U.S. Marine Corps
1st Marine Division
The Old Breed. First American division on the offensive in WWII. Guadalcanal. Peleliu. Okinawa. Chosin Reservoir. Hue City. Fallujah. The 1st Marine Division has fought in every major American conflict since 1942 and carries more battle honors than any division in the Marine Corps. The Blue Diamond patch is the only division insignia in the USMC that bears a battle name. It earned it.
Division Structure
The Regiments
1ST MARINES
CAMP PENDLETON, CA
1st
Marines · Est. 1911
3 Bns
Infantry Battalions
Peleliu
71% Casualties
Fallujah
RCT-1 · PHANTOM FURY
The 1st Marine Regiment is the oldest infantry regiment in the Marine Corps — activated in 1911. At Peleliu, the regiment suffered 71% casualties and was pulled off the line. At Chosin, 1st Marines held the MSR open. At Fallujah, RCT-1 was one of two assault forces that cleared the city. The regiment has fought in every major campaign of the 1st Marine Division. The 1st Marines carry the heaviest heritage in the division.
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5TH MARINES
CAMP PENDLETON, CA
5th
Marines · Est. 1914
Belleau
Wood · WWI
Chosin
Yudam-ni Breakout
Most
DECORATED · USMC
The 5th Marine Regiment is the most decorated regiment in the Marine Corps — tracing its lineage to Belleau Wood in WWI where Marines earned the name "Devil Dogs." At Chosin, the 5th Marines fought the breakout from Yudam-ni through Toktong Pass. In Vietnam, 5th Marines fought in Hue City and An Hoa. In Iraq, they led the march to Baghdad. "Retreat, hell!" originated with the 5th Marines at Belleau Wood when a French officer suggested withdrawal. The 5th doesn't retreat.
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7TH MARINES
TWENTYNINE PALMS, CA
7th
Marines · Est. 1917
Chesty
Puller · Guadalcanal
Chosin
Hagaru-ri · Koto-ri
RCT-7
FALLUJAH · OIF
The 7th Marine Regiment — the Magnificent Seventh — is where Chesty Puller earned his legend as a battalion commander at Guadalcanal. At Chosin, 7th Marines held Hagaru-ri and fought along the MSR. At Fallujah, RCT-7 was the second assault force clearing the city from the north. Based at Twentynine Palms, the 7th Marines train in the Mojave Desert — the closest terrain the Marine Corps has to the Middle East.
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11TH MARINES
CAMP PENDLETON, CA
11th
Marines · Artillery
M777
155mm Howitzer
Chosin
Fired Until Overrun
Steel
RAIN · EVERY CAMPAIGN
The 11th Marine Regiment provides artillery support for the 1st Marine Division — M777 155mm howitzers and HIMARS. At Chosin, 11th Marines artillerymen fired their howitzers until Chinese infantry reached the gun line, then fought as infantry. At Fallujah, 11th Marines provided precision fires in an urban environment where every round had to avoid civilian casualties. The cannoneers of the 11th Marines have provided steel rain for every campaign the Old Breed has fought.
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World War II — Island Hopping
1942 – 1945
GUADALCANAL
AUGUST 7, 1942
Aug 7
1942 · H-Hour
6 Months
Of Combat
Henderson
Field · The Airfield
1,600
MARINES KIA
On August 7, 1942, the 1st Marine Division landed on Guadalcanal — the first American ground offensive of WWII. For six months, Marines held Henderson Field against relentless Japanese counterattacks, naval bombardment, tropical disease, starvation rations, and isolation after the Navy withdrew its support. The Battle of the Tenaru, Edson's Ridge, the Matanikau River — the Old Breed fought outnumbered and undersupplied and held. Guadalcanal proved that the Japanese could be beaten. It put the word "Guadalcanal" on the Blue Diamond forever.
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NEW BRITAIN
DECEMBER 26, 1943
Dec 43
Landing · New Britain
Rain
Mud · Jungle · Rot
Airfield
Seized · Secured
310
MARINES KIA
Cape Gloucester was the campaign that tried to destroy the 1st Marine Division without the Japanese needing to fire a shot. New Britain's jungle was the worst terrain Marines had ever fought in — torrential rain, waist-deep mud, impenetrable vegetation, and tropical diseases that hospitalized more Marines than combat. The division seized the airfield and fought a grueling jungle campaign that historians later argued was strategically unnecessary. The Old Breed didn't care about strategy. They had a mission and they took it.
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PELELIU
SEPTEMBER 15, 1944
Sep 15
1944 · D-Day
Umurbrogol
Bloody Nose Ridge
6,500
1st MarDiv Casualties
1,300
MARINES KIA
Peleliu was supposed to take three days. It took over two months. The Japanese had abandoned banzai charges and dug into the Umurbrogol Pocket — a coral ridge honeycomb of mutually supporting caves, tunnels, and fortified positions that Marines called "Bloody Nose Ridge." The 1st Marines (1st Marine Regiment) was so decimated that it was pulled from the line — the regiment suffered 71% casualties. E.B. Sledge's "With the Old Breed" immortalized Peleliu as the most brutal, wasteful, and forgotten battle of the Pacific War.
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OKINAWA
APRIL 1 – JUNE 22, 1945
Apr 1
1945 · L-Day
Shuri
Line · Castle
Wana
Draw · Sugar Loaf
82 Days
OF COMBAT
Okinawa was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific — and the bloodiest battle of the Pacific War. The 1st Marine Division fought through the Shuri Line, Wana Draw, and Wana Ridge against a Japanese defense-in-depth that made Peleliu look like a rehearsal. 82 days of close combat, mud, rain, and constant shelling. The kamikaze campaign destroyed the fleet offshore while Marines ground through fortified positions yard by yard. Okinawa was the battle that made the atomic bomb decision inevitable. The Old Breed paid for every yard.
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Korea — The Frozen Chosin
1950 – 1953
INCHON
SEPTEMBER 15, 1950
Sep 15
1950 · D-Day
Inchon
Amphibious Assault
Seoul
Liberated
X Corps
MacARTHUR'S GAMBLE
When North Korea had pushed the UN forces into the Pusan Perimeter, MacArthur gambled on an amphibious landing 150 miles behind enemy lines at Inchon — where tidal conditions, seawalls, and narrow channels made amphibious assault nearly impossible. The 1st Marine Division landed anyway, seized the port, and drove inland to liberate Seoul in 11 days. Inchon shattered the North Korean army's supply lines and turned the war. It was the most brilliant amphibious operation since Normandy. Then the Chinese entered the war.
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CHOSIN
NOV 27 – DEC 13, 1950
30,000
Marines & Soldiers
120,000
Chinese · 10 Divisions
-35°F
Temperatures
78 Miles
FIGHTING WITHDRAWAL
Ten Chinese divisions — 120,000 soldiers — surrounded 30,000 Marines and soldiers at the Chosin Reservoir in temperatures reaching 35 below zero. General O.P. Smith's legendary response: "Retreat, hell! We're just attacking in another direction." The 1st Marine Division fought a 78-mile breakout from Yudam-ni to the coast at Hungnam — fighting through Chinese roadblocks, carrying their dead, evacuating their wounded, and destroying seven Chinese divisions in the process. Chosin is the defining battle of the Marine Corps. The Old Breed went in surrounded and came out as legends.
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GWOT — Iraq
2003 – 2010
OIF
MARCH – APRIL 2003
Mar 20
2003 · H-Hour
Nasiriyah
Ambush Alley
Baghdad
Eastern Approach
21 Days
BORDER TO BAGHDAD
The 1st Marine Division crossed the line of departure into Iraq on March 20, 2003 and reached Baghdad in 21 days — fighting through Nasiriyah (where Task Force Tarawa fought the costly battle of "Ambush Alley"), crossing the Tigris and Euphrates under fire, and approaching Baghdad from the east while the Army's 3rd Infantry Division came from the west. The division fought through organized resistance, fedayeen ambushes, and Republican Guard units at a pace that shocked Iraqi defenders. Generation Kill was a 1st Marine Division story.
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FALLUJAH
OPERATION PHANTOM FURY
Nov 7
2004 · H-Hour
RCT-1
RCT-7 · Assault
95
Marines & Soldiers KIA
Hardest
URBAN FIGHT SINCE HUE
Operation Phantom Fury — the Second Battle of Fallujah — was the heaviest urban combat the Marine Corps had seen since Hue City in 1968. The 1st Marine Division attacked into a city that insurgents had spent months fortifying with IEDs, bunkers, sniper positions, and fighting holes in every building. RCT-1 and RCT-7 cleared the city block by block in house-to-house fighting that lasted weeks. 95 Americans were killed and over 560 wounded. Fallujah was the battle that defined the Iraq War for the Marine Corps. The Old Breed paid the price.
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Immersive Battle Map
ANBAR
2006 – 2008
Ramadi
Capital of Anbar
Awakening
Tribal Sheikhs Turned
AQI
Defeated in Anbar
COIN
COUNTERINSURGENCY
The Anbar Awakening — when Sunni tribal sheikhs turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq — happened in the 1st Marine Division's battlespace. Marines in Ramadi fought house-to-house for months before the tribes flipped. The combination of relentless Marine combat operations and patient tribal engagement turned the most dangerous province in Iraq into one of the safest. The Awakening was the turning point of the Iraq War. It happened because Marines were willing to fight and die in Ramadi long enough for the politics to change.
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30+
Campaign Streamers
83
Years of Service
30+
Medal of Honor
Old
Breed