User:Renamed user FoctULjDYf/USMCMission

Sandbox for redoing the Mission section of United States Marine Corps

Mission
The Marine Corps serves as an amphibious force in readiness. It has three primary areas of responsibilities, as outlined in : The quoted clause, while seemingly a consquence of 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 roles in the War of 1812, WWI and the Korean War, its famous actions at Tripoli and Chapultepec, and their numerous counterinsurgency and and occupational duties in Central America and East Asia. 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.
 * The seizure or defense of advanced naval bases and other land operations to support naval campaigns
 * The development of tactics, technique, and equipment used by amphibious landing forces
 * "such other duties as the President may direct."

In addition to its primary duties, the Marine Corps has additional missions in support of the White House and State Department. The Marine Band has been called "the President's Own" due to its role of providing music for state functions at the White House. In addition, Marines guard presidential retreats, including Camp David, and provide helicopter service to the President. By authority of the 1946 Foreign Service act, Marines provide security for American embassies, legations, and consulates at over 110 State Department posts overseas.

Historical Mission
At its founding, the Marine Corps was composed of composed of infantry serving aboard naval vessels, responsible for the security of the ship and its officers by conducting offensive and defensive combat during boarding actions and maintaining order aboard ship. Additionally, they were responsible for manning raiding parties. Since then, the Corps' role has expanded significantly. 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 placing an emphasis on what were formerly secondary missions on shore. Their use in raids was codified in the Advanced Base doctrine in the early 20th century, outlining the use of Marines in the seizure of bases and other duties on land to support naval campaigns. Marines would also develop tactics and techniques of amphibious assault on defended coastlines in time for use in WWII. Its original mission of providing shipboard security finally ended in the 1990's, when the last Marine security detachments were withdrawn from U.S. Navy ships.

Capabilities
While the Marine Corps does not contain any unique combat capabilities, as a force it has the unmatched ability to rapidly deploy a combined-arms task force anywhere in the world in a matter of days. The basic structure for all deployed units is a Marine Air-Ground Task Force(MAGTF) that integrates a ground combat component, an air component, and a combat service support component under a common command element. While the creation of joint commands under the Goldwater-Nichols Act has improved interservice coordination between the larger services, the Marine Corps' ability to permanently maintain integrated multi-element task forces under a single command provides a smoother implementation of combined warfare principles.

The close integration of different Marine units stems from a organizational culture centered around the infantry. Every other Marine capability exists to support the infantry. Unlike most militaries, the Corps has been immune from visionaries proclaiming the ability of new weapons to win wars independently. For example, Marine Aviation has always been focused on close air support, and remained largely uninfluenced by airpower theorists who proclaimed that strategic bombing could singlehandedly win wars.

This focus on the infantry is matched with the notion that "every Marine is a rifleman", emphasizing the infantry combat abilities of every Marine. All enlisted Marines receive training first and foremost as a rifleman; all officers receive training as infantry platoon commanders. The value of this culture has been demonstrated many times throughout history. At Wake Island, when all the Marine aircraft were shot down, their pilots continued the fight, leading supply clerks and cooks in a final defensive effort. More recently, in Operation Iraqi Freedom Marine support personnel were able to defend themselves and in one instance, a Marine JAGlawyer lead a counterattack when his convoy was ambushed.

The amphibious assault techniques developed for WWII have evolved with the addition of air assault and maneuver warfare doctrine into the "Operational Maneuver from the Sea" doctrine of power projection from the seas. Marines are credited with the development of helicopter insertion doctrine, and were the earliest in the American military to adopt maneuver warfare principles, which emphasize low-level initiative and flexible execution. As a result, a large degree of initiative and autonomy is expected of junior Marines, particularly the NCOs (Corporals and Sergeants) as compared to many other military organizations. The Marine Corps pushes authority and responsibility downward to a greater degree than the other services. Flexibility of execution is implemented via an emphasis on "commander's intent" as a guiding principle for orders - specifying the endstate but leaving open the method of execution.

The Marine Corps relies upon the Navy's for sealift to provide its rapid deployment capabilities. In addition to basing a third of the Fleet Marine Force in Japan, Marine Expeditionary Unit(MEU)'s, a smaller MAGTF, are typically stationed at sea. This allows them the ability to function as "America's 9-1-1 Force", earning them the moniker "first to fight". Though the U.S. Army now maintains light infantry units capable of rapid worldwide deployment, they cannot match the combined-arms integration of a MAGTF, nor the logistical train that the Navy provides. For this reason, the Marine Corps is often assigned to non-combat missions such as the evacuation of Americans from unstable countries, and humanitarian relief of natural disasters. In larger conflicts, the Marines act as a stopgap, to get into and hold an area until larger units can be mobilized. It performed this role in in WWI, the Korean War, and Operation Desert Storm, where Marines were the first significant combat units deployed from the United States and held the line until the country could mobilize for war.