The
Republic of Korea Marine Corps (aka
ROK Marine Corps /
ROK Marines,
ROKMC,
KoreanKorean is the official language of North Korea and South Korea. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers. It was formerly written using Hanja, borrowed Chinese characters pronounced in the Korean...
HangulHangul is the native alphabet of the Korean language, as distinguished from the logographic Sino-Korean hanja system...
:
대한민국 해병대,
HanjaHanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. More specifically, it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation...
:
大韓民國海兵隊,
Revised RomanizationThe Revised Romanization of Korean is the official Korean language romanization system in South Korea, used as a replacement for the 1984 McCune-Reischauer–based romanization system...
: Dae-Han-min-guk Haebyeongdae) is the marine corps of the Republic of Korea. Though theoretically it is under the direction of the
Chief of Naval OperationsThe Chief of Naval Operations is the highest ranking officer in the United States Navy and is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The CNO reports directly to the Secretary of the Navy for the command, utilization of resources and operating efficiency of the operating forces of the Navy and of...
, the Marine Corps operates as a distinct arm of the
military of South KoreaThe Republic of Korea Armed Forces or ROK Armed Forces, is the armed forces of South Korea...
, unlike most other "Marine" military organisations, which generally function as part of their respective national navies.
The
Republic of Korea Marine Corps (aka
ROK Marine Corps /
ROK Marines,
ROKMC,
KoreanKorean is the official language of North Korea and South Korea. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers. It was formerly written using Hanja, borrowed Chinese characters pronounced in the Korean...
HangulHangul is the native alphabet of the Korean language, as distinguished from the logographic Sino-Korean hanja system...
:
대한민국 해병대,
HanjaHanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. More specifically, it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation...
:
大韓民國海兵隊,
Revised RomanizationThe Revised Romanization of Korean is the official Korean language romanization system in South Korea, used as a replacement for the 1984 McCune-Reischauer–based romanization system...
: Dae-Han-min-guk Haebyeongdae) is the marine corps of the Republic of Korea. Though theoretically it is under the direction of the
Chief of Naval OperationsThe Chief of Naval Operations is the highest ranking officer in the United States Navy and is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The CNO reports directly to the Secretary of the Navy for the command, utilization of resources and operating efficiency of the operating forces of the Navy and of...
, the Marine Corps operates as a distinct arm of the
military of South KoreaThe Republic of Korea Armed Forces or ROK Armed Forces, is the armed forces of South Korea...
, unlike most other "Marine" military organisations, which generally function as part of their respective national navies. It was founded as a reconnaissance group just before the
Korean WarThe Korean War is a war that started between North Korea and South Korea on 25 June 1950 and paused with an armistice signed 27 July, 1953...
. The ROKMC also saw action during the
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War or the Second Indochina War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to 30 April 1975...
while stationed in Danang, sometimes fighting alongside the
USMCThe United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States armed forces responsible for providing force projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to rapidly deliver combined-arms task forces. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
or U.S. Navy SEALs.
Founding years
On April 15, 1949, the Republic of Korea Marine Corps (ROKMC) was founded in Deoksan airfield in
JinhaeJinhae is a city in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. The city is on the south coast and is separated from the neighboring city of Changwon by a line of high hills that are aligned from east to west...
with an initial strength of 380 men, the ROKMC troops were issued with many leftover weapons from the
Imperial Japanese ArmyThe Imperial Japanese Army , or literally Army of the Empire of Greater Japan was the official ground based armed force of Imperial Japan from 1867 to 1945...
used during World War II, including the 7.7 mm
Type 99 Light Machine GunThe was a light machine gun used by the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. -History and development:The Type 96 Light Machine Gun, an improvement over the previous Type 11 Light Machine Gun was introduced into combat service in 1936, and quickly proved to be a versatile weapon to provide...
. The Marine Corps carried out Suppression Operations against communist elements in
JinjuJinju is a city in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. It was the location of the first and second Sieges of Jinju by Japanese forces during the Imjin War...
and
Jeju-doJeju-do is the only special autonomous province of South Korea, situated on and coterminous with the country's largest island. Jeju-do lies in the Korea Strait, southwest of Jeollanam-do Province, of which it was a part before it became a separate province in 1946...
.; first saw combat action in the Korean War. During this conflict, foreign media dubbed the ROKMC the "Invincible Marines" after an incident in which a squad of ROK Marines wiped out an entire battalion of Communist forces.
Vietnam War
During the
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War or the Second Indochina War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to 30 April 1975...
, the ROKMC dispatched the
Cheongryeong (청룡) brigade to the Republic of
VietnamVietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east...
.
At the request of the United States, President Park Chung Hee of the Republic of Korea agreed to send military units into Vietnam, despite opposition from both the Assembly and the public. In exchange, United States agreed to provide additional military funds to Korea to modernize its armed forces, totaling about a billion dollars.
The Republic of Korea Army units' Area Of Responsibility (AOR) were the southern half of the I Corp. The ROK Marine Corps units were deployed with the I Corps alongside with US Marines.
Under an arrangement with the U.S. Marine Corps, air assets would be provided to the brigade and assigned the same priority for available aircraft as are American units. A team of experts from Subunit One, 1st ANGLICO was dispatched and charged with the mission of keeping an air umbrella over the Blue Dragon Brigade in and out of the field. A two man fire control team was assigned to each ROKMC infantry company at all times.
Initially, the AK47-equipped Vietcong and NVA outgunned Korean soldiers, since they were armed with World War II-era weaponry (M1 Garand and M1 carbine). But they soon received more modern weapons from the United States military such as the M-16.
The three main units deployed to Vietnam were the ROK Army Capital (Yellow Tiger) Division, the ROK Marine Corps’ 2nd (Blue Dragon) Brigade and the ROK Army 9th (White Stallion) Division. Various ROK special forces units were also deployed.
Most of the operations never exceeded battalion-size, but they also conducted divisional size operations. Before conducting missions, Koreans laid out their plans much more carefully than their allies, with greater fire discipline, effective use of fire support, and better coordination of sub-units. They also had to their favor the distinguished combat leadership of the company and platoon commanders. During village searches, ROK soldiers would subject the settlement to a series of detailed sweeps while interrogating subjects on the spot. By comparison, American units tended to favor a single sweep followed by a removal of all civilians for screening. Such a painstaking approach certainly paid dividends in terms of weapons seizures and reduced VC activity in ROK areas. Koreans quickly learned pidgin Vietnamese language; for fear that most Vietnamese translators were spies for Vietcong and NVA. Koreans also had better field intelligence than their American counterparts. Koreans conducted counterinsurgency operations so well that American commanders felt Korean AOR was the safest. This was further supported when Vietcong documents captured after the Tet Offensive warned their compatriots to never engage Koreans until full victory is certain. In fact, it was often that the NVA and Vietcong were ambushed by Koreans and not vice versa.
Apparently the ROK Marines were experts at locating enemy weapons caches. The official U.S. report on South Korean participation in Vietnam, entitled "Vietnam Studies: Allied Participation in Vietnam," (chapter 6 of this manual), states that "The enemy feared the Koreans both for their tactical innovations and for the soldiers' tenacity. It is of more than passing interest to note that there never was an American unit in Vietnam which was able to 'smell out' small arms like the Koreans. The Koreans might not suffer many casualties, might not get too many of the enemy on an operation, but when they brought in seventy-five or a hundred weapons, the Americans wondered where in the world they got them. They appeared to have a natural nose for picking up enemy weapons that were, as far as the enemy thought, securely cached away. Considered opinion was that it was good the Koreans were 'friendlies.'"
One of the most notable operations during the
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War or the Second Indochina War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to 30 April 1975...
was The
Battle of Tra Binh DongThe Battle of Tra Binh Dong was probably the most famous battle fought by the South Korean Marines during the Vietnam War. It was fought in the Tra Binh Dong village near the border of Cambodia....
in which just under 300 marines successfully defended their base against over 2,400 Viet Cong. Another notable operation is Operation Flying Tiger in early January of 1966; here, the Koreans accounted for 192 Viet Cong killed as against only eleven Koreans.
The U.S. Army manual on Korean participation in Vietnam also states that "[t]he Koreans were thorough in their planning and deliberate in their execution of a plan. They usually surrounded an area by stealth and quick movement. While the count of enemy killed was probably no greater proportionately than that of similar US combat units, the thoroughness with which the Koreans searched any area they fought in was attested to by the fact that the Koreans usually came out with a much higher weaponry count than US troops engaged in similar actions."
A total of 320,000 Koreans served in Vietnam, with a peak strength (of any given time) at around 48,000. About 4,000 were killed. The Korean forces in Vietnam were frequently able to amass a kill ratio of about 25:1 compared to the average American kill ratio of less than 9:1. The U.S Army manual on Korean participation in Vietnam states that "[a]n analysis of an action by Korean Capital Division forces during the period 23-29 January 1968 clearly illustrates the Korean technique. After contact with an enemy force near
Phu CatPhu Cat , is a district of Binh Dinh Province in the South Central Coast region of Vietnam.As of 2003 the district had a population of 192,830. The district covers an area of 678 km². The district capital lies at Ngo May ....
, the Koreans reacting swiftly...deployed six companies in an encircling maneuver and trapped the enemy force in their cordon. The Korean troops gradually tightened the circle, fighting the enemy during the day and maintaining their tight cordon at night, thus preventing the enemy's escape. At the conclusion of the sixth day of fighting, 278 NVA had been KIA with the loss of just 11 Koreans, a kill ratio of 25.3 to 1. Later in 1968 a Korean 9th Division operation titled Baek Ma [Korean for "white horse," after the White Horse Division] 9 commenced on 11 October and ended on 4 November with 382 enemy soldiers killed and the North Vietnamese 7th Battalion, 18th Regiment, rendered ineffective. During this operation, on 25 October, the eighteenth anniversary of the division, 204 of the enemy were killed without the loss of a single Korean soldier."
The official U.S. military record on South Korean participation in the Vietnam war reads, "In summary, it appears that Korean operations in Vietnam were highly professional, well planned, and thoroughly executed; limited in size and scope, especially in view of assets made available; generally unilateral and within the Korean tactical area of responsibility; subject to domestic political considerations; and highly successful in terms of kill ratio."
Brig. General Dai Yong Rhee, the deputy commander for all South Korean forces in Vietnam, was captured after failing to be evacuated from Saigon at the wars end in 1975 and was subsequently imprisoned by the North Vietnamese. He was released in 1980.
1970s and 1980s
In 1973, once a separate branch of the ROK Armed Forces, the ROKMC became a part of the ROK Navy. Headquarters Republic of Korea Marine Corps was re-established in 1987.
Organization
The ROKMC has approximately 29,000 personnel, and is organized into two divisions and one brigade under Headquarters Republic of Korea Marine Corps and primarily dedicated to protecting the nation's islands.
It has such responsibilities as landing operations, accomplished in coordination with the
ROKNThe Republic of Korea Armed Forces or ROK Armed Forces, is the armed forces of South Korea...
using landing craft, surface fleets and aircraft. ROK Marines have the ability to accomplish a variety of missions including ground battles, special fighting scenarios, facility protection and security services. To execute amphibious operations, it possesses a range of amphibious equipment, including amphibious vehicles, as well as its own means of fire support. A major naval evolution during Foal Eagle 2000, an annual combined U.S. and Republic of Korea (ROK) exercise, was an amphibious assault launched by U.S. and ROK Marines from U.S. Navy ships belonging to 7th Fleet's permanently forward-deployed Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) based in Japan.
Order of Battle
- Headquarters Republic of Korea Marine Corps (대한민국 해병대사령부)
-
-
- Yeonpyeong Unit (연평부대)
- Education and Training Group (교육훈련단)
- Amphibious Support Group (상륙지원단)
- 1st Marine Division (1해병사단)
-
- 1st Tank Battalion: equipped K1
The K1 is a main battle tank in use with the South Korean ground forces. The vehicle is based on the design of the M1 Abrams, a product of General Dynamics, while the production is handled domestically in South Korea by Hyundai Precision....
MBT
-
-
-
- 1st Assault Amphibian Vehicle Battalion: equipped KAAV7A1
- 1st Reconnaissance Battalion
- 1st Engineer Battalion
- 1st Support Battalion
- 2nd Marine Regiment
- 3rd Marine Regiment
- 7th Marine Regiment
- 1st Marine Artillery Regiment: equipped K55 SPH
The M109 is an American-made self-propelled 155 mm howitzer, first introduced in the early 1960s. It was upgraded a number of times to today's M109A6 Paladin...
/ KH179 TH
- 2nd Marine Division (2해병사단)
-
- 2nd Tank Battalion: equipped M48A3K
The M48 Patton II was the third and final US medium gun tank of the Patton series, named after General George S. Patton, commander of the U.S. Third Army during World War II and one of the earliest American advocates for the use of tanks in battle. It was a further development of the M47 Patton tank...
- 2nd Assault Amphibian Vehicle Battalion: equipped KAAV7A1
- 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion
- 2nd Engineer Battalion
- 2nd Support Battalion
- 1st Marine Regiment
- 5th Marine Regiment
- 8th Marine Regiment
- 2nd Marine Artillery Regiment: equipped K55 SPH
The M109 is an American-made self-propelled 155 mm howitzer, first introduced in the early 1960s. It was upgraded a number of times to today's M109A6 Paladin...
/ KH179 TH
- 6th Marine Brigade (6해병여단) HQ Kumhwa
-
- 6th Amphibious Reconnaissance Co
- 5 Island Garrisons in the West Sea
See also
- Military of South Korea
The Republic of Korea Armed Forces or ROK Armed Forces, is the armed forces of South Korea...
- Battle of Tra Binh Dong
The Battle of Tra Binh Dong was probably the most famous battle fought by the South Korean Marines during the Vietnam War. It was fought in the Tra Binh Dong village near the border of Cambodia....
- [Lightning From the Sky Thunder From the Sea][ http://www.authorhouse.com/Bookstore/ItemDetail.aspx?bookid=56395]
External links