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Corpsman's dog tag. Amphibious Recon.


USdog
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I just got this in a BIN on ebay. With such a common name I thought it would take forever to find the right guy in the muster rolls, but seeing that it was brass, I thought corpsman right away. Did a quick search looking for corpsmen in muster rolls and sure enough, he was a corpsman with the Marine Amphibious Reconnaissanse Battalion. So I jumped on it :)

 

Some history I found on the unit. Anyone know more about this unit? I'll admit that I had not heard of them before, but it sounds like did some really interesting stuff during the war.

 

The United States Marine Corps's Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion, formerly Company, was a specialized team of Marines and Navy Corpsmen that performed clandestine preliminary preD-Day amphibious reconnaissance of planned beachheads and their littoral area within uncharted enemy territory for the joint-Navy/Marine force commanders of the Pacific Fleet during World War II. Often accompanied by Navy Underwater Demolition Teams and the early division recon companies, these amphib recon platoons performed more reconnaissance missions (over 150) than any other single recon unit during the Pacific campaigns.

They are amongst the patriarch lineage of the Force Reconnaissance companies which still continue providing force-level reconnaissance for the latter Fleet Marine Force. Their countless efforts have contributed to the success of the joint-Marines/Army maritime landing forces assigned under the Navy fleet commanders during the island-hopping campaigns of the numerous atolls in the Pacific.

Their trademark of amphibious techniques utilized insertion methods under the cover of darkness by rubber boats, patrol torpedo boats, Catalina flying boats, converted high speed destroyer transport ships, or APDs, and submarines for troop transports. These Marines applied skills in topographic and hydrographic surveys by charting and measuring water depths, submerged coral heads, and terrain inland; taking photographs and soil samples for permeability for amphibious tractors and landing craft parties.

Their assignments included scouting or reconnoitering a planned, or potential landing site, and intelligence-gathering missions. These teams also evaluated the beaches looking for exits off the hostile beaches inland, for contingency measures if the Marine landing force were to necessitate a retreat. Most importantly, they compromised the locations of enemy forces, their strengths and weakness, and other importance in the follow-up of an amphibious assault. more from Wikipedia

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Thanks guys!

 

It looks like there weren't too many of them either....

"The latter was expanded to 98 Marines in 1943, renamed the Amphibious Recon Company and served at the island of Apamama in the Pacific, where their success in aiding the invastion led to another expansion to 20 officers, 270 enlisted, and 13 Navy doctors."

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ViewfinderGyrene

Wow.....no other words! I've never even seen any groups or ID'd items from the Bn [yet], and you found a DT, good show!

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Oh man! It just got even better... There was another tag with it. I tried researching the name, but couldn't find anything. BUT I just realized it is DOUBLE SIDED!! Found out the guy on the reverse (Perry) was also a Corpsman. He was with the 9th Marines at I believe Bougainville, Guam, and Iwo Jima! He was also in the navy casualty books. So probably WIA.

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I think I found out why there were two corpsman tags in the lot. They were both in the 21st Replacement Battalion together in late 1943 and must have been buddies or something while there.

 

NAME: Norman W Watson

MUSTER DATE: Oct 1943

RANK: Pharmacist Mate Second Class

STATION: Twenty First Replacement Bn, Fmf, C/O Fleet Post Office, San Francisco, Calif

 

Jack M Perry

MUSTER DATE: Oct 1943

RANK: Hospital Apprentice First Class

STATION: Twenty First Replacement Bn, Fmf, C/O Fleet Post Office, San Francisco, Calif

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Nice tags !

 

Your Naval Officer's tag is misspelled, should be ConnellEy. See Find A Grave.

 

I can post his file number if you like.

 

 

W

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Nice tags !

 

Your Naval Officer's tag is misspelled, should be ConnellEy. See Find A Grave.

 

I can post his file number if you like.

 

 

W

W,

Thanks! No wonder why I couldn't find any info on him. Would be great to see some info on him.

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Connor

 

You have a preverbial rabbits foot lodged somewhere deep!

 

Nice addition.

 

Mark

It's just one of those days Mark! We all get them every once and a while....

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Did some more research after getting the right spelling of last name thanks to W. Found an interesting bit of info on him online. He was the commander of the ship, the USS Argus (PY-14).

 

" USS Argus (PY-14) on 14 November 1940; and commissioned on 13 February 1941 with Lieutenant Commander Harold H. Connelley in command."

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