December 25, 2006
Back in action
Corps to activate 2 infantry battalions

By Trista Talton
Staff writer

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — More grunts, please. Two new infantry battalions are coming in the next two years, according to a Corps-wide message released Dec. 7. The first unit — 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines — will stand up in 2007, while 3rd Battalion, 9th Marines, will reactive in fiscal 2008, the message said.

The move follows the reactivation of 1st Battalion, 9th Marines — the legendary “Walking Dead” of Vietnam fame — in October 2005. That battalion is attached to 6th Marines, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The battalion is 501 leathernecks strong, said Lt. Col. Curtis Hill, spokesman for II Marine Expeditionary Force.

Alpha Company, 1/9, returned from a deployment to Iraq on Oct. 30, according to an unofficial Web site dedicated to the battalion.

The activation of the battalion was part of the 2004 Force Structure Review Group, which recommended deactivating units that had seen little action in the war on terrorism, such as Reserve artillery batteries, tank companies and low-altitude air-defense battalions. The group then recommended putting that manpower toward two new infantry battalions, light armored reconnaissance companies and other units.

The new message does not indicate whether a regimental headquarters for 9th Marines will be formed, whether those battalions will fall under existing regiments, or if the reactivation of 2/9 and 3/9 is connected with the Force Structure Review Group’s two-year-old recommendations. Officials with Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Va., were unable to discuss the message or elaborate on the reorganization efforts by press time.

Both 2/9 and 3/9 were deactivated in 1994. Around that time, the Corps also deactivated 1/9, which, during the Vietnam War, engaged in combat for 47 months and seven days, the longest sustained combat in Marine Corps history. “The Walking Dead” also had the highest casualty rate in Corps history.

According to the official Web site for I Marine Expeditionary Force, 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, was deactivated and became 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, on Sept. 2, 1994. Earlier that summer, what had been 2/4 was redesignated as 2/6.

A Web site maintained by former members of India Company, 3/9, called the “Shadow Warriors” battalion, says the battalion disbanded on Aug. 12, 1994, and became 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines.

The changes announced in the MarAdmin don’t apply solely to grunts. Engineer Company, 3rd Combat Assault Battalion, will also be activated in 2007. Units on the chopping block include Headquarters Battery, 5th Battalion, 10th Marines, at Camp Lejeune; 1st Stinger Battery at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma on Okinawa, Japan; and the Corps’ Anti-Terrorism Battalion, once part of Camp Lejeune’s 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade.

The 3rd Marine Logistics Group at Camp Butler, Okinawa, will be reorganized internally, according to the message.

The message, MarAdmin 582/06, announced revisions to the Corps’ table of organization and equipment for fiscal 2007 through fiscal 2013. The next table of organization and equipment update is scheduled for February.

Ellie