Sgt Grit Marine Forums

1 April,1945: It is Easter Sunday.  Meanwhile in the Pacific the 1st and 6th Marine Divisions are landing on Okinawa(island secured 22 June).

1 April 1968: End of Tet Counteroffensive, Vietnam.

I gleamed this - From the Sixth Marine Division website. 

Bloodiest Encounter of the Pacific War!

America's bloodiest--and least heralded--campaign of the Pacific War. What I'm steadily coming to realize is that Okinawa is less a single battle than a hundred vicious struggles wrapped into one, a sprawling, titanic battle which perhaps marks the scene of our armed forces' greatest combined effort of World War II, and perhaps our greatest hour of that war. With the increasing media publicity surrounding the heroic capture of tiny Iwo Jima and it's celebrated flagraising, I'm continually amazed that more Americans aren't inclined to take a closer look at Okinawa, a battle that indeed makes Iwo pale in comparison. With newspapers and Internet sites filled to the brim these days with photographs of mighty Mount Suribachi, I went browsing for similar photographs of Okinawa's Hill 50.2, a seemingly innocuous bump on the ground located just beyond the Asa River, in what was once known as "Target Area 7672George." That tiny bump, I was told by my First Marine Division father nearly fifty years ago, cost the lives and limbs of untold thousands of Marines and Japanese. "The final capture of Sugar Loaf," my father had noted, "had cost two countries thousands more men than were expended in the fight for Iwo's Suribachi, and the darkest thing of all is, battles like Sugar Loaf were to be repeated scores of times on Okinawa--over and over again."

 Okinawa was the most ferocious battle of WWII. It has been characterized as "An Iwo Jima every day for months". I am astounded that history overlooks this fact and focuses on Iwo Jima.

2 April 1944: The 22nd Marine Regiment secured Majit Island in the Marshall Islands.

2 April 1944: 1st day of operation for newly formed 9thMAW, Cherry Point.

Thank you sir, for continueing this thread.  You have come up with some very interesting posts.

3 April 1817: "Peace Establishment Act" reduced Corps to 50 officers and 942 enlisted.

3 April 1847: Marines and Sailors from the USS Portsmouth landed and captured San Lycas, Mexico.

3 April 1945: On Okinawa, Marines of the III Amphibious Corps continued to make good progress all along their front, clearing Zampa Misaki and seizing the Katchin Peninsula, thus effectively cutting the island in two. By this date (D+2), III AC elements had reached objectives thought originally to require 11 days to take.

4 April 1854: Battle of Shanghai, China. Marines and Sailors from the USS Plymouth landed at Shanghai to protect the American Consulate.

4 April 1967: "CHINOOK II" ended in Vietnam (17 Feb - 4 Apr).

5 April 1947: Five Marine guards were killed and eight wounded when attacked by Communist Chinese raiders near the Hsin Ho ammunition depot in Northern China. This last major clash between Marines of the 1st Marine Division and Communist forces occurred shortly after withdrawal and redeployment plans from China were issued for the 1st Division and 1st Marine Aircraft Wing on 1 April.

5 April 1967:  "Big-Horn" RVN (5-22 Apr).

6 April 1776: Continental Marines on the USS Alfred participated in the first naval engagement.

6 April 1967: "Canyon" search and destroy, RVN (6-10 Apr).

and on a personal note:
6 April 1965: I started my journey into the Corps by signing a 120 day Delayed Entry Contract.

7 April 1917: Marines participated in the Battle of Las Canitas in the Dominican Republic.

7 April 1966: "JACK-STAY" ended, RVN.

7 April 1991: The 24th MEU participated in Operation Provide Comfort, a multinational relief effort to aid Kurdish refugees on the Iraqi-Turkish border.

devildog-64012:

and on a personal note:
6 April 1965: I started my journey into the Corps by signing a 120 day Delayed Entry Contract.

Boot!    I signed a 120 day Delayed Entry on 2Feb65, arrived at MCRDSD 31May.

Thanks for the history entries, Richard. 

8 April 1782: Marines participated in the sea battle between the USS Hyder Ally and HMS General Monk.

8 April 1823: Marines chased pirates east of Havana, Cuba.

8 April 1966: Operation "IOWA," RVN (8-9 Apr)

9 April 1942: Bataan, Philippines, fell to Japan. Battery C, 4th Marine Regiment surrendered with American forces.
9 April 1953: Marines regained "Carson" Hill during fighting in Korea.

10 April 1945: VMB-612 launched night attacks from Iwo Jima against the Japanese coast.

10 April 1959: Lieutenant Colonel John H. Glenn, Jr. was named as one of the original seven Project Mercury astronauts selected for space training. The seven astronauts, all volunteers, were selected by NASA from an initial group of 110 leading military test pilots. Three years later, on 20 February 1962, Col Glenn would become the first American to orbit the Earth.

11 April 1904: One officer and 20 enlisted men became the first Marines to garrison Midway Island.

11 April 1966: Operation "Orange" southwest of DaNang, Vietnam, ended.

11 April 1992: The 24th MEU (SOC) CH-53H "Super Stallions" helped stem lava flow from Mount Etna, Italy.

devildog-64012:

11 April 1992: The 24th MEU (SOC) CH-53H "Super Stallions" helped stem lava flow from Mount Etna, Italy.  

I did a quick Google search and found this teaser from the Boston Globe Newspaper:

""US TRIES TO SLOW ETNA'S LAVA FLOW
Published on April 14, 1992
Author(s):    AP

ZAFFERANA ETNEA, Sicily -- Military experts blasted a lava stream on Mount Etna with explosives yesterday, and US Marine helicopters dropped huge concrete blocks into the stream to slow its advance on this mountainside village. Crews hope the steaming black lava will cool and solidify if it is slowed. Earthen barriers on the edge of Zafferana Etnea have so far failed to redirect the flow from this village of 7,000. "

12-13 April 1918: Marines of the 4th Brigade suffered their first gas attack on the night and early morning hours of 12-13 April when the Germans bombarded the 74th Company, 6th Marines near Verdun with mustard gas. Nine Marine officers and 305 enlisted Marines were gassed and evacuated, and 30 Marines died from the effects of the gas shells which hit in the middle of the reserve area cantonments in which they were sleeping.

12 April 1966: Multi-Bn operation NEVADA started south of Chu Lai, RVN.

12 April 1975: Marines evacuated nearly 300 Americans and foreign nationals from Cambodia during Operation Eagle Pull.

13 April 1847: Marines captured LaPaz, California, during the Mexican War.

13 April 1885: Marines guarded the rail line to Panama City.

14 April 1865: Marines guarded the body of John Wilkes Booth after Abraham Lincoln's assassination.

14 April 1961: 1/5 Transplacement Battalion left Pendleton for Okie.

15 April 1962: Marine Corps operational involvement in the Vietnam War began on Palm Sunday when HMM-362 with its Sikorsky UH-34s arrived at Soc Trang in the Delta south of Saigon. The task unit was called "Shufly" and its first operational employment involved lifting Vietnamese troops into battle.
15 April 1971: III MAF Redeployed to Okinawa after six years of service in Vietnam.

16 April 1898: The Secretary of the Navy ordered MGen Charles Heywood, 9th Commandant of the Marine Corps, to organize a battalion for duty in Cuba.

17 April 1849: Marines were aboard the USS Preble when she became the first American warship to visit Okinawa.
17 April 1966: Operation "Virginia" RVN (17 Apr - 1 May).

18 April 1864: Marines joined sea battle as four Union ships attacked Confederate ram Albermarle near New Bern, North Carolina.

18 April 1942: Shangri-La raid (B-25's flying off U.S. carrier Hornet) struck Tokyo and other Japanese cities.

18 April 1961: Marines in goodwill tour to North African Ports "SOLANT AMITY II".

18 April 1983: One Marine Security Guard was killed and seven were wounded when a large car bomb exploded just outside the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Lance Corporal Robert McMaugh was standing guard at Post 1, just inside the front entrance when the bomb exploded outside the door. The explosion killed 61 people including 17 Americans. LCpl McMaugh was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on 26 April.

19 April 1778: Marines participated in the USS Ranger's capturing and sinking of a British schooner off the coast of Ireland.

19 April 1966: Helicopter Training Unit HTG-30 formed at Santa Ana, California.

20 April 1861: Marines helped burn Norfolk Navy Yard to prevent Confederate seizure.
20 April 1945: 4th and 29th Marines secured Motobu, Okinawa.

21 April 1951: Marine carrier-based airplanes made their first aerial contact with enemy planes over the Korean front lines. Captain Philip C. Delong shot down two YAK fighters and 1st Lieutenant Harold D. Daigh destroyed one more and damaged another in the heavily defended Pyongyang-Chinnanpo area. Both pilots were with VMF-312 flying from the USS Bataan.
21 April 1966: "GEORGIA" operation southwest of DaNang started (21 Apr - 10 May).