1st Medical Battalion is a unit of the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

operated by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

that provides expeditionary Health Service Support to Marine Corps forces forward deployed to operations or humanitarian missions. The unit is based out of

Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton is the major West Coast base of the United States Marine Corps and is one of the largest Marine Corps bases in the United States. It is on the Southern California coast in San Diego County and is bordered by Oc ...

and falls under the command of

1st Marine Logistics Group The 1st Marine Logistics Group (1st MLG) is a logistics unit of the United States Marine Corps and is headquartered at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, with several subordinate elements also located at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma a ...

Mission

Provides expeditionary health service support to the operating units of the First Marine Expeditionary Force to preserve and save every life and support the war fighting capability of the MEF.

Subordinate units

Headquarters and Services Company A headquarters and service company is a company-sized military unit, found at the battalion and regimental level in the U.S. Marine Corps. The U.S. Army equivalent unit is the headquarters and headquarters company. In identifying a specific ...

(HSC) * Surgical Company A (A Company) * Surgical Company B (B Company) * Surgical Company C (C Company) Each lettered Surgical Company consists of 4 Surgical Platoons that provide Role 2 Light Maneuver capabilities consisting of command and control, damage control resuscitation, damage control surgery, limited patient holding, radiology, laboratory and blood banking capabilities and MEDEVAC personnel and equipment. Typically, the Surgical Companies and Surgical Platoons are task organized to support the full range of Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force units.

History

1940 - 1941

Activated 06 September 1940 at

Quantico, Virginia Quantico ( or ; formerly Potomac) is a town in Prince William County, Virginia, United States. The population was 480 at the 2010 census. Quantico is approximately 35 miles southwest of Washington, DC, bordered by the Potomac River to the east a ...

, as the 1st Medical Battalion and assigned to the 1st Marine Brigade. Deployed during October 1940 to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba Reassigned during February 1941 to the 1st Marine Division Relocated during April 1941 to

, and

Parris Island, South Carolina Parris Island is a district of the city of Port Royal, South Carolina on an island of the same name. It became part of the city with the annexation of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island on October 11, 2002. For statistical purposes, the ...

Relocated during September 1941 to New River, North Carolina

1942 - 1947

Deployed during June - July 1942 to

Wellington, New Zealand Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

Participated in the following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

campaigns *

Guadalcanal Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the seco ...

* Eastern New Guinea *

New Britain New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the Dam ...

Peleliu Peleliu (or Beliliou) is an island in the island nation of Palau. Peleliu, along with two small islands to its northeast, forms one of the sixteen states of Palau. The island is notable as the location of the Battle of Peleliu in World War II. H ...

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

Participated in the occupation of

North China North China, or Huabei () is a List of regions of China, geographical region of China, consisting of the provinces of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia. Part of the larger region of Northern China (''Beifang''), it lies north ...

, September 1945 - May 1947 Redeployed during May 1947 to

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

1947 - 1964

Reactivated 16 July 1947 at

Camp Pendleton, California Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton is the major West Coast base of the United States Marine Corps and is one of the largest Marine Corps bases in the United States. It is on the Southern California coast in San Diego County and is bordered by Oc ...

, and assigned to the 1st Marine Division,

Fleet Marine Force The United States Fleet Marine Forces (FMF) are combined general- and special-purpose forces within the United States Department of the Navy that perform offensive amphibious or expeditionary warfare and defensive maritime employment. The Fleet ...

Deployed during August 1950 to

Kobe, Japan Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, which ...

Participated in

the Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...

, September 1950 - July 1953, operating from *Inchon-

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

Chosin Reservoir The Chosin Reservoir (), formally known as Lake Changjin () is a lake located in Changjin County, North Korea. It is most famously known for being the site of the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir, which was an important battle in the Korean War. ...

*East-Central Front *Western Front Participated in the defense of the

Korean Demilitarized Zone The Korean Demilitarized Zone (Korean: ; Hanbando Bimujang Jidae) is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula near the 38th parallel north. The demilitarized zone (DMZ) is a border barrier that divides the peninsula roughly in ha ...

, July 1953 - April 1955 Relocated during April 1955 to

1965 - 1993

Deployed during June 1965 to

Participated in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, March 1966 - April 1971, operating from *

Chu Lai Chu Lai is a seaport, urban and industrial area in Núi Thành District, Quảng Nam Province, Vietnam. The city is served by Chu Lai International Airport. It is also the site of the Chu Lai Open Economic Zone (Vietnamese: ''Với Khu Kinh T� ...

Da Nang Nang or DanangSee also Danang Dragons ( ; vi, Đà Nẵng, ) is a class-1 municipality and the fifth-largest city in Vietnam by municipal population. It lies on the coast of the East Sea of Vietnam at the mouth of the Hàn River, and is one ...

An Hoa An, AN, aN, or an may refer to: Businesses and organizations * Airlinair (IATA airline code AN) * Alleanza Nazionale, a former political party in Italy * AnimeNEXT, an annual anime convention located in New Jersey * Anime North, a Canadian an ...

* Quang Tri * Phu Bai Relocated during April 1971 to

Placed under the operational control of the 1st Force Service Support Group, Fleet Marine Force, on 30 March 1976 Participated in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Southwest Asia, August 1990 - April 1991 Participated in Operation Restore Hope, Somalia, December 1992 - January 1993

2003 - PRESENT

Deployed during February 2003 to Kuwait in support of Operation Enduring Freedom Participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq, March - September 2003 and February - September 2004 Elements participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq, 2004 - 2009 1st Force Service Support Group (FSSG) was redesignated as 1st Marine Logistics Group (MLG), 21 October 2005 Elements participated in Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan, 2009 - 2014 Elements participated in Operation Border Support, Southwestern U.S., November 2018 - February 2019 and April - September 2019 Elements attached in support of Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force (SPMAGTF) Crisis Response US CENTCOM participated in Operation Allies Refuge, January - November 2021

Honors and awards

Presidential Unit Citation Streamer with one Silver and three Bronze Stars World War II *Guadalcanal - 1942 *Peleliu, Ngesbus - 1944 *Okinawa - 1945 Korea *1950 *1951 Vietnam *1966 - 1967 *1967 - 1968 Iraq * 2003 Joint Meritorious Unit Award Streamer *Somalia 1992 - 1993 Navy Unit Commendation Streamer with one Bronze Star *Korea 1952 - 1953 *Southwest Asia 1990 - 1997 Meritorious Unit Commendation Streamer with two Bronze Stars *Vietnam 1968 - 1969 *1984 - 1986 *1995 - 1997 American Defense Service Streamer with one Bronze Star Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Streamer with one Silver and one Bronze Star World War II Victory Streamer Navy Occupation Service Streamer with "Asia" China Service Streamer National Defense Service Streamer with three Bronze Stars Korean Service Streamer with two Silver Stars Armed Forces Expeditionary Streamer Vietnam Service Streamer with two Silver and two Bronze Stars Southwest Asia Service Streamer with two Bronze Stars Afghanistan Campaign Streamer with one Bronze Star Iraq Campaign Streamer with three Bronze Stars Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Streamer Global War on Terrorism Service Streamer Korean Presidential Unit Citation Streamer Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm Streamer Vietnam Meritorious Unit Citation Civil Actions Streamer

External links

1st Medical Battalion's official website
{{US Marine Corps navbox Med 1