ANTHOLOGY AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY                                         7

   After the war, the Marine Corps shrank to a point where it could barely man
the skeletons of two divisions and two aircraft wings.  When the Korean War
erupted on 25 June 1950, the Marine Corps hurriedly stripped down the 1st
Marine Division to form a provisional brigade.   This brigade landed at Pusan
on 2 August and, with the support of a Marine aircraft group with three
fighter-bomber squadrons, two of them carrier-based, had a great deal to do with
the successful defense of the Pusan Perimeter.  On 15 September, this brigade
would join with its parent 1st Marine Division, now fleshed out with Reserves,
for the landing at Inchon.  The 1st Marine Division and the 1st Marine Aircraft
Wing remained in Korea for the remainder of the war and turned in a good
performance, both in the air and on the ground, but not without some jurisdic-
tional and doctrinal problems with the Fifth Air Force. 13
   The four Marine battalion landing teams that landed in Lebanon in 1958 were
brought together into the brigade size 2d Provisional Marine Force.  After that,
the time-hallowed term "provisional" fell into disuse.  By the early 1960s the
MAGTF concept had crystallized and the MEU, MEB, MEF triad had emerged.
The Dominican Intervention of 1965 saw the initial employment of the 6th
Marine Expeditionary Unit and a buildup to the 4th Marine Expeditionary
Brigade.
   In Vietnam, the first substantial commitment of U.S. ground combat forces
was on 8 March 1965, when the 9th MEB landed at Da Nang.             It had, of
course, its aviation element.  The 9th MEB was followed on 7 May by the
landing of the 3d MEB at Chu Lai, some 55 miles south of Da Nang.         Both
brigades were then absorbed into the III Marine Expeditionary Force, which
quickly had its name changed to the Ill Marine Amphibious Force because it was
presumed that the South Vietnamese had unhappy memories of the French
~pedidonary Corps.    Eventually, the III Marine Amphibious Force would
include two Marine divisions, two Marine regimental combat teams, and a huge
1st Marine Aircraft Wing, but this took several years, with battalions and
squadrons being fed into the country one at a time. In Vietnam, there were also
jurisdictional and doctrinal problems concerning the use of tactical aviation, this
time with the Seventh Air Force.
   The 1958 intervention in Lebanon had been a near bloodless success.    This
would not be the case with the Marine "presence" in Lebanon that began in
August 1982 with the landing at Beirut of the 32d Marine Amphibious Unit. In
the ensuing months, the 32d MAU was relieved by the 24th MAU which, in
turn, was relieved by the 22d MAU (actually the redesignated 32d MAU). Then
the 24th MAU returned once again and was there on that fatal Sunday morning,
23 October 1983, when the suicide truck-bomb destroyed the headquarters
building of BLT 1/8, killing 241 U.S. servicemen, most of them Marines, and
wounding 70 more.
   The 22d MAU was routinely on its way from the East Coast to relieve the
24th MAU when it was diverted for the Grenada intervention, landing on that
little island on 25 October and,    after a week    ashore, re-embarking and
proceeding to Lebanon.