apparently were incorporated into the reactivated 4th Marine Division when the division was initially established in 1962-63, it seems its in 1966 that the 4th Mar Div would be restructured to its normal numbered units and most of these units are simply disbanded and merged into the standard numbered regiments, or if support units become separate units within the reserve.

 

6th Communication Battalion, Bronx New York

 

11th Communication Battalion. Brooklyn New York.

 

2nd Communication Company, Brooklyn New York.

 

38th Rifle Company, Montgomery Alabama.

 

4th Amphibious Tractor Battalion, Tampa Florida.

 

Company B 4th Anti-Tank Battalion, Tulare California.

 

Company C 4th Anti-Tank Battalion, Amarillo Texas.

 

12th Staff Group, Los Angeles California.

 

68th Rifle Company, Camden New Jersey.

 

2nd Tank Company, Boise Idaho.

 

31st Rifle Company, Johnson City Tennessee.

 

53rd Rifle Company, Charleston, South Carolina.

 

4th Motor Transport Battalion, Atlanta Georgia.

 

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More, these are the Summer Drill Dates of these units for 1964, note that even though the reactivated 4th Mar Div was already forming up, these old 50s early 60s units are still active under there old numbers and titles.

Screenshot_2020-11-25 The Reserve Marine.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

My Father served with a Reserve Rifle Company from Springfield Massachusetts from 1955-58

 

I later served with the local Reserve Unit )"C"-100/1/25

 

Bill

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3 hours ago, USMCR79 said:

My Father served with a Reserve Rifle Company from Springfield Massachusetts from 1955-58

 

I later served with the local Reserve Unit )"C"-100/1/25

 

Bill

Thanks for that Bill, do you remember the number of his unit? And one question, what does the 100 stand for, we gather the C is for C Company, and the 1/25 is for the 1st Battalion 25th Marines which a c Company will be found, its the 100 there that has me wondering.

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1 hour ago, patches said:

Thanks for that Bill, do you remember the number of his unit? And one question, what does the 100 stand for, we gather the C is for C Company, and the 1/25 is for the 1st Battalion 25th Marines which a c Company will be found, its the 100 there that has me wondering.

 I think the -100 may have referred to the unit being understrength in 1979 - When my Dad was in it was called 1st Rifle Company USMCR Springfield Massachusetts

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  • 11 months later...

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