Call Out the Marines

The longer Korea went on, the more it looked like the kind of war the Marine Corps had been bred to fight. This week the Marines ordered mobilization of all their 80,000 volunteer (i.e., unorganized) reserves. Fifty thousand officers and enlisted men would be called away from civilian jobs between mid-August and the end of October. The remaining 30,000 were warned that they would hear from headquarters soon.

Only a week before, the Marines had been talking about a force of 132,000 men. With the new additions, they began to have a 200,000 look. Other U.S. military plans, which had been hurriedly dumped into congressional hoppers in the first hectic days, were likewise expanding:

P: The Army, which had been measured for 834,000 men, admitted it would need a million by year's end. For the first time, it dipped into its unorganized reserve for 62,000 enlisted men, to be called in September and October for 21 months' duty, "with or without their consent, from both the volunteer and inactive reserves."

P: The President asked Congress for still another $1.1 billion for the armed services (in addition to the post-Korean $10.5 billion, and the pre-Korean $13 billion), 82% of it to be spent for Navy planes.

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