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campaign.

1003.  WORLD WAR I

a.   The declaration of war in 1917 found the Marine Corps with
its active forces committed to interventions in Latin America.
In spite of this, the Marines were determined to fight in France.
Using a leaven of experienced off icers and noncommissioned
officers,  it formed two regiments and a machine gun battalion out
of the high-quality wartime volunteers who flocked to its ranks.

b.   These wartime units, the 5th and 6th Regiments and the 6th
Machine Gun Battalion, were organized and trained for detached
service with the Army.  Their tables of organization were based
on the Army pattern, not the Marine one.  Once they arrived in
France these Marines were subject to the Army's legal code.   In
addition, these Marines soon found themselves wearing Army
uniforms.   (Not until late in the war did the Marines receive
permission to wear an their collars the Marine Corps emblem.)
Their unit administrative procedures,  including the inevitable
blank forms, were those of the Army.

C.   Army divisions at that time contained two brigades of two
regiments each.   Since the two Marine regiments were combined
into the fourth American brigade activated in France, their
official designation was 4th Brigade.  Their division, the second
one activated by the American Expeditionary Force out of Regulars
(as opposed to the National Guard and National Army draftees),
was the 2d Division (U.S. Regular).

d.   Not all Marines served in the 4th Brigade.  Some senior
officers commanded Army regiments and brigades.   John A. Thejeune,
after receiving his second star following service as a brigade
commander in two Army divisions, commanded the 2d Division.   On
the other hand, one of the most effective and popular commanders
of the 4th Brigade was an Army officer, Brigadier General James
G. Harbord.

e.   In essence, the 4th Brigade was as much a part of the wartime
Army of the United States and the AEF as any other command which
served in France.   The Marines went to France to "play on the
first team" even if it meant fitting themselves into the Army
mold in training, equipment, and organization.

f.   The Marine Corps' primary disappointment in France was the
refusal by General John J. Pershing, the AEF commander,to permit
the formation of a Marine division.   General Pershing had little
confidence that Marine senior officers had the technical


      1This division  remains active  in today's  Army  as the 2d
Infantry Division.

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