Hispanics in the United States Marine Corps

[5] The United States Marine Corps has implemented an aggressive recruitment program directed towards Hispanics,[6] which is the nation's largest ethnic or minority race (2005 Census).

Then, on June 23, the Regiment, under the command of Major Waller, entered Tientsin in their second attempt after a Japanese blew open a gate to allow the Chinese to escape.

[27] In 1915, Lieutenant Pedro Augusto del Valle, from San Juan, Puerto Rico, graduated from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

[28] Civil war broke out in Nicaragua during the first months of 1926, and upon the request of the Nicaraguan government, 3,000 U.S. Marines were sent to establish a neutral zone for the protection of American citizens.

[31] In 1931, Brigadier General Randolph C. Berkeley appointed Pedro del Valle to the "Landing Operations Text Board" in Quantico, the first organizational step taken by the Marines to develop a working doctrine for amphibious assault.

In his essay, he stressed the importance of a coordinated amphibious assault and of an execution of an opposed landing, a principal which the Marine Corps were to put into practice in World War II.

The battles of Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Cape Gloucester, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa saw fierce fighting between U.S. Marines and the Imperial Japanese Army.

Upon the outbreak of World War II, del Valle led his regiment during the seizure and defense of Guadalcanal, providing artillery support for the 1st Marine Division.

[32] Col. Jaime Sabater who had previously participated in the Bougainville campaign and who was now the executive officer of the 9th Marines in Guam was wounded in action on July 21, 1944, and awarded the Purple Heart.

After five weeks of fighting, del Valle ordered Company A of the 1st Battalion 5th Marines to capture Shuri Castle, a medieval fortress of the ancient Ryukyuan kings.

Two weeks later, on April 15, the 19-year-old Marine was a member of an eight-man forward observer team which was engaged in directing artillery fire in support of an attack by the infantry on Japanese positions on Motobu Peninsula.

[51] Prior to World War II, traditional Hispanic cultural values expected women to be homemakers, thus they rarely left the home to earn an income.

PFC Eugene Arnold Obregon (1930–1950), who also participated in the Inchon landing, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions 11 days after Lopez gave his life.

A company-size Chinese Communist Force (CCF) struck the outpost and Nuñez-Juarez and the other the riflemen fought off the enemy for nearly half an hour before withdrawing from their position.

Although critically wounded during the course of the battle, Staff Sergeant Guillen refused medical aid and continued to direct his men throughout the remainder of the engagement until the enemy attack into a disorderly retreat.

[30] The Marine Corps served an important role in the Vietnam War by participating in such battles as Da Nang, Hue City, and Khe Sanh.

Half of a platoon was pinned down under enemy fire, and Mendez volunteered to lead a squad to assist the pinned-down Marines in returning to friendly lines with their two dead and two seriously wounded.

Gonzalez and his platoon engaged the Viet Cong, who were holed up in St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church in Hue City, firing at the Americans with rockets and automatic weapons.

When the battalion commander, fighting like any other rifleman, was shot in the back three times, Vargas dragged him a hundred yards to an evacuation point, firing at the enemy as he went with an AK-47 he had picked up on the battlefield.

By the end of the third day of battle, the North Vietnamese retreated and Vargas finally allowed himself to be treated for a bullet wound in his side and shrapnel from mortar blasts.

[78] A month later on May 8, 1970, Lance Corporal Miguel Keith (1951–1970) a rifleman with the 1st Combined Action Group, III Marine Amphibious Force was seriously wounded when his platoon was under heavy attack from a numerically superior enemy in the Quang Ngai Province.

In the case of Staff Sergeant Norma Alvarado of El Campo, Texas, who enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1973, she spent three years as a drill instructor and depot inspector at the Women Recruit Training Command at Parris Island, South Carolina.

Rivera was killed during a support mission over the Persian Gulf when his AV-8B Harrier smashed into the Omani coastline while approaching the deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Nassau (LHA-4) for a landing.

They settled down in the South Bronx neighborhood of New York City, where Rivera was born and rented a low income apartment in a public housing project.

Major Michael J. Aguilar, an experienced UH-1E "Huey" and AH-1 "Super Cobra" attack helicopter pilot, volunteered to fly combat missions in the desert upon Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

Colonel Leonardo G. Hernández (USMC, Retired) entered the Marine Corps in 1973 as an infantry officer and served thirty-one years on active duty which included combat in Somalia, El Salvador and Bosnia.

Peralta was still conscious on the floor and despite his wounds was able to reach for the grenade and pull it under his body absorbing the majority of the lethal blast and shrapnel which killed him instantly, but saved the lives of his fellow marines.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates rejected the Marine Corps' recommendation, concluding that his appointed panel unanimously confirmed that his actions did not meet the standard of "without any possibility of error or doubt".

[108] Since the American Revolution, when they fought alongside Spanish General Bernardo De Galvez to the modern day conflict in Iraq, Hispanic immigrants have played an important role in the military of the United States.

[116] On March 21, 2003, Lance Corporal José Antonio Gutierrez (1981–2003), member of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines was killed by enemy fire while trying to secure Umm Qasr, a port vital for humanitarian aid.