1st Reconnaissance Battalion
US Marine unit.
History
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.
Text from Wikipedia: 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, CC BY-SA 4.0, lightly trimmed.
Key dates
- 1937It was activated on 1 March 1937 as the 1st Tank Company, 1st Marine Brigade.
- 1941When 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.
- 1943By 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.
- 1945On 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.
- 1950An 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.
- 1966On 6 July 1966, Lieutenant Colonel Arthur J. Sullivan, battalion commander of 1st Recon Battalion, moved his battalion headquarters to Hau Doc, a location 25 km west of Chu Lai.
- 1971The operation began when Marines of 1st Recon Bn. commenced a heliborne assault into abandoned Fire Support Base (FSB) Dagger at 10:45 on 7 April 1971.
- 1990In 1990—1991, the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion participated in the Persian Gulf War.
- 2004Capt Brent L. Morel, Global War on Terror, Operation Iraqi Freedom, 7 April 2004 (posthumously)
Dates and events quoted from the same Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Records that place someone with this unit
A unit history doesn't name everyone who served. These records do:
- Marine Corps records at the National Archives (incl. muster rolls)
- Unit and organizational records held in St. Louis
- Search the National Archives Catalog for “1st Reconnaissance Battalion”