26 July 1947: The National Security Act of 1947 became effective, reaffirming the status of the Marine Corps as a separate military service within the Department of the Navy. The Act Provided for Fleet Marine Forces, and confirmed the Corps' mission of seizing and defending advanced bases, as well as land operation incident to naval campaigns.
"The Marine Corps shall be organized, trained, and equipped to provide fleet marine forces of combined arms, together with supporting air components, for service with the fleet in the seizure or defense of advanced naval bases and for the conduct of such land operations as may be essential to the prosecution of a naval campaign." Thus, the law now recognizes and directs that the maintenance of fleet marine forces is the fundamental function of the Marine Corps. Such a stipulation is wholly consistent with the concept of the Marine Corps, which, for the last quarter of a century, has pioneered and specialized in amphibious operations. It is in the concept of the fleet marine forces that the amphibious character of the Marine Corps finds its most convincing emphasis.
True, the Marine Corps since its earliest days has engaged in amphibious operations. Also, the fact cannot be disputed but what the Marines, in the years following World War I. developed the amphibious knowledge which in World War II proved to be prerequisite of victory in global warfare. Yet the fundamentally amphibious nature of the Marine Corps, so apparent in fact and action, was not recognized in the basic laws governing the armed forces. Neither the National Defense Acts of 1903, 1916, nor 1920 even mentioned the Marine Corps.
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