Ensign Schuyler F. Heim and other members of the landing party from the South Carolina-class battleship USS Michigan (BB-27) preparing to disembark, on 22 April 1914, at Vera Cruz. Their whites are made khaki through the use of coffee grounds. NHHC NH 100612
The Battleship New Jersey Museum just found the ship’s organization book from 1956 and posted a great video detailing the landing party bill.
Of note, the Korean War-era landing party 201-man rifle company (6 officers, 195 enlisted), was commanded by the Marine detachment’s skipper (a captain) and made up of a platoon of 36 Marines (presumably led by a Marine LT) then fleshed out by 165 bluejackets organized into a company HQ section (commanded by a second Marine LT), a 2nd and 3rd infantry platoon, and a machine gun platoon. The senior Navy officer would be a LtJG who would act as the company executive officer while the company’s First SGT would be a Marine MSgt and the company Gunnery Sergent would be a PO1, likely GM1.
Inspecting USS New Jersey’s Marine detachment, 1944. Of note, this was one of the first Marine Detachments to hit the fleet with M1 Garands. Catalog #: 80-G-82699
Armament included 154 M1 Garands, 20 M1911 sidearms, a whopping 27 M1918 BARs, and 6 light machine guns (probably M1919s).
The three infantry platoons (at least in the case of the two Navy-staffed platoons) would be further divided into 9 four-man fire teams, each with a team leader (M1), rifleman (M1), BAR gunner (M1918) and assistant BAR gunner (M1), combined into three squads each with an additional squad leader, with the whole thing led by a platoon leader, for 40 men per platoon. No platoon Sgt/CPO, and no HMs or commo at the platoon level. Hey, it was 1956…
Anyway, good stuff, and a quick explanation of why a Cold War-era Marine Det on a battleship or cruiser included a captain and two lieutenants for a platoon-sized element.
The last Marine Carrier Dets, useful shipboard for guarding admirals, performing TRAP missions, and keeping an eye on “special munitions” (aka nukes) were disbanded in 1998.