SILK CHUTES AND HARD FIGHTING: US. Marine Corps
Parachute Units in World War II
by Lieutenant Colonel Jon T. Hoffman (USMCR)
The Closing Shock
The final reevaluation of the parachute program began
in August 1943. In a one-page memorandum, the Division of Plans and
Policies summarized the heart of the problem. Simply put, there were far
too few transport planes in the entire Marine Corps for the regiment to
jump into combat, which was its only reason for existence. The Marine
Corps either needed to acquire many more aircraft or borrow squadrons
from another service. Left unstated was a third option to get out
of the paratroop business. That already was nearly a foregone
conclusion, since Vandegrift was the Commandant-designate and he had
pronounced views about the future of special units in the Corps. Holcomb
set things in motion with a formal recommendation on 21 December to
disband both the parachute and the raider organizations. However, he did
so with the strong concurrence of Vandegrift, who actually presented the
proposal in person to Admiral Ernest J. King, the Chief of Naval
Operations.
Colonel Omar T. Pfeiffer, the Marine planning officer
on King's staff, summarized the position of Holcomb and Vandegrift.
Deletion of the parachute program would save $150,000 per month in jump
pay, free 3,000 personnel for assignment to one of the new divisions,
allow for uniformity of equipment and training within all Marine
infantry units, and "avoid setting up some organizations as elite or
selected troops." King agreed to the plan on 25 December 1943. Except
for a small cadre to provide an air delivery section for each of the two
Marine corps-level headquarters in the Pacific, the 1st Parachute
Regiment would return to the States and disband upon its arrival. Its
manpower would form the core of the new 5th Marine Division. The 4th
Battalion would disband at Pendleton and provide men for the general
replacement pool. Headquarters issued the official orders for this
process on 30 December. Vandegrift took the oath of office as the 18th
Commandant of the Marine Corps on 1 January and one of his early
official acts was ordering the closing of the Parachute Training School
at Camp Gillespie. Those personnel joined the 4th Battalion men in the
replacement pool.
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An
aerial view shows the 4th Parachute Battalion's tent camp at San Onofre
Canyon at Camp Pendleton, California. This unit never deployed overseas
and was disbanded in early 1944 along with its three sister
battalions. Photo courtesy of Anderson PC826
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The 2d Parachute Battalion sailed from Vella Lavella
on 2 January to join the rest of the regiment on Guadalcanal. The 1st
and 2d Battalions embarked for the States on 18 January and arrived in
San Diego on 4 February. The regimental headquarters and the 3d
Battalion departed Guadalcanal on 30 January. The 1st Parachute Regiment
officially furled its colors on 29 February 1944.
The 5th Marine Division, leavened by the veterans of
the 1st Parachute Regiment, would land at Iwo Jima barely a year later
and distinguish itself in that bitter fight. Three parachutists would
participate in the famed flag raisings on Mount Suribachi on 23 February
1945. Sergeant Henry O. Hansen helped put the first flag in place and
Corporals Ira H. Hayes and Harlon H. Block were among the group of six
featured in the Joe Rosenthal photograph of the second flag raising. Of
the 81 Marines to earn the Medal of Honor in World War II, five were
former paratroopers who performed their feats of heroism on Iwo
Jima.
Several Marine parachutists did put their special
training to use in combat. A handful of graduates of the parachute
program joined the Office of Strategic Services and jumped into occupied
France in support of the resistance movement. Two officers participated
as observers in an Army airborne assault in New Guinea. The Marine
parachute units of World War II never jumped into combat, hut they did
make an indelible impression on the history of the Corps.
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