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INFORMATION The **United States Marine Corps** (**USMC**) is a branch of the [|United States Armed Forces] responsible for providing [|power projection] from the sea,[|[6]] using the mobility of the [|United States Navy] to deliver [|combined-arms task forces] rapidly. It is one of seven [|uniformed services of the United States]. In the civilian leadership structure of the United States military, the Marine Corps is a component of the [|United States Department of the Navy]  often working closely with [|U.S. naval forces] for training, transportation, and logistic purposes; however, in the military leadership structure the Marine Corps is a separate branch. This last clause, while seemingly redundant given the President's position as [|Commander-in-chief], is a codification of the [|expeditionary] duties of the Marine Corps. It derives from similar language in the [|Congressional] acts //"For the Better Organization of the Marine Corps"// of 1834, and //"Establishing and Organizing a Marine Corps"// of 1798. In 1951, the [|House of Representatives'] [|Armed Services Committee] called the clause "one of the most important statutory – and traditional – functions of the Marine Corps." It noted that the corps has more often than not performed actions of a non-naval nature, including its famous actions in [|Tripoli], the [|War of 1812], [|Chapultepec], and numerous [|counter-insurgency] and occupational duties (such as those in Central America), [|World War I], and the [|Korean War]. While these actions are not accurately described as support of naval campaigns nor as amphibious warfare, their common thread is that they are of an expeditionary nature, using the mobility of the Navy to provide timely intervention in foreign affairs on behalf of American interests. media type="custom" key="16491664"

Historical mission
The Marine Corps was founded to serve as an infantry unit aboard naval vessels and was responsible for the security of the ship and its crew by conducting offensive and defensive combat during [|boarding actions] and defending the ship's officers from [|mutiny]; to the latter end, their quarters on ship were often strategically positioned between the officers' quarters and the rest of the vessel. Continental Marines manned raiding parties, both at sea and ashore. America's first amphibious assault landing occurred early in the [|Revolutionary War] on 3 March 1776 as the Marines gained control of Fort Montague and Fort Nassau, a [|British] ammunition depot and naval port in [|New Providence], [|the Bahamas]. The role of the Marine Corps has expanded significantly since then; as the importance of its original naval mission declined with changing naval warfare doctrine and the professionalization of the naval service, the corps adapted by focusing on what was former secondary missions ashore. The Advanced Base Doctrine of the early 20th century codified their combat duties ashore, outlining the use of Marines in the seizure of bases and other duties on land to support naval campaigns. Throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries, Marine detachments served aboard Navy cruisers, battleships and carriers. Marine detachments (generally one platoon per cruiser, a company for battleships or carriers) served their traditional duties as ship's landing force, manning the ship's weapons and providing shipboard security. Marine detachments were augmented by members of the ship's company for landing parties, especially in the Caribbean and Mexican campaigns of the early 20th centuries. Marines would develop tactics and techniques of amphibious assault on defended coastlines in time for use in [|World War II].[|[][|22][|]] During World War II, Marines continued to serve on capital ships. They often were assigned to man anti-aircraft batteries. When gun cruisers were retired by the 1960s, the remaining Marine detachments were only seen on battleships and carriers. Its original mission of providing shipboard security finally ended in the 1990s when nuclear weapons were withdrawn from active deployment and the battleships were retired.

Capabilities
Marines from the [|13th Marine Expeditionary Unit] The Marine Corps fulfills a vital role in national security as an [|amphibious], [|expeditionary], air-ground [|combined arms] task force, capable of [|forcible entry] from the air, land, and sea. It is capable of [|asymmetric warfare] with [|conventional], [|irregular], and [|hybrid forces]. While the Marine Corps does not employ any unique combat arms, as a force it has the unique ability to rapidly deploy a combined-arms task force to almost anywhere in the world within days. The basic structure for all deployed units is a [|Marine Air-Ground Task Force] (MAGTF) that integrates a [|ground combat element], an [|aviation combat element] and a [|logistics combat element] under a common [|command element]. While the creation of joint commands under the [|Goldwater–Nichols Act] has improved inter-service coordination between each branch, the Corps' ability to permanently maintain integrated multi-element task forces under a single command provides a smoother implementation of combined-arms warfare principles.[|[][|11][|]] The close integration of disparate Marine units stems from an organizational culture centered around the infantry. Every other Marine capability exists to support the infantry. Unlike some Western militaries, the Corps remained conservative against theories proclaiming the ability of new weapons to win wars independently. For example, [|Marine aviation] has always been focused on [|close air support] and has remained largely uninfluenced by air power theories proclaiming that [|strategic bombing] can single-handedly win wars.[|[][|22][|]] [|Bravo Battery, 1st Battalion, 11th Marines], a.k.a. the Beastmasters fight off Iraqi unit on March 26, 2003 This focus on the infantry is matched with the doctrine that "Every Marine is a rifleman", a focus of Commandant [|Alfred M. Gray, Jr.], emphasizing the infantry combat abilities of every Marine. All Marines, regardless of military specialization, receive training as a [|rifleman]; and all officers receive additional training as infantry platoon commanders.[|[][|23][|]] For example, at [|Wake Island], when all of the Marine aircraft were shot down, pilots continued the fight as ground officers, leading supply clerks and cooks in a final defensive effort.[|[][|24][|]] As a result, a large degree of initiative and autonomy is expected of junior Marines, particularly the [|NCOs] ([|corporals] and [|sergeants]), as compared with many other military organizations. The Marine Corps emphasizes authority and responsibility downward to a greater degree than the other military services. Flexibility of execution is implemented via an emphasis on "[|commander's intent]" as a guiding principle for carrying out orders; specifying the end state but leaving open the method of execution.[|[][|25][|]] The amphibious assault techniques developed for World War II evolved, with the addition of [|air assault] and [|maneuver warfare] doctrine, into the current "//Operational Maneuver from the Sea//" doctrine of [|power projection] from the seas.[|[][|6][|]] The Marines are credited with the development of helicopter insertion doctrine and were the earliest in the American military to widely adopt maneuver-warfare principles which emphasize low-level initiative and flexible execution. In light of recent warfare that has strayed from the Corps' traditional missions,[|[][|26][|]] it has renewed an emphasis on amphibious capabilities.[|[][|27][|]] The Marine Corps relies on the Navy for [|sealift] to provide its rapid deployment capabilities. In addition to basing a third of the [|Fleet Marine Force] in Japan, [|Marine Expeditionary Units] (MEU) are typically stationed at sea. This allows the ability to function as first responders to international incidents. The [|United States Army] now maintains [|light infantry] units capable of rapid worldwide deployment, but those units do not match the combined-arms integration of a MAGTF and lack the logistics that the Navy provides.[|[][|11][|]] For this reason, the Marine Corps is often assigned to non-combat missions such as the evacuation of Americans from unstable countries and providing [|humanitarian relief] during natural disasters. In larger conflicts, Marines act as a stopgap, to get into and hold an area until larger units can be mobilized. The Corps performed this role in [|World War I] and the [|Korean War], where Marines were the first significant combat units deployed from the United States and held the line until the country could mobilize for war.[|[][|28][|]] To aid rapid deployment, the [|Maritime Pre-Positioning System] was developed: fleets of [|container ships] are positioned throughout the world with enough equipment and supplies for a [|Marine Expeditionary Force] to deploy for 30 days. The United States Marine Corps traces its institutional roots to the [|Continental Marines] of the [|American Revolutionary War], formed by Captain [|Samuel Nicholas] by a resolution of the [|Second Continental Congress] on 10 November 1775, to raise 2 [|battalions] of Marines. That date is regarded and celebrated as the date of the Marine Corps' "[|birthday]". At the end of the American Revolution, both the [|Continental Navy] and Continental Marines were disbanded in April 1783. The institution itself would not be resurrected until July 11, 1798. At that time, in preparation for the [|Quasi-War] with [|France], Congress created the United States Marine Corps.[|[][|30][|]] Marines had been enlisted by the War Department as early as August 1797[|[][|31][|]] for service in the new-build [|frigates] authorized by the Congressional "Act to provide a Naval Armament" of March 18, 1794,[|[][|32][|]] which specified the numbers of Marines to be recruited for each frigate. The Marines' most famous action of this period occurred during the [|First Barbary War] (1801–1805) against the [|Barbary pirates],[|[][|33][|]] when [|William Eaton] and First Lieutenant [|Presley O'Bannon] led eight Marines and 500 [|mercenaries] in an effort to capture [|Tripoli]. Though they only reached [|Derna], the action at Tripoli has been immortalized in the [|Marines' hymn] and the [|Mameluke Sword] carried by Marine officers.[|[][|34][|]] During the [|War of 1812], Marine naval detachments took part in the great frigate duels that characterized the war, which were the first American victories in the conflict. Their most significant contributions were delaying the British march to [|Washington, D.C.] at the [|Battle of Bladensburg] and holding the center of Gen. [|Andrew Jackson]'s defensive line at the [|defense of New Orleans]. By the end of the war, the Marines had acquired a well-deserved reputation as expert [|marksmen], especially in ship-to-ship actions.[|[][|34][|]] After the war, the Marine Corps fell into a depression that ended with the appointment of [|Archibald Henderson] as its fifth Commandant in 1820. Under his tenure, the Corps took on expeditionary duties in the [|Caribbean], the [|Gulf of Mexico], [|Key West], [|West Africa], the [|Falkland Islands], and [|Sumatra]. Commandant Henderson is credited with thwarting [|President] Jackson's attempts to combine and integrate the Marine Corps with the Army.[|[][|34][|]] Instead, [|Congress] passed the //Act for the Better Organization of the Marine Corps// in 1834, stipulating that the Corps was part of the [|Department of the Navy] as a sister service to the Navy.[|[][|35][|]] This would be the first of many times that the existence of the Corps was challenged. James Walker, [|//Storming of Chapultepec//], 1847 Commandant Henderson volunteered the Marines for service in the [|Seminole Wars] of 1835, personally leading nearly half of the entire Corps (two battalions) to war. A decade later, in the [|Mexican–American War] (1846–1848), the Marines made their famed [|assault on Chapultepec Palace] in Mexico City, which would be later celebrated by the phrase "From The Halls of Montezuma" in Marines' hymn. In the 1850s, the Marines would see further service in [|Panama] and Asia, escorting [|Matthew Perry's] [|East India Squadron] on its historic trip to the Far East.[|[][|36][|]] With their vast service in foreign engagements, the Marine Corps played a moderate role in the [|Civil War] (1861–1865); their most prominent task was [|blockade] duty. As more and more states [|seceded] from the [|Union], about half of the Corps' officers left the Union to join the [|Confederacy] and form the [|Confederate States Marine Corps], which ultimately played little part in the war. The battalion of recruits formed for the [|First Battle of Bull Run] (First Manassas) performed poorly, retreating with the rest of the Union forces.[|[][|28][|]] Blockade duty included sea-based amphibious operations to secure forward bases. In late November, 1861, Marines and sailors landed a reconnaissance in force from the [|USS Flag] at Tybee Island, Georgia, to occupy the Lighthouse and Martello Tower on the northern end of the island. It would later be the Army base for bombardment of [|Fort Pulaski].[|[][|37][|]]