US Marine Corps Recruit Depot - Yearbook (Parris Island, SC)

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UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT PARRISISLAND-soufrn CAROLINA

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THE MENTAL AND MORAL QUALITIES ofthe United States Marine have been tested constantly since the birth of the nation. All through the long history of the Marine Corps there are examples, both in war and peace, of his versatility, trustworthiness, singleness and tenacity of purpose, cour- age, faithfulness and self-sacrifice. The rich tradition of the Corps dates back to November 10, 1775, when it was established by the Contintental Con- gress. In the Revolutionary War, the Marines fought against the British Fleet on the ships of john Paul jones, and made their first amphibious landing on the beaches of the Baha- mas in 1776. Marines ended their war with the Mediterra- nean pirates when they planted the Stars and Stripes over the pirate stronghold of Derne, in Tripoli, after a six- hundred-mile march across the desert of North Africa. In the War of 1812, they fought on Lake Champlain and Lake Erie, and were with General jackson behind the barricades at New Orleans. They defeated the Seminole Indians in the dense swamps of Florida in 1836, and fought under General Scott in the Mexican War of 1846-48. Their first visit to japan came in 1854 as guard detachments from the ships of Commodore Perryis fleet. Under the command of Colonel Robert E. Lee, U.S.A., Marines captured john Brown at Harperis Ferry in 1859. They fought savages in Formosa in 1867, and stormed the barrier forts of Korea in 1871. During the Spanish-American War, a single battalion of Marines held the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, against 6,000 Spaniards, while oth- ,ff er Leathernecks distinguished themselves at the Battle of Santiago and with Dewey at Manila. They helped quell the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900, and from then on until World War I, men of the Corps campaigned in the Philip- pines, Cuba, Mexico, Haiti, and Santo Domingo to protect American lives and property. On the battlefields of France, Marines were called N Devil Dogsu by the Germans because of their courage and tenaci- ty of attack. In the first World War, the Fourth Brigade of Marines took part in five operations as part of the famed Second Division of the A.E. F. - Belleau Wood, Soissons, St. Mihiel, Chapagne, and the Meuse-Argonne. Marine units were decorated six times by the French during these campaigns. The interim between world wars found the Marines en- gaged in developing the technique of amphibious warfare and in their traditional pursuits around the globe, from guarding the U. S. mails to fighting bandits in Nicaragua. World War II saw the men who wear the eagle, globe, and an anchor valiantly defend Wake Island and Bataan and then spearhead the amphibious landings across the Pacific in the Solomons, at Tarawa, Saipan, Guam, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, to name a few. Following the war, Marines found a new type of service - duty with United Nations Forces in Korea. The United States Marine Corps, rich in tradition and world-famed for its battle record and esprit de corps, plays an important role as the nation's uforce-in-readinessn to help keep the peace throughout the world today.

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gtg Ii- Fl 4 -if J 1 's 54' Hi tory of Parris Island .Fr If x Parris Island, home of basic training for today's Ma- rines east ofthe Mississippi, has a colorful history. Al- though the first Marine Corps Activity on the island was in june, 1891, the story of its occupancy by Euro- peans reaches back more than three centuries into antiquity. Covering approximately 7800 acres of land and wa- ter, Parris Island is located off the South Carolina coast about midway between Charleston, S.C., and Savannah, Ga. The site ofthe earliest attempt by Europeans to set- tle within the present boundaries of the State of South Carolina, the island was visited in l526 by Valaquez de Alleyn who headed a Spanish expedition in search of slaves and gold. Probably the first European to land here, he named adjacent St. Helena Island and claimed it for Spain some 50 years before the French attempted to colonize the islands which included this Marine Corps Recruit Depot. Depot Heaquarters i X Iwo Jima Statue By Depot Parade Field