Island Hopping Campaign Research Paper

The Island Hopping Campaign:

The Role of the Marine Noncommissioned Officer

On the following paragraph I am explaining the important of a Marine NCO and the role they play on the battle field. Truth out the history of the Marine Corps, The NCO always plays a key role in the military. There are the people that trained, guide, lead the junior Marines in all task or mission. They’re the ones that execute and supervise all tasks on the missions while maintaining control and discipline on the troops. Without the Marine NCO the main body of the Marine Corps will be in disarray and the officers will have a hard time running the operations.

What makes the Noncommissioned Officer so important and why a Marine NCO is so different to
the other Sergeant of the other branches. The strength of the Marine Corps comes from his Small Unit Leadership. Small unit leadership is defined as accomplishing large objectives using the smallest and lowest force possible. Doing so, Sgt’s in the Marine Corps are the ones that conduct all missions on the battle field. From patrols, counter insurgency, eliminating the enemy or simply take control of an objective. There will always be a NCO with the troops taking charge and making sure the good order and discipline is always enforce at all times. But what makes a Marine Sergeant do all this? What drives this individual to go above and beyond in the call of duty? In the Marines, they trained everyone in a way that if the highest ranking enlisted in the squad or fire team is taken out the second Marine with the highest rank can take charge and keep moving forward and complete the mission.
But when we talk about a Sgt. of Marines, things are more different. As a Sgt. of Marines not only you are in charge of the mission. You are responsible for the life and safety of all your Marines. You are the one that will be making difficult decision that may put your Marines in danger and may cost their lives or yours to save them. World War II in the Pacific has often been described as a "Sergeant's war." Small unit leaders carried an immense amount of responsibility for the overall battle. On most Pacific islands, there was little space for wide, sweeping maneuvers, or operational-level tactics. Typically, infantry Marines would team-up with tanks, engineers, and other attachments to hammer against the enemy's lines. Example of such dedication to the mission and to save life’s of their fellow Marines on the worst situation and sometimes even costing their lives. NCO's such as Sgt. Smith were in the forefront of combat, leading their Marines and setting the example under the toughest battlefield conditions. Able needed heavy fire support. Sgt Smith determined to find it. He moved out on foot and located three Sherman tanks. Leading them forward, he pointed out Japanese defenses for the tanks to engage. Under his fire direction, the Sherman’s destroyed numerous enemy positions at point blank range. Sgt. Smith continued to lead by example. Seeing wounded Marines trapped in front of the enemy's positions, he made several trips across exposed terrain to rescue four wounded comrades. He also organized litter teams to rescue other trapped Marines. All the while, he continued to direct the tanks in knocking out Japanese automatic weapons that were pouring fire into Able's positions. Is amazing how NCO take ownership of their mission and the
well been of their Marines.

The reason why Marine NCO’s act the way they do on the battle field in that time is because they are on that position of leadership and need to lead there troops by example. It is easy to be a follower and do what other tells you to do, but is takes expirience, training and discipline to be a good leader. Marines will do what they told but they will hesitate on taking orders you will pass them on the heat of battle and they will lose that trust you need to accomplish the mission. Thanks to their sacrifice and the dedication they show the Marine NCO took their troop to dangers mission going to a lot of hardship and making sacrifices, but in the end they got the job done. To summary the important about the Marine NCO on WW2, I explain why the Marine Corps was so successful with his NCO using small unit leader to accomplish mission. And what makes a Marine Sergeant go above and beyond in the call of duty. As you can see the role of a Marine Noncommissioned Officer haven’t change at all in all this time. The Marine Corps had fought numerous wars over the pass years using the same fundamentals that we are using in today’s war.