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{{
{{Main|Marine Division Reconnaissance}}▼
{{For|missions and training of 1st Recon Battalion|Marine Reconnaissance}}
{{More citations needed|date=May 2008}}
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* [[Unconventional Warfare]]
* [[Direct action (military)|Direct Action]]
* [[Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure]] (VBSS)
* [[Maritime Interdiction Operations]] (MIO)
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| command_structure = [[File:IMEFlogo.jpg|24px]] [[I Marine Expeditionary Force]]<br />[[File:US 1st Marine Division SSI.svg|24px]] [[1st Marine Division (United States)|1st Marine Division]]
<br />[[File:11th MEU Insignia.png|24px]] [[11th Marine Expeditionary Unit]]
| commander1 = [[File:US-O5 insignia.svg|24px]] LtCol
| commander1_label = Commanding Officer
| commander2 = [[File:USMC-E9-SGM.svg|24px]] SgtMaj
| commander2_label = Sergeant Major
| garrison = [[File:Seal of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.png|24px]] [[Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton|MCB Camp Pendleton, California]]
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</div>
}}
▲{{Main|Marine Division Reconnaissance}}
'''1st Reconnaissance Battalion''' (abbreviated as '''1st Recon Bn''') is a [[reconnaissance]] battalion in the [[United States Marine Corps]]. It is a stand-alone battalion with no parent regiment. Instead, it falls directly under the command of the [[1st Marine Division (United States)|1st Marine Division]]. 1st Recon Bn is located at [[Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton]] in San Diego, [[California]].
The unit was founded in 1937 as the 1st Tank Company of the [[1st Provisional Marine Brigade|1st Marine Brigade]] and went through several name changes before it became the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion in 1958. The battalion was deactivated on June 12, 1992, before being restored as the Reconnaissance Company of the 1st Marine Division's Headquarters and Service Battalion on October 1, 1993.<ref name="usmcu" /> The 1st Recon Battalion was reactivated on July 5, 2000, as part of Marine Corps [[Commandant of the United States Marine Corps|Commandant]] [[General officer|General]] [[James L. Jones]]' mission to revitalize Marine Corps reconnaissance.
==Mission and training==
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==History==
It was activated on 1 March 1937 as the 1st Tank Company, [[1st Provisional Marine Brigade|1st Marine Brigade]]. In early 1940 the company was deployed to the Caribbean aboard {{USS|Wyoming|BB-32|6}} before returning to [[Quantico, Virginia]]. In November 1940 it was sent to [[Guantanamo Bay]], [[Cuba]].<ref name="usmcu">{{Cite web |title=Lineage of 1st Reconnaissance Battalion |url=https://www.usmcu.edu/Portals/218/HD/Lineage%20and%20Honors/Ground%20Units/1ST%20RECONNAISSANCE%20BATTALION.pdf?ver=2019-02-26-092246-020×tamp=1551378892216 |publisher=Marine Corps University |date=2 April 2013 }}</ref>
When the 1st and 2nd Marine Divisions were created in 1941, each had a Scout Company 7 officers and 132 NCOs and enlisted men divided into a headquarters unit and three platoons.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Melson|first1=Charles D.|title=Marine Recon, 1940–90|date=1994|publisher=Osprey|location=London|isbn=9781855323919|page=5}}</ref> The unit had [[M3 Scout Car]]s and a motorcycle platoon.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Sands|first1=Jack M.|title=The History of United States Marine Corps Military Motorcycles|url=http://www.leathernecksmc.com/motorcycle_club_history.htm|website=Lethernecks Motorcycle Club|access-date=16 March 2015}}</ref>▼
▲When the 1st and 2nd Marine Divisions were created in 1941, each had a Scout Company
===World War II===
{{Further|United States Marine Corps Scout (Tank) and Sniper Company}}
In 1941, [[Lieutenant Colonel (United States)|Lieutenant Colonel]] William "Wild Bill" Whaling (not to be confused with [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]] Director [[William J. Donovan]]), the [[executive officer]] of [[5th Marine Regiment (United States)|5th Marine Regiment]] visualized and perceived the use for specialized missions encompassing [[reconnaissance]] at the division-level, which would be conducted above the normal infantry battalion-level in scouting and patrolling. He recommended to [[General (United States)|General]] [[Alexander Vandegrift]] the need of a special "Scout and Sniper unit" for the [[1st Marine Division (United States)|1st Marine Division's]] operations on [[Guadalcanal Campaign|Guadalcanal]]. Upon approval, by February 1, each of the three companies were created for each regiment.<ref name="Meyers, AmphibRecon">{{cite book|last1=Meyers|first1=Bruce F.|title=Swift, Silent, and Deadly: Marine Amphibious Reconnaissance in the Pacific, 1942–1945|date=2004|publisher=Naval Institute Press|location=Annapolis, MD|isbn=9781612515021|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MzdlAgAAQBAJ&pg=PAPT3|access-date=16 March 2015}}</ref>
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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 (Papua New Guinea)|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 (military term)|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 [[Coastwatcher|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.
====Peleliu and the Palaus, September 1944====
{{Main|Battle of Peleliu}}
The [[III Amphibious Corps]], led by [[Roy Geiger|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,
====Northern Okinawa, April 1945====
{{Main|Battle of Okinawa}}
On April 3, 1945, [[1st Marine Division (United States)|1st Marine Division]] sent their scout company in front of their zone of action along the boundary of the [[6th Marine Division (United States)|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 Prefecture|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 (United States)|1st Marine Division]] before dark. Colonel Edward Snedeker [[7th Marine Regiment (United States)|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.<ref name="Frank, Guadalcanal">{{cite book|last1=Frank|first1=Richard B.|title=Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle|date=1992|publisher=Penguin|location=New York|isbn=9780140165616|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/guadalcanal00rich}}</ref>
===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.<ref name="usmcu" />
===Korean War===
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Marines from the 1st Recon Company made seven raids into [[North Korea]] from the ''{{USS|Horace A. Bass|APD-124}}'',<ref name="Stubbe, AARUGHA!"/> one of which was conducted 12—16 August 1950, in which a combined force of sixteen Marines and twenty-five Navy [[Underwater Demolition Team]]s raided the [[Posung-Myon]] area destroying three tunnels and two railway bridges without losing one man.<ref name="Field, Hist of NavOps">{{cite book|last1=Field|first1=James A.|title=History of United States Naval Operations: Korea|date=1962|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|location=Washington, DC|pages=76,146}}</ref>
Deactivated in on 30 April 1958, and reformed as the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion on 1 May 1958 as part of the 1st Marine Division.<ref name="usmcu" />
===Interim Years===
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* GySgt Brian M. Blonder, Global War on Terror, Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan, 8 August 2008<ref>{{cite web
|title=Brian M. Blonder, Navy Cross|url=http://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=6009|website=Military Times: Hall of Valor|access-date=16 March 2015}}</ref>
* Cpl James R. Solis, Santa Paula, CA. Corporal Solis was one of the only Marines in history to score a near perfect score on Edson Range (M-16A2 Service Rifle) with a final tally of 249 points out of a possible 250. During the Invasion Of Panama (Operation Just Cause) he saved the lives of 18 fellow Marines by maintaining a steady rate of well thought-out sniper fire which allowed the 18 pinned-down Marines to be airlifted to safety. Through meritorious mast he was awarded the Combat Action Ribbon, Bronze Star, Silver Star, Purple Heart, and Navy Cross for gallantry under fire. As a sniper he acquired 48 confirmed kills. [Military Times/Hall of Valor].
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{{Refbegin}}
* Redding, Daniel J. [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2005/05/mil-050512-usmc04.htm
* Redding, Daniel J. [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2005/06/mil-050602-usmc01.htm "All about amphib"], ''Marine Corps News
* ''[[Generation Kill (book)|Generation Kill]]'' by [[Evan Wright]]
* ''[[One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer]]'' by [[Nathaniel Fick]]
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