[citation needed] 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.
4th Marine Regiment and its attached units are INDOPACOM assigned forces in support of regional OPLANs and CONPLANs.
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.
Shortly after activation, 4th Marines embarked upon the USS South Dakota (ACR-9) headed for San Francisco.
None had required the Marines to actually disembark as diplomatic relations were subsequently smoothed over upon their arrival or shortly thereafter.
As the Americans came ashore the rebels withdrew from Santo Domingo, the capital, to Santiago where they had established another rival government.
They joined forces of seven other nations in the internal defense of the settlement, with orders to not come into conflict with Chinese troops.
[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.
[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] 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] The 4th Marines were deployed with orders to prevent either side from entering the American sector "by means other than rifle fire.
[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.
[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.
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.
Approximately 1,500 U.S. Army and Philippine Scouts personnel reinforced the regiment during the defense of Corregidor, designated as the Reserve Battalion.
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.
Following the surrender of Japan, the 4th Marines were assigned to guard the Japanese Navy Base at Yokosuka near Tokyo.
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.
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.
The regiment left South Vietnam in November 1969 with 10 Marines and 1 Hospital Corpsman having received the Medal of Honor.