FOURTH MARINES CLUB 5 CENT TOKEN - SHANGHAI, CHINA 1940 - 4TH MARINE REGIMENT. GOOD FOR 5 CENTS IN TRADE ONLY. USPS Insured delivery in the US.

A scrip (or chit in India) is any substitute for legal tender. It is often a form of credit. Scrips have been created and used for a variety of reasons, including exploitative payment of employees under truck systems; or for use in local commerce at times when regular currency was unavailable, for example in remote coal towns, military bases, ships on long voyages, or occupied countries in wartime. Besides company scrip, other forms of scrip include land scrip, vouchers, token coins such as subway tokens, IOUs, arcade tokens and tickets, and points on some credit cards.


Scrips have gained historical importance and become a subject of study in numismatics and exonumia due to their wide variety and recurring use. Scrip behaves similarly to a currency, and as such can be used to study monetary economics.


History

A variety of forms of scrip were used at various times in the 19th and 20th centuries.


Company scrip

Company scrip is a substitute for currency to pay a company's employees.


In United States mining or logging camps where everything was owned and operated by a single company, scrip provided the workers with credit when their wages had been depleted. These remote locations were cash poor. Workers had very little choice but to purchase food and other goods at a company store. In this way, the company could charge enormous markups on goods, making workers completely dependent on the company, thus enforcing a form of loyalty to the company. Additionally, while employees could exchange scrip for cash, this could rarely be done at face value. This kind of scrip was valid only within the settlement where it was issued. While store owners in neighboring communities could accept the scrip as money, they rarely did so at face value, as it was worth less.[citation needed]


When U.S. President Andrew Jackson issued his Specie Circular of 1836 due to credit shortages, Virginia Scrip was accepted as payment for federal lands.


In the 19th century, the federal government in Western Canada offered money scrip (valued at $160 or $240) or land scrip, valued at 160 acres (65 ha) or 240 acres (97 ha), to Métis people in exchange for their Aboriginal rights.[1]


During the Great Depression, at the height of the crisis, many local governments paid employees in scrip. Vermilion, Alberta was just one example.[2]


In the U.S., payment of wages in scrip became illegal under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.[3]


The expression scrip is also used in the stock market where companies can sometimes pay dividends in the form of additional shares/stock rather than in money.[4] It is also a written document that acknowledges debt.


After World War I and World War II, scrip was used as notgeld ("emergency money") in Germany and Austria.


Scrip was used extensively in prisoner-of-war camps during World War II, at least in countries that complied with the Third Geneva Convention. Under the Geneva Conventions, enlisted prisoners of war could be made to work and had to be paid for their labor, but not necessarily in cash. Since ordinary money could be used in escape attempts, they were given scrip that could only be used with the approval of camp authorities, usually only within the camps.


Poker chips, also referred to as casino tokens, are commonly used as money with which to gamble. The use of chips as company money in the early 19th century in Devon, England, in the Wheal Friendship[5] copper mine gave its name to a local village of Chipshop.


Stamp scrip

Stamp scrip was a type of local money designed to be circulated and not to be hoarded.


One type of this worked this way. Each scrip certificate had printed boxes; every month a stamp costing a certain amount (in a typical case, 1% of the face value) had to be purchased and recorded in a box, otherwise the scrip lost all its value. This provided a great incentive to spend the scrip quickly. The scheme was used successfully in Germany and Austria in the early 1930s, after national currencies collapsed. National governments considered themselves threatened by the success of stamp scrip projects, and shut them down; similar misgivings discouraged their later use elsewhere.[6]


The Alberta Social Credit Party government in 1937 issued prosperity certificates, a form of provincial currency, in an effort to encourage spending. This scrip had boxes in which a stamp equal to 2% of the value had to be affixed each week. Thus, the value of the certificate was covered by the cost of the stamps at the year's end when it matured.


Modern usage

Scrip survives in modern times in various forms.


Community-issued scrip


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The use of locally issued scrip accepted by multiple businesses within a community increased during the late-2000s recession. Community-wide scrip usage has begun or is on the rise in Ithaca, New York; Detroit; The Berkshires; Pittsboro, North Carolina; Traverse City, Michigan; Lamar, Colorado; Calgary, Canada; Bristol, UK; and Hagen, Germany.[7][8][9][10]


Breadcoin scrip was created in Washington DC in 2016 to address food insecurity.[11]


Thailand's township Amphoe Kut Chum once issued its own local scrip called Bia Kut Chum: Bia is Thai for cowry shell, which was once used as small change, and still so used in metaphorical expressions. To side-step implications that the community intended their scrip as an unlawful substitute for currency, it now issues exchange coupons called Boon Kut Chum.[12]


Company-issued customer scrip

Some companies still issue scrip notes and token coin, good for use at company points of sale. Among these are the Canadian Tire money for the Canadian Tire stores and gasbars in Canada, and Disney Dollars (no longer printed, but still accepted), in circulation at The Magic Kingdoms and at other establishments owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company.


Scrip gift cards and gift certificates


A scrip card from a babysitting group

In the retail and fundraising industries, scrip is now issued in the form of gift cards, eCards, or less commonly paper gift certificates. Physical gift cards often have a magnetic strip or optically readable bar code to facilitate redemption at the point of sale.


In the late 1980s, the term scrip evolved to include a fundraising method popular with non-profit organizations like schools, bands and athletic groups.[13] With scrip fundraising, retailers offer the gift certificates and gift cards to non-profit organizations at a discount. The non-profit organizations sell the gift cards to member's families at full face value. The families redeem the gift cards at full face value, and the discount or rebate is retained by the non-profit organization as revenue.[14]


Commercial gift cards

Main article: Gift card

Visa, Mastercard and American Express gift cards are initially funded by a credit card or bank account, after which the funding account and gift card are not connected to one another. Once the predetermined funds are consumed, the card number expires. A gift of a gift card, maybe in an attractive wrapper, may be seen as more socially acceptable than a gift of cash. It also prevents the gift being spent on something the giver views as undesirable (or used as savings).


However, unless the gift card is obtained at a discount (paying less than the actual value of the card), buying scrip with ordinary money is arguably pointless, as it then ties up the money until it is used, and usually it may only be used at one store. Furthermore, not all gift cards issued are redeemed. In 2006, the value of unredeemed gift cards was estimated at almost US$8 billion.[15]


Another disadvantage of gift cards is that some issuers charge "maintenance fees" on the cards, particularly if they are not used after a certain period of time; or the card will expire after a given period of time.[16] Some provinces and states in North America (e.g. California, Ontario, Massachusetts, Ohio, Washington) have enacted laws to eliminate non-use fees or expirations,[17] but because the laws often only apply to single-merchant cards[18] buyers have to review the gift card conditions prior to purchase to determine exact restrictions and fees.[19] Additionally, if a retailer goes bankrupt, gift cards can suddenly become worthless. Even if stores do not close immediately, the company may stop accepting the cards.[20] This became a significant issue during the global financial crisis of 2008–2009, prompting the Consumers Union to call upon the Federal Trade Commission to regulate the issue.[21]


Land scrip (United States)

Land scrip was a right to purchase federal public domain land in the United States, a common form of investment in the 19th century. As a type of federal aid to local governments or private corporations, Congress would grant land in lieu of cash. Most of the time the grantee did not seek to acquire any actual land but rather would sell the right to claim the land to private investors in the form of scrip. Often the land title was finalized only after the scrip was resold several times utilizing land agents also called warrant brokers.[22] These grants came in the form of railroad land grants, university land grants, and grants to veterans for war service.[23][24]


Land scrip (Canada)

In 19th-century Western Canada, the federal government devised a system of land grants. Notes in the form of money scrip (valued at $160 or $240) or land scrip, valued at 160 acres (65 ha) or 240 acres (97 ha), were offered to Métis people in exchange for their Aboriginal rights.[25] Scrip was also issued to white settlers and members of the North-West Mounted Police.[26] Land was claimed at a Dominion Lands Act office,[27] often being far from where the Métis lived. The available land was located in northern Saskatchewan, Alberta,[28] and Manitoba[26] as opposed to the Métis' more southern homeland.[29] Monetary scrip was also issued.[30] Many Métis sold their scrip to land speculators at prices far below their actual worth,[31] with estimates placing the amount of scrip sold as high as 12,560 (out of 14,849).[32][33]


From the 17th to the early 19th century in the British Isles (and also elsewhere in the British Empire) and North America, tokens were commonly issued by merchants in times of acute shortage of coins of the state. These tokens were in effect a pledge redeemable in goods, but not necessarily for currency.

In numismatics, token coins or trade tokens are coin-like objects used instead of coins. The field of token coins is part of exonumia and token coins are token money. Their denomination is shown or implied by size, color or shape. They are often made of cheaper metals like copper, pewter, aluminum, brass and tin, or non-metals like bakelite, leather and porcelain.[1]

A legal tender coin is issued by a governmental authority and is freely exchangeable for goods. A token coin has a narrower utility and is issued by a private entity. In many instances, token coins have become obsolete due to the use of cash, payment cards, stored value cards or other electronic transactions.

Trade
Coin-like objects from the Roman Empire called spintriae have been interpreted as an early form of token. Their functions are not documented, but they appear to have been brothel tokens or possibly gaming tokens.[2]

Medieval English monasteries issued tokens to pay for services from outsiders. These tokens circulated in nearby villages, where they were called "Abbot's money". Also, counters called jetons were used as small change without official blessing.[3]

From the 17th to the early 19th century in the British Isles (and also elsewhere in the British Empire) and North America, tokens were commonly issued by merchants in times of acute shortage of coins of the state. These tokens were in effect a pledge redeemable in goods, but not necessarily for currency. These tokens never received official sanction from government but were accepted and circulated quite widely.

In England, the production of copper farthings was permitted by royal licence in the first few decades of the 17th century, but production ceased during the English Civil War and a great shortage of small change resulted. This shortage was felt more keenly because of the rapid growth of trade in the towns and cities, and this in turn prompted both local authorities and merchants to issue tokens.

These tokens were most commonly made of copper or brass, but pewter, lead and occasionally leather tokens are also found. Most were not given a specific denomination and were intended to substitute for farthings, but there are also a large number of halfpenny and sometimes penny tokens. Halfpenny and penny tokens usually, but not always, bear the denomination on their face.


Brass trade token from Fort Laramie, Dakota Territory
Most such tokens show the issuer's full name or initials. Where initials were shown, it was common practice to show three initials: the first names of husband and wife and their surname. Tokens would also normally indicate the merchant establishment, either by name or by picture. Most were round, but they are also found in square, heart or octagonal shapes.

Thousands of towns and merchants issued these tokens from 1648 until 1672, when official production of farthings resumed, and private production was suppressed.

There were again coin shortages in the late 18th century, when the British Royal Mint almost ceased production. Merchants once again produced tokens, but they were now machine made and typically larger than their 17th century predecessors, with values of a halfpenny or more. While many were used in trade, they were also produced for advertising and political purposes, and some series were produced for the primary purpose of sale to collectors. These tokens are usually known as Conder tokens, after the writer of the first reference book on them.


Show World Center token, New York City, c. 1990
These were issued by merchants in payment for goods with the agreement that they would be redeemed in goods to an equivalent value at the merchants' own outlets. The tokens play a role of convenience, allowing the seller to receive his goods at a rate and time convenient to himself, and the merchant to tie the holder of the token coin to his shop.

Tokens, coinlike objects that have a stated or implied value in trade, originated in the Ancient World, were used in Colonial America and are sometimes still used today in arcades, slot machines, car washes and video games. On the Western frontier, where minted coins were scarce and drawing customers was often highly competitive, tokens were especially popular.

For early pioneers and settlers, dealing with the shortage of coins was a challenge, which they met with their usual ingenious methods. One practice was to cut silver dollars or similar denomination foreign coins into pie-shaped pieces for making change. Since the currency was usually cut into eighths, one bit was worth 12 ½ cents. Two bits were worth 25 cents, four bits 50 cents and six bits 75 cents. Because there was no one-bit coin in circulation, a 10-cent piece (dime) was sometimes called a short bit.

In saloons, two bits were good for two drinks, a good cigar or a “smile” (a 2 ½-ounce bottle of whiskey). A cheap cigar or beer was 5 cents and a game of pool was usually 2 ½ cents. When a customer ordered a 12 ½-cent drink and paid with a quarter, he had the choice of receiving a dime in change or a token for another drink at 12 ½ cents. He would rarely pass on that second drink. Since the token was only good in that particular establishment, he hung around and spent his token, and probably a few more quarters as well. If a token wasn’t redeemed, the proprietor made even more money, as it only cost him 2 to 4 cents to have one made.

Tokens were also used for advertising. After the Civil War, when Texas Longhorns were driven to the railheads in Kansas for shipment east and saloons flourished in the various cow towns, saloon owners sent drummers along the trails to distribute tokens. When the cowboys reached the end of the trail, they had tokens in their pockets as well as cash. They would use their tokens to get free drinks and, hopefully for the proprietors, buy many more drinks in the same establishments.

Saloons weren’t the only Western businesses that regularly took advantage of tokens. Groceries, bakeries and ice companies all provided tokens. There were tokens for a ride on a streetcar, a meal, a shave and a bath. In fact, the earliest tokens in the West were issued by the traders connected to the military posts and date as early as 1860.

The term China Marines, originally referred to the United States Marines of the 4th Marine Regiment, who were stationed in Shanghai, China from 1927 to 1941 to protect American citizens and their property in the Shanghai International Settlement, during the Northern Expedition and the Second Sino-Japanese War. Those Marines stationed at the embassy in Beijing and the consulate in Tianjin referred to themselves as North China Marines.[1]


Due to the cheap labor available, China Marines lived a relatively comfortable lifestyle, with each squad able to hire Chinese men to do their cleaning and run their errands. This, plus the inexpensive goods available on the local market, made an assignment to the China Marines highly coveted.


Most of the China Marines were withdrawn in November 1941, but the North China Marines in Beijing and Tianjin were scheduled to be withdrawn on December 10. (All weapons and ammunition except rifles and pistols had been crated and shipped by rail to the embarkation port.) However, Imperial Japan attacked the United States on December 7, and the Marine Embassy guards, plus a fourteen-man Naval medical detachment, a total of 203 men, were captured and held as slave labor until the war's end in August 1945. A 204th man, a retired officer who had been living in Beijing and recalled to duty, was immediately released. He continued living in Beijing until he was included in the roundup of civilians and sent to the Weixian Internment Camp in March 1943. He was returned to the U.S. on the exchange ship Teia Maru in September 1943. The last commander of the China Marines was Colonel William W. Ashurst.[2]


With the rapid expansion of the Marine Corps during World War II and the capture of the rest of the 4th Marine Regiment at Corregidor, the surviving China Marines were few in number and highly regarded.


After Japan's surrender, the 1st and 6th Marine Divisions, also known as China Marines, were sent to occupy northern China from 1945 to 1948.


On January 31, 1996, Marines from the 2nd Battalion 5th Marines, as part of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (31st MEU), Special Operations Capable (SOC), made their first visit to Shanghai, China, since World War II. The 31st MEU-SOC visited China again on November 22, 2006, during a port visit to Zhanjiang.[3] [full citation needed]


American Legion China Post One


American marines holding up a Japanese patrol trying to enter the Shanghai International Settlement, 1930s

American Legion China Post One, formed in 1919, one year after World War I and chartered by the American Legion on April 20, 1920, was originally named the General Frederick Townsend Ward Post No. 1, China.[4] It is the only post nominally headquartered in a communist country, and has been operating in exile since 1948 — presently in Henderson, Nevada.[5]


In popular culture

Author W. E. B. Griffin often writes of China Marines in his book series The Corps. Book 1 of the series in particular highlights the pre-World War II lives of China Marines. In his Presidential Agent series, he several times makes reference to American Legion China Post No. 1 in Exile as a post comprised in the main of retired military special operators who can be hired for assorted purposes.

The 4th Marine Regiment is an infantry regiment of the United States Marine Corps. Based at Camp Schwab in Okinawa, Japan, it is part of the 3rd Marine Division of the III Marine Expeditionary Force.


Mission

4th Marine Regiment conducts littoral maneuver to secure or seize key maritime terrain in conjunction with allies and the joint force IOT deter enemy aggressions or to defeat an enemy assault.[citation needed]


Current units

The regimental Headquarters Company is based at Camp Schwab, Okinawa, and is composed of Marine infantry battalions and a LAR company from across the Corps that forward deploy to Okinawa and the 3rd Marine Division for six-month rotations under the Unit Deployment Program.


Headquarters Company at Camp Schwab, Okinawa.

UDP Battalion 1 at Camp Schwab, Okinawa

UDP Battalion 2 at Camp Hansen, Okinawa

UDP LAR Company at Camp Schwab Okinawa

UDP Battalion 3 at Camp Schwab, Okinawa. UDP Battalion 3 is attached for six months of the year, the other six months it supports Marine Rotational Force Darwin (MRF-D) and I MEF.

While deployed UDP units are attached to 4th Marine Regiment. 4th Marine Regiment and its attached units are INDOPACOM assigned forces in support of regional OPLANs and CONPLANs.


Currently each of the Regiment's three designated infantry battalions are reinforcing other Marine infantry regiments in the 1st Marine Division.


1st Battalion, 4th Marines: attached to 1st Marine Regiment at Camp Pendleton, California.

2nd Battalion, 4th Marines: attached to 5th Marine Regiment at Camp Pendleton.

3rd Battalion, 4th Marines: attached to 7th Marine Regiment at Twentynine Palms, California.

History


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Early years

The 4th Marine Regiment was first activated on 16 April 1914, in Puget Sound, Washington, & Mare Island, California Naval Yards,[1] under the command of Colonel Joseph Henry Pendleton. This activation was a direct result of deteriorating relations between the United States and Mexico. On 21 April, President Woodrow Wilson ordered U.S. Naval Forces to Vera Cruz. Shortly after activation, 4th Marines embarked upon the USS South Dakota (ACR-9) headed for San Francisco. Upon their arrival they received four companies (the 31st, 32nd, 34th and 35th) which were to become attached to the regiment. The regiment then sailed for Mexico.


On 28 April, 4th Marines arrived in Acapulco harbor. Reinforcements subsequently arrived in Mazatlán a week and half later. The regiment continued to maintain a presence in Mexican waters patrolling the shore through May and June. However, by the end of June no landing had been deemed necessary and tensions had eased between Mexico and the United States. Shortly thereafter 4th Marines withdrew from Mexican waters and concluded their first Latin American expedition. The regiment returned to San Diego to establish its new home base. Between this time and February 1916 the regiment conducted several missions of force projection off the coast of Mexico. None had required the Marines to actually disembark as diplomatic relations were subsequently smoothed over upon their arrival or shortly thereafter.


The Dominican Republic broke out in civil war in the spring of 1916. American forces were sent to quell the danger posed to Americans and other foreigners there. As the Americans came ashore the rebels withdrew from Santo Domingo, the capital, to Santiago where they had established another rival government. American forces called for reinforcements and 4th Marines was called into action. They left San Diego on 6 June for New Orleans. Three days later they boarded the USS Hancock (AP-3) for the Dominican Republic.


China Marines

Main article: China Marines

Disorder and civil war that had long been troubling China flared in the mid 1920s with the foreign community in Shanghai, where fighting between opposing Chinese forces became active, demanding a more permanent protective force.[2] The United States had landed Marines twice in 1925, but in 1927 nationalist forces were on the verge of taking the city and the United States responded with a small force of about 340 Marines sent from Guam followed by the 4th Marine Regiment less the 2d Battalion sailing from San Diego on 3 February 1927 embarked in USS Chaumont.[2] The embarked 3d Battalion, commanded by then Major Alexander Vandegrift, was held aboard the transport at State Department direction until a declaration of emergency by the Municipal Council of the international Settlement was declared on 21 March.[3] Once landed the Marines, shortly came under the command of Brigadier General Smedley Butler as Marine Corps Expeditionary Force, United States Asiatic Fleet. They joined forces of seven other nations in the internal defense of the settlement, with orders to not come into conflict with Chinese troops. They were not deployed to the perimeter barricades though they did support international forces that were so deployed.[4] By June additional forces, including 2d Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment as part of a newly activated Provisional Regiment, had arrived in China and been sent to Tianjin.[5] By the time that force arrived the threat to the international settlement in Shanghai had eased and the combined forces of the American, British, Dutch, French, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish were seen as sufficient.[5]


The 4th Marine Regiment was reduced in strength in October 1927 with the 2d Battalion at Tianjin becoming 2d Battalion, 12th Marines and the Provisional Regiment dissolved.[5][note 1] The 4th regiment settled into routine garrison duty during which it gained the nickname "China Marines" and a unique feature, the only fife and drum corps in the Corps.[6] The formation of the Fessenden Fifes was a result of influence of the American chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Council and Civil Commandant of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps, Stirling Fessenden, and instruments from the 1st Battalion, Green Howards whose fifers and drummers taught the Marines to play.[7] Reductions continued and on 14 January 1928 the 4th Regiment was detached from the withdrawing Marines of the brigade and on 13 February 1930 the regiment gained its designation as 4th Marines.[8]


The quiet was ended in January 1932 when Japanese forces in Manchuria began seizing Chinese territory in late 1931 and bloody clashes between Chinese and Japanese civilians erupted in Shanghai that month. The 4th Marines were deployed to prevent fighting from spilling into the International Zone.[8] By 4 February Marines had been reinforced by Marines from the Philippines, the Marine detachment of the USS Houston and the United States Army 31st Infantry Regiment.[8] On 3 March 1932 an agreement was reached between combatants, the state of emergency in the International Zone was ended 13 June 1932 and the 4th Marines returned to garrison duty while the 31st Infantry returned to the Philippines.[9] The Commander in Chief, Asiatic Fleet, recommended the 4th Marines be brought up to full strength and a new 2d Battalion was activated 18 September 1932 bringing the unit for the first time in five years to a full three battalion strength until deactivation of the 3d Battalion 19 December 1934.[9] Garrison duty was interrupted during the few tranquil following years only by duty aboard vessels of the Yangtze Rapid Steamship Company November 1933 – July 1935 protecting the ships from pirates on voyages into the interior.[9]


The commanding officer of 4th Marines, then Colonel John C. Beaumont, was one of only two people in China--the other being the naval attaché in Beijing, Commander Thomas M. Shock--to know the actual mission William A. Worton was undertaking for the Office of Naval Intelligence in attempting to penetrate Japan with agents from China.[10] Worton, who had served as a Marine in China 1922—1926, 1927–1929, and 1931–1935 and been commended for his intelligence work by General Butler during Butler's 1927–1929 command of the 4th, arrived during the summer of 1935 to recruit and run agents until his turn over and return to the United States in June 1936.[10]


The peaceful years ended 7 July 1937 when Japanese incursions resulted in an incident at the Marco Polo Bridge used by Japan to send more troops into China.[11] After Japanese military personnel were killed in Shanghai Japanese warships were sent to the city with landing of troops and movement of Chinese troops into the city.[11] The 4th Marines were deployed with orders to prevent either side from entering the American sector "by means other than rifle fire."[11] Again the 4th Marines were reinforced, this time by the 2d Marine Brigade[note 2] under Brigadier General John C. Beaumont, the units former commanding officer, to which the 4th Marines were attached.[11]


Fighting around the city ended with Japanese forces in full control and the 2d Marine Brigade less the 4th Marines was withdrawn 17 February 1938 leaving these "China Marines" alone to deal with Japanese interests now trying to undermine the Western powers in the International Zone.[11] Their position was compromised by the fact other Western foreign powers had also reduced their forces and by war in Europe in 1939 in which Italy was aligned with the Axis with Japan and Germany, France by June was defeated and ordered by the Vichy Government to cooperate with Japan and the British withdrew due to war needs elsewhere—leaving the 4th Marines alone to oppose Japanese ambitions.[12] The unit had been further reduced by separations from the service with replacements diverted at the direction of the 4th's commander to the 1st Special Defense Battalion in the Philippines so that it consisted of only two battalions, each with only two rifle companies of two platoons each and one machine gun company.[citation needed]


World War II

Withdrawal from China

Main article: Second Sino-Japanese War

The United States began considering complete withdrawal and Commander in Chief, Asiatic Fleet, Admiral Thomas C. Hart began withdrawal of units along the coast and recommended withdrawal of the 4th Marines as he felt war was inevitable.[12] On 10 November 1941 permission to withdraw the 4th Marines was given and put into effect.[12] 1st Battalion and part of the Headquarters sailed for the Philippines on 27 November embarked in the chartered liner President Madison with the remainder of the 4th Marines embarking in President Harrison and sailing for the Philippines on 28 November 1941 with the first elements arriving at Subic Bay 30 November and the remainder the next day.[12]


Sometimes associated with 4th Marines is the paleontological and anthropological mystery of loss of the Peking Man fossils.[note 3] The Chinese authorities requested the United States ambassador's help in evacuating the fossils and the custodians records indicate the fossils were crated and taken to the United States Legation in Beijing.[13] There a detachment of Marines, sometimes associated with the 4th but actually the Legation Guard Marines from Beijing and Tianjin (North China Marines), were to escort the crates to the Marine compound at Tianjin and evacuated aboard President Harrison which was to evacuate remaining military and civilians.[14][15] The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor came between the arrival of the crates at the Legation and the rest of the plan's execution.[16] President Harrison had completed the first evacuation of 4th Marines and was headed back leaving Manila on 4 December for Qinhuangdao to evacuate about 300 Legation Guard Marines from Beijing and Tianjin but the ship was shadowed by Japanese forces and eventually ordered to stop.[17] To prevent capture of President Harrison, now outfitted to carry troops, Master Orel A. Pierson decided to run aground in hopes of destroying the ship but the ship was salvaged, the crew taken prisoner and the ship refitted by the Japanese to eventually become Kachidoki Maru that was sunk with British prisoners of war by USS Pampanito on 12 September 1944.[17][18] The Legation Marines were taken prisoner and the crates with the fossils disappeared into the chaos of the war.[16][15] The question of what happened to the crates of fossils is one of the frequent and unanswerable questions posed to the Marine Corps historians.[19]


The Philippines

Main article: Philippines campaign (1941–1942)

The 4th Marines absorbed the Marine Barracks Olongapo on 22 December 1941 to fill out the 1st and 2nd Battalions to three rifle companies of three platoons each, then added the 1st Separate Marine Battalion [20] at Cavite to create the 3rd Battalion.


The 4th Marines then were moved to Corregidor where on 10 April 1942 it added the Provisional Naval Battalion as the regiment's 4th Battalion. The 4th Battalion was composed of U.S. Navy personnel that had previously served during the Battle of Bataan. Most of the battalion's sailors were crew members of the disabled submarine tender USS Canopus.


When the Japanese defeated allied forces in Bataan on 9 April 1942, they shifted their focus to Corregidor Island. The island was essential to the invading Japanese forces, as it was the last remaining obstacle to Manila Bay, known as the finest harbor in the Orient.


The regiment was composed of troops from 142 different U.S. and Filipino organizations with nearly 4,000 men with the regiment occupied the island at the time, but more than half were Army and Navy personnel without ground combat training. Approximately 1,500 U.S. Army and Philippine Scouts personnel reinforced the regiment during the defense of Corregidor, designated as the Reserve Battalion.


On 5 May, Japanese soldiers landed on the island and faced fierce resistance from American and Filipino artillery, but with persistence the Japanese forces etched their way deeper into allied territory and eventually overcame one of the regiment's artillery batteries. Early the next day, Japanese tanks made it to shore.


Army Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, the commander of U.S. forces in the Philippines under Gen. Douglas MacArthur, realized his men's defeat was imminent. Just a day after the invasion, he surrendered for fear that the more than 1,000 wounded troops would be captured or killed. The 4th Marine Regiment was utterly destroyed, and only a few surviving Marines and personnel made up what was left of the regiment.[21] The regiment was subsequently dissolved under control of its own accord. The commander of 4th Marines ordered the burning of the colors before they made their hasty evacuation.


Rebirth

By 1 February 1944, four Marine Raiders battalions were amalgamated into a re-established 4th Marine Regiment, bearing the name and honors of the original 4th Regiment lost in the Philippines in 1942. The 1st, 4th, and 3rd Raider Battalions became respectively the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Battalions, 4th Marines. The 2nd Raider Battalion became the regimental weapons company. 4th Marines, combined with the 22nd Marine and the 29th Marine Regiment, was assigned to the 6th Marine Division and fought at Guam and Okinawa.


Following the surrender of Japan, the 4th Marines were assigned to guard the Japanese Navy Base at Yokosuka near Tokyo. The 4th Marines performed this duty from 2 September 1945 to 14 February 1946 when the 6th Marine Division was deactivated, also dissolving the regiments under its operational command.


Korean War

Main article: Korean War

In 1951 the 4th Marines were reactivated at Camp Pendleton, carrying lineage of both the old and new 4th Regiments. The regiment was assigned to the 3rd Marine Division and moved to Japan in 1952 where it remained until after the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed on 27 Jul 1953. The 4th Marines were sent to Korea on 23 August 1953 to defend South Korea in the event hostilities resumed and returned to the Japan on 27 July 1954. Although they saw no combat, the 4th Marines are entitled to fly the Korean Service streamer from their regimental colors.


When the 3rd Marine Division relocated to Okinawa in 1955, the 4th Marines moved to Marine Corps Base Hawaii where they remained until being deployed to Vietnam in 1965.[22]


Vietnam War

Main article: Vietnam War

The 4th Marines served in the I Corps region of South Vietnam as part of the 3rd Marine Division, under the III Marine Amphibious Force. They landed in the spring and summer of 1965 near Chu Lai. The regimental headquarters was first at Da Nang, then in 1966 the HQ was moved to Phu Bai. In 1967 the regiment made its final move to Đông Hà, just below the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). There the regiment participated in many large operations throughout Quang Tri Province from the South China Sea to the Laotian Border along the southern half of the DMZ. During this period of time the 4th Marines were also providing security for the construction of the McNamara Line. Some of the major operations that the regiment was involved in were Operation Starlite ( 17–24 August 1965), Operation Hastings (15 July – 3 August 1966) and Operation Prairie (3 August – 27 October 1966). Other major operations in 1967 and 1968 were Operation Prairie IV (20 April – 17 May 1967), Operation Hickory ( 18–28 May 1967), Operation Kingfisher (16 July – 31 October 1967) and Operation Kentucky (1 November 1967 – 28 February 1969). The two major enemy units they battled over those years were the 324B NVA Division and the 320th NVA Division. The regiment left South Vietnam in November 1969 with 10 Marines and 1 Hospital Corpsman having received the Medal of Honor.


Okinawa

In 1972 the 4th Marines were sent to Okinawa to serve as part of the 3rd Marine Division. Except for operational deployments, the 4th Marines have served in Okinawa through 2019.