The 1st Reconnaissance Battalion (abbreviated as 1st Recon Bn) is a reconnaissance battalion in the United States Marine Corps. It is a stand-alone battalion with no parent regiment. Instead, it falls directly under the command of the 1st Marine Division. 1st Recon Bn is located at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego, California.
The unit was founded in 1937 as the 1st Tank Company of the 1st Marine Brigade and went through several name changes before it became the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion in 1958. The battalion was deactivated on June 12, 1992, before being restored as the Reconnaissance Company of the 1st Marine Division's Headquarters and Service Battalion on October 1, 1993. The 1st Recon Battalion was reactivated on July 5, 2000, as part of Marine Corps Commandant General James L. Jones' mission to revitalize Marine Corps reconnaissance.
Mission and training The mission of 1st Reconnaissance Battalion is to provide task-organized forces in order to conduct amphibious reconnaissance, ground reconnaissance, battlespace shaping operations, raids, and specialized insertion and extraction.
Organization 1st Reconnaissance Battalion currently consists of five companies. The companies (except for headquarters and service company) each consist of two platoons. The standard breakdown of the four subsequent companies consists of a reconnaissance and surveillance platoon and a VBSS platoon. Platoons are further divided into three reconnaissance teams, a jump team, dive team and mobility team. A reconnaissance team consists of 6 to 8 Reconnaissance Marines and Special Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman (SARC). While ideal and established doctrine, this organizational structure can be modified by battalion or company commanding officers as they see fit. Headquarters and Service Company Alpha Company Bravo Company Charlie Company Force Recon Company
History It was activated on 1 March 1937 as the 1st Tank Company, 1st Marine Brigade. In early 1940 the company was deployed to the Caribbean aboard before returning to Quantico, Virginia. In November 1940 it was sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
When the 1st and 2nd Marine Divisions were created in 1941, each had a Scout Company of seven officers and 132 NCOs and enlisted men divided into a headquarters unit and three platoons. The unit had M3 Scout Cars and a motorcycle platoon. The 1st Tank Company of the former 1st Marine Brigade was re-designated as the Scout Company, 1st Marine Division Special Troops.
World War II
In 1941, Lieutenant Colonel William "Wild Bill" Whaling (not to be confused with OSS Director William J. Donovan), the executive officer of 5th Marine Regiment visualized and perceived the use for specialized missions encompassing reconnaissance at the division-level, which would be conducted above the normal infantry battalion-level in scouting and patrolling. He recommended to General Alexander Vandegrift the need of a special "Scout and Sniper unit" for the 1st Marine Division's operations on Guadalcanal. Upon approval, by February 1, each of the three companies were created for each regiment.
New Britain, December 1943 Forming the southern of the Bismarck Sea and the Bismarck Archipelago, the island of New Britain was focused for seizure by General MacArthur as it would mean control of the Vitiaz and Dampier Straits. Planning began and decision was made to first seize Arawe Peninsula, an island, a town, a plantation and the Japanese occupation forces situated on the southern coast, sixty miles south across island from Cape Gloucester. Cape Gloucester was tasked for seizure by Major General William H. Rupertus, the landing force commander of the northern elements.
General Rupertus turned to his scout company's chief, 1st Lieutenant John D. Bradbeer, to lead a team of several Marine scouts to conduct amphibious reconnaissance patrols of New Britain. D-Day was determined on December 26, 1943. They landed on New Britain on September 24, 1943, at night by rubber boats from three PT boats, #110, #325 and #327 of the Motor Torepedo Boat Squadron 21, bringing Royal Australian Navy Lieutenant Kirkwall Smith, a former Australian coastwatcher who knew the area, and two natives.
For nine days, they paddled throughout the prospective landing beaches, locating coastal-defense guns, sketched the beaches and evaded the Japanese patrols in the area. Upon time of return to their PT boat pickup, they could not establish radio contact, so they paddled out into the Dampier Strait until they were able to get contact by radio to arrange recovery. Bradbeer's patrol were able to uncover that Japanese troop strength on New Britain was about seventy-five hundred men.
Forty-five days later of November 1943, Bradbeer accompanied Lieutenants Firm and Smith, and Ensign Gipe (a Navy hydrographer) and their small team and again landed from three PT boats on other proposed beaches. However, they never landing on the proposed landing beach, as it was quickly negated due to the cliffs just inland from the beach.
By December 26, 1943, six days prior to D-Day, or D-6, Bradbeer and 1st Lieutenant Joseph A. L. Fournier split the recon patrol, taking their six Marines to reconnoiter remaining portions of the island; Bradbeer and his team went north, Fournier's team reconned the south. Hours later, they both confirmed the usability of the selected landing beaches, reporting them only lightly defended. Within a few more hours both teams were recovered by their PT boats. While returning, a Japanese barge opened fire onto Bradbeer's PT boat, injuring three of the PT crew personnel. US Navy Lieutenant Paul T. Rennell, the PT boat's captain, was able to break contact and evade the Japanese safely. The reconnaissance they provided was the third and the last preliminary amphibious reconnaissance for the New Britain operation.
Peleliu and the Palaus, September 1944
The III Amphibious Corps, led by Major General Geiger tasked MGen Rupertus's 1st Marine Division for the main assault landing on Peleliu. Originally, the 1st Tank Battalion's scout company were part of the "floating reserve", but was ordered ashore on D-Day, September 15, 1944. Early in the afternoon, Company D (Scout) reinforced Colonel Herman Hanneken's 7th Marines to cover the 5th Marines. The island was declared secured on November 27.
Northern Okinawa, April 1945
On April 3, 1945, 1st Marine Division sent their scout company in front of their zone of action along the boundary of the 6th Marine Division to their north. The recon company, commanded by 1st Lieutenant Robert J. Powell, Jr., traversed by motorized patrols to the eastern shore of Okinawa, reaching the base of Katchin Peninsula by 1300. They received further orders to advance north up the east coast toward Hiazaonna. Along the way they encountered a lightly held tank trap, then returned to 1st Marine Division before dark. Colonel Edward Snedeker 7th Marine Regiment followed the recon action report of 1st Marine Division's Company D (Scout) and pushed across the island to the town of Hiazaonna, reaching it at 1830 on April 3, 1945.
North China In the fall of 1945, the Reconnaissance Company was deployed to Tianjin in north China. It returned to Camp Pendleton, California, in June or July 1947.
Korean War
A selected platoon of Kenny Houghton's 1st Marine Division Reconnaissance Company was dispatched to Korea as part of 1st Marine Brigade (5th and 11th Marines) landing at Pusan. The remainder of the Company arrived with the remainder of the Division, and all landed at Inchon. Recon Marines from the 2nd Marine Division Recon later arrived to augment the reconnaissance unit including Lieutenant "Bull" Francis Kraince. Barry Crossman was the Executive Officer.Interview of MGen Kenneth B. Houghton, (San Diego, CA: MCRD, 18 November 1975)
The organization was quickly altered from an amphibious unit of nine-man boat teams to a motorized unit of four-man jeep teams utilizing jeeps loaned by the United States Army.Interview of LtCol Ernest DeFazio, (Oceanside, CA: 12 September 1974) Using these vehicles the Company dispatched motorized patrols on a deep reconnaissance to scout from Wonsan and Hungnam to Huksori, an enemy supply depot some forty miles distant. An element of the Company acted as a point for Tobin's B/1/5 push on August 13, 1950, travelling by jeep about a mile forward of the infantry force.
In January 1951, the unit dispatched patrols to search out guerrillas in the Andong area and later, on one occasion, stayed concealed in a town for two nights tracing enemy cavalry and infantry patrols, and ended up by directing air strikes on them.
Marines from the 1st Recon Company made seven raids into North Korea from the , one of which was conducted 12—16 August 1950, in which a combined force of sixteen Marines and twenty-five Navy Underwater Demolition Teams raided the Posung-Myon area destroying three tunnels and two railway bridges without losing one man.
Deactivated in on 30 April 1958, and reformed as the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion on 1 May 1958 as part of the 1st Marine Division.
Interim Years
Cuban Missile Crisis 1st Reconnaissance Battalion (Forward) deployed to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba and Haiti in October–November 1962 to await the invasion of Cuba. Upon the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the battalion returned to MCB Camp Pendleton.
Vietnam War Operation Kansas, June 1966
By June 1966, the 1st Marine Division had plans to expand its assigned Tactical Area of Responsibility (TAOR) southward from Da Nang to Tam Kỳ, the capital of the Quảng Tín Province. Pressure from the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) had placed Brigadier General William A. Stiles, the assistant division commander (ADC), position to respond by conceiving an operation by ordering an extensive reconnaissance effort between Da Nang and Tam Ky.
BGen. Stiles had divided the operation into two phases. The first phase was to send in his recon assets in an area in the vicinity of the Hiệp Đức District. The division's intelligence (D-2) section had sources of a headquarters of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) 2nd Division lying somewhere near the western border of I Corps in the Quế Sơn Valley. The second phase consisted of a massive exploitation of the recon team's findings, by sending in a joint show-of-force; four infantry battalions from the 1st Marine Division and the ARVN 2nd Division.
On the afternoon of June 13, a thirteen-man recon team, accompanied by the command group, of 1st Recon Battalion landed by helicopters in the middle of the Quế Sơn Valley onto the small mountain of Nui Loc Son. In the course of the next 24-hours, six more recon teams were deployed in different strategic positioning sites, ringing the valley. This enabled the teams to actively report on enemy activity, and if possible, forward observe for either air strikes or artillery fire. Up to eight battalions were on full standby— four battalions of Marines and ARVN each, ready to deploy against any hostile forces encountered. One recon team worked their way south of Hiệp Đức after they set up positions along the heavily wooded Hill 555. They spotted several groups of PAVN of varying size that appeared to be training in the area.
The next day on June 14, a scout dog accompanying an enemy patrol caught scent of the nearby Marines and the patrol advanced towards their position; the recon team's leader immediately called for an extraction. A helicopter was inbound within minutes and the team hastily scrambled aboard and were safely flown back to Chu Lai Base Area.