3rd Marine Division

He passed away January 17th, 1966.

He was part of Company L, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division.

So the first Marine we're speaking of.

This is from the Patriot News, a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania publication, January 18th, 1966.

not turned 20.

He's 19.

William arrived in Vietnam and was assigned to Charlie Company, 3rd Engineer Battalion, 3rd Marine Division.

This is from the Bristol Daily Courier, Bristol, Pennsylvania, Wednesday, January 26, 1966.

Uh, so, so people came up with some.

Uh, and also, uh, on the exact same day that, that, uh, his eulogy was borrowed, uh, it was borrowed by a, a Christian chaplain from the 3rd Marine division, and he made about 2,000 mimeographed copies of the eulogy, of the original eulogy.

I've never found one.

I haven't been able to find any.

I, uh, I was in, uh, uh, Vietnam for nine and a half months.

I was in the 3rd Marine Division.

We spent the entire tour right at Leatherneck Square, which was, uh, a strategic area because that's where the North w- it was the best thing for the North Vietnamese to go through there to get to the southern communities and whatnot.

So, uh, I was there for, um, s- six months before I was wounded, and then, [chuckles] and then after that, I was just wounded every once in a while, kinda.

My uncle got there in September.

He was with 3rd Marine Division as a, uh, motor T truck o- uh, truck driver, motor vehicle operator with 3rd Medical Battalion.

So I think he drove ambulances.

And then my father, in 1967, he joined the Marines.

Schmidt had the rank, experience, staff, and resources to execute Corps-level responsibility without being second-guessed by another headquarters.

smith the amphibious pioneer and veteran of landings in the aleutians gilberts marshalls and marianas admitted to being embarrassed by the assignment my son had almost set by then he stated i think they asked me along only in case something happened to harry Smith tried to keep out of Schmidt's way, but his subsequent decision to withhold commitment of the 3rd Marines, the Expeditionary Troops Reserve, remains as controversial today as it was in 1945.

Holland Smith was an undeniable asset to the Iwo Jima campaign.

During the top-level planning stage, he was often, as always, a voice in the wilderness, predicting severe casualties unless greater and more effective preliminary naval bombardment was provided.

Each division would land two reinforced regiments abreast.

From left to right, the beaches were designated green, red, yellow, and blue.

The 5th Division would land the 28th Marines on the left flank, over Green Beach, the 27th Marines over Red, The 4th Division would land the 23rd Marines over Yellow Beach and the 25th Marines over Blue Beach on the right flank.

General Schmidt reviewed the latest intelligence reports with growing uneasiness and requested a reassignment of reserve forces with General Smith.

I was a first lieutenant.

I was with 3rd Marine Division out in Okinawa, but I was back in Quantico, Virginia, attending explosive breacher instructor's course.

If people don't know, explosive breaching is when you put an explosive charge against a door or a window or a wall and you blow a hole through it.

And so it was literally in that class when we were told that.

Yeah.

No, uh, well said.

And so from, from, from your end, what was the timeline for you being at that breacher's course and assigned to 3rd Marine Division, and then ending up, uh, deployed somewhere in support of all of this?

Oh, well, I, I, so I went from there to, uh, the Pentagon.

Ahead the going seemed all uphill against a well-disciplined, rarely visible enemy.

In the center of the island the 3rd Marine Division units had been up most of the night repelling a small but determined Japanese counterattack which had found the seam between the 21st and 9th Marines.

Vicious close combat had cost both sides heavy casualties.

The counterattack spoiled the division's preparations for a morning advance.

The physical separation of the three divisions, from Guam to Hawaii, had no adverse effect on preparatory training.

Where it counted most, the proficiency of small units in amphibious landings and combined arms assaults on fortified positions, each division was well prepared for the forthcoming invasion.

The 3rd Marine Division had just completed its participation in the successful recapture of Guam, field training often extended to active combat patrols to root out diehard Japanese survivors.

In Maui, the 4th Marine Division prepared for its 4th major assault landing in 13 months with quiet confidence.

It was a joint headquarters, Army-Marine layers.

We had the 3rd Marine Division, which was a fierce outfit.

And we had 101st Airborne Air Mobile, which was the first to introduce helicopters into warfare.

And they were fighters.