HOW OFFICERS WERE OBTAINED AND TRAINED.
HOW OFFICERS WERE OBTAINED.
The outbreak of war made it essential that the corps should be filled
as far as practicable with officers who had had prior military
experience and training, and immediate steps were taken to arrange
for the designation and examination of Marine Corps warrant officers,
noncommissioned officers, graduates of military colleges, and other
civilians with military experience and training.
The appointment of officers subsequent to the declaration of war
up to October, 1917, both for the permanent service and for the
temporary increase authorized for the duration of the war, were drawn
from the following sources:
Graduates of the Naval Academy 6
Former officer of the Marine Corps 1
Former graduate of the Naval Academy 1
Warrant officers and paymaster’s clerks of the Marine Corps 89
Meritorious noncommissioned officers of the Marine Corps 122
Reserve officers and National Naval Volunteers 36
Graduates of military colleges 284
Other civilians with prior military or naval experience
or training 136
Other civilians passing the competitive examination held
July 10, 1917 86
In order to expedite the training of the new officers, advantage was
taken of the law providing for a Marine Corps Reserve, and successful
candidates were immediately enrolled as second lieutenants in the
reserve and ordered to Marine Corps posts for instruction pending
the issuance of their commissions in the regular service. Candidates
designated for the examination held July 10, 1917, were authorized
upon designation to enroll as privates in the Marine Corps Reserve,
with the understanding that upon the completion of their examination
they would be ordered to the Recruit Depot at Parris Island, S. C.,
for training pending the receipt of the report of the examining
board. This policy was carried out, and the successful candidates
were commissioned second lieutenants in the Marine Corps, while the
unsuccessful candidates were given the option of continuing in the
service as enlisted men or of being discharged therefrom.
Owing to the unusually large number of young men of excellent
education and fine attainments who had enlisted in the Marine
Corps after the outbreak of war, it was decided that no further
appointments of civilians to the rank of second lieutenant would
be made during the continuance of the war, and that all vacancies
occurring in that grade, not required for graduates of the
Naval Academy, would be filled by the promotion of meritorious
noncommissioned officers. This decision was promulgated to the
service in Marine Corps Orders No. 25 (Series 1917).
HOW OFFICERS WERE TRAINED.
The officers appointed from civil life, as soon as enrolled, were
ordered to the Marine barracks, Mare Island, Calif.; San Diego,
Calif.; Parris Island, S. C.; and the Marine Corps rifle range,
Winthrop, Md., for instruction, pending the completion of the
buildings for their use at the Marine barracks, Quantico, Va. Early
in July, 1917, the buildings being in readiness, the newly appointed
officers, about 345 in number, were assembled at Quantico, where an
officers’ camp of instruction was held, and the course completed in
October, 1917.
In carrying out the policy of obtaining officers from the ranks,
orders were issued to commanding officers of every post and station
of the Marine Corps, both at home and abroad, as well as those on
board ship, to the effect that all commissioned officers would be
taken from the ranks, and that the number of men to be designated
from each post to attend the training camp would be a certain
percentage of the number of men stationed at such post or station.
Each commanding officer was ordered to convene a board of three
officers to examine into the qualifications of the men at his post,
and to report in the order of merit the names of the men considered
qualified for entry to the officers’ training camp at Quantico, Va.
These reports were all forwarded to headquarters, where a board was
convened to examine them and to select, in accordance with their
standing as reported by the various boards, the number of men who
it had been decided could be quartered and properly instructed at
Quantico. It was found that about 600 was the limit that could be
accommodated, and approximately this number was selected for the
first camp, which was established at Quantico, Va., in April, 1918.
The officers’ training camp was commanded by an officer of adequate
rank. The students were divided into companies with a major in
command as chief instructor and captains and lieutenants to assist
him. The candidates were given a very rigid course of instruction
and intensive training. Some of the studies pursued were: Infantry
drill regulations, manual of interior guard duty, bayonet training,
bombing, minor tactics, military engineering, military topography,
administration, military law, lectures on gas and on sea duty, and a
practical course on the rifle range.
The training at these camps was most intensive and thoroughly
competitive, so that a man’s position depended entirely upon himself.
The material to draw from was so excellent that comparatively few of
those who entered the camps failed to receive commissions and many
of the young men so commissioned who were assigned to duty abroad
demonstrated that their selection was fully justified.
Many officers also received special training in the schools of the
Overseas Depot at Quantico, Va.
The majority of the members of the first officers’ training camp were
graduated in July, 1918. Three hundred of this camp were commissioned
on July 15, 1918, and 91 on August 15, 1918.
The same proportionate allowance that was made in the United States
was also designated for the Marines serving in France, and similar
means were instituted there to carry out the policy of selection of
men for the training camp. As a result of the camp established over
there, 164 second lieutenants were appointed from the Fourth Brigade
in France.
The second officers’ training camp was opened at Quantico, Va., on
August 20, 1918, the enlisted men forming its personnel having been
selected in exactly the same manner as those attending the first camp
and this procedure was also followed with regard to the Marines of
the American Expeditionary Forces in France. Of the 570 men enrolled
432 were graduated from the second officers’ training camp, December
16, 1918, and 172 from the Army candidate school in France, who,
immediately upon graduating, were enrolled as second lieutenants
(provisional) in class 4, Marine Corps Reserve, and subsequently
appointed temporary second lieutenants in the Marine Corps. An
extension of three weeks to this course in America was necessitated
by the epidemic of influenza.
There were 235 graduated in July, 1919, from the third officers’
training camp who were enrolled as second lieutenants (provisional)
in class 4, Marine Corps Reserve, and immediately assigned to
inactive duty.
There were also 48 graduates of the Army candidate school in France,
who were enrolled as second lieutenants (provisional) in class 4,
Marine Corps Reserve, and who were discharged or placed on inactive
duty upon their return to the United States, with the exception of
four who were transferred to the temporary service.
Sixty-nine officers were graduated from the Marine Corps school of
machine gun instruction at Utica N. Y.
Information regarding the training of Marine officers for aviation
duties will be found in Chapter XXI.
MARINE SECTIONS, STUDENT ARMY TRAINING CORPS.
In the act approved August 31, 1918, provision was made for a Student
Army Training Corps, and under date of September 12, 1918, the
Secretary of War directed the Provost Marshal General to allot 1,500
of the registrants authorized for induction into the Student Army
Training Corps to the Marine sections under that organization. On
September 23, 1918, with the approval of the Navy Department, Marine
Corps headquarters designated the following institutions for the
organization of Marine sections of the Student Army Training Corps
and allotted quotas to each ranging from 100 to 190:
Leland Stanford Junior University 110
Georgia School of Technology 100
Harvard University 120
University of Minnesota 110
Cornell University 170
University of Washington 160
University of Texas 100
Yale University 100
University of Kansas 140
University of Wisconsin 190
Virginia Military Institute 100
University of North Carolina 100
A Marine officer was ordered to each of the designated institutions
and charged with the duties of administration, instruction,
and discipline of the Marine section, with the assistance of a
noncommissioned officer of the Marine Corps.
It was intended to transfer, from time to time, well-qualified
students who were inducted into Marine sections of the Student
Army Training Corps to aviation duty, or to one of the two recruit
camps, and in both cases men thus recommended, who proved themselves
qualified to become officers, would be ultimately commissioned in
either the Marine Corps Reserve Flying Corps or for general service
in the Marine Corps. In either case after finishing their course
in the Student Army Training Corps they would have been sent to a
recruit camp for the regular course of training, because this would
make it possible to imbue them with the necessary esprit de corps
and indoctrinate them with the Marine Corps methods of procedure and
training, both essential to the making of a Marine officer of the
highest type. Owing to the ending of active hostilities there were
no graduates from the Marine sections of the Student Army Training
Corps at the different universities and colleges as they were ordered
abandoned shortly after the armistice became operative.