It was activated on 1 March 1937 as the 1st Tank Company,
1st Marine Brigade. In early 1940 the company was deployed to the Caribbean aboard before returning to
Quantico, Virginia. In November 1940 it was sent to
Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba. When 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. The unit had
M3 Scout Cars and a motorcycle platoon. The 1st Tank Company of the former 1st Marine Brigade was re-designated as the Scout Company, 1st Marine Division Special Troops.
New Britain, December 1943 Forming the southern of the
Bismarck Sea and the
Bismarck Archipelago, the island of
New Britain was focused for seizure by
General MacArthur as it would mean control of the Vitiaz and Dampier Straits. Planning began and decision was made to first seize Arawe Peninsula, an island, a town, a plantation and the Japanese occupation forces situated on the southern coast, sixty miles south across island from
Cape Gloucester. Cape Gloucester was tasked for seizure by Major General
William H. Rupertus, the landing force commander of the northern elements. General Rupertus turned to his scout company's chief, 1st Lieutenant John D. Bradbeer, to lead a team of several Marine scouts to conduct amphibious reconnaissance patrols of New Britain.
D-Day was determined on December 26, 1943. They landed on New Britain on September 24, 1943, at night by rubber boats from three PT boats, #110, #325 and #327 of the Motor Torepedo Boat Squadron 21, bringing
Royal Australian Navy Lieutenant Kirkwall Smith, a former
Australian coastwatcher who knew the area, and two natives. For nine days, they paddled throughout the prospective landing beaches, locating coastal-defense guns, sketched the beaches and evaded the Japanese patrols in the area. Upon time of return to their PT boat pickup, they could not establish radio contact, so they paddled out into the Dampier Strait until they were able to get contact by radio to arrange recovery. Bradbeer's patrol were able to uncover that Japanese troop strength on New Britain was about seventy-five hundred men. Forty-five days later of November 1943, Bradbeer accompanied Lieutenants Firm and Smith, and Ensign Gipe (a Navy hydrographer) and their small team and again landed from three PT boats on other proposed beaches. However, they never landing on the proposed landing beach, as it was quickly negated due to the cliffs just inland from the beach. By 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. Hours later, they both confirmed the usability of the selected landing beaches, reporting them only lightly defended. Within a few more hours both teams were recovered by their PT boats. While returning, a Japanese barge opened fire onto Bradbeer's PT boat, injuring three of the PT crew personnel. US Navy Lieutenant Paul T. Rennell, the PT boat's captain, was able to break contact and evade the Japanese safely. The reconnaissance they provided was the third and the last preliminary amphibious reconnaissance for the
New Britain operation.
Peleliu and the Palaus, September 1944 The
III Amphibious Corps, led by
Major General Geiger tasked MGen Rupertus's 1st Marine Division for the main assault landing on Peleliu. Originally, the
1st Tank Battalion's scout company were part of the "floating reserve", but was ordered ashore on D-Day, September 15, 1944. Early in the afternoon, Company D (Scout) reinforced
Colonel Herman Hanneken's 7th Marines to cover the
5th Marines. The island was declared secured on November 27.
Northern Okinawa, April 1945 On 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. The recon company, commanded by 1st Lieutenant Robert J. Powell, Jr., traversed by motorized patrols to the eastern shore of
Okinawa, reaching the base of Katchin Peninsula by 1300. They received further orders to advance north up the east coast toward Hiazaonna. Along the way they encountered a lightly held tank trap, then returned to
1st Marine Division before dark. Colonel Edward Snedeker
7th Marine Regiment followed the recon action report of 1st Marine Division's Company D (Scout) and pushed across the island to the town of Hiazaonna, reaching it at 1830 on April 3, 1945.
North China In the fall of 1945, the Reconnaissance Company was deployed to
Tianjin in
north China. It returned to Camp Pendleton, California, in June or July 1947. The remainder of the Company arrived with the remainder of the Division, and all
landed at Inchon. Recon Marines from the
2nd Marine Division Recon later arrived to augment the reconnaissance unit including Lieutenant "Bull" Francis Kraince. Barry Crossman was the Executive Officer. The organization was quickly altered from an amphibious unit of nine-man boat teams to a motorized unit of four-man jeep teams utilizing jeeps loaned by the United States Army. Using these vehicles the Company dispatched motorized patrols on a deep reconnaissance to scout from
Wonsan and
Hungnam to Huksori, an enemy supply depot some forty miles distant. In January 1951, the unit dispatched patrols to search out guerrillas in the
Andong area and later, on one occasion, stayed concealed in a town for two nights tracing enemy cavalry and infantry patrols, and ended up by directing air strikes on them. Deactivated in on 30 April 1958, and reformed as the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion on 1 May 1958 as part of the 1st Marine Division.
Operation Washington, July 1966 On 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. For eight days his recon teams covered four-hundred square kilometers of his
area of operation (AO); sighting forty-six PAVN that were scattered throughout the dense, rugged double- and triple- canopy jungle terrain, roughly ranging of 200 soldiers at most. The ground combat and supporting elements resulted only in thirteen PAVN killed, with four prisoners. Because of the poor results, General
Lewis J. Fields, the commanding general of the Chu Lai TOAR, ended the operation on July 14, 1966.
Operation Scott Orchard, April 1971 Operation Scott Orchard was the last major 1st Marine Division operation of the Vietnam War, issued by the 1st Marine Division commander, MG
Charles F. Widdecke. The 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. After the brief firefight, the fire support base was declared secured. The plan was to reopen FSB Dagger in the Quế Sơn mountains by emplacing a provisional composite battery of 105-mm and 155-mm howitzers from the
1st Battalion, 11th Marines (1/11). FSB Dagger was used the previous autumn during
Operation Catawba Falls. The intelligence sources from MACV had included reports of American
prisoners-of-war were being held at an isolated camp in the mountainous region of the
Quảng Nam Province, however no prisoners were found, contact was minimal and only abandoned base camps were discovered. The operation concluded on 12 April, the Marines had killed 4 PAVN/VC and captured 1 and 12 weapons. The last elements of the battalion left South Vietnam on 13 May 1971. In January 2006, the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion was in the national news for leading Operation Green Trident, which discovered over ten
metric tons of
insurgent munitions, hidden in caches throughout a large area south of
Fallujah in the
Euphrates River Valley. Marines of 1st Recon told military reporters that about 90 percent of their time in
Operation Iraqi Freedom was spent in mounted
patrols, using their
Humvees. at
Camp Pendleton, Calif, July 15, 2013
Afghanistan The 1st Recon were also deployed to
Helmand Province, Afghanistan in 2010 where they produced 300+ enemy KIA, did not lose a single man in their seven-month deployment and was regarded as "The deadliest battalion in Afghanistan right now" by Lt. Gen
James Mattis. The unit conducted a battalion-sized helicopter insert into the area of Trek Nawa, operating for 32 days straight, away from friendly lines, during that period there was contact with Taliban forces for 28 of those days using tactics and offensive action that stunned the local enemy forces. Following the missions in Trek Nawa and surrounding areas, the battalion deployed two companies to the Upper Sangin River Valley. In February 2012, there was controversy when a September 2010 photograph was published showing members of Charlie Company, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, posing in front of a flag with a logo resembling that of the
German Schutzstaffel while serving in Afghanistan. ==Notable Marines==