Since August 9 they had been asking one another, “Where’s the fucking navy?” It was a rhetorical question, of course. They were marines; they could rely on no one but themselves. The 1st Marine Division had become the “1st Maroon Division.” “U.S.M.C.” stood for “Uncle Sam’s Miserable Children.” They had been played for suckers. By training and doctrine, they were elite shock troops—amphibious specialists brought in to storm an enemy beach and secure a beachhead. They had done their job. They were not supposed to be left to defend that beachhead for months on end.
