1956 the Headquarters of the 3d Marine
Division was moved to Okinawa where its remains today. Teamed with the
3d Division, the bulk of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, in Japan with
headquarters at Atsugi, provided the air portion of a ready U.S.
expeditionary force in the Far East.
The 1st Marine Division, meanwhile, which had been in Korea
since the summer of 1950, was returned to Camp Pendleton in 1955. The
3d MAW during the same period moved from the East to the West Coast to
support Pacific deployments.
In 1954, the 1st Provisional Marine Air-Ground Task Force,
built around a reinforced infantry regiment and a reinforced air group,
was established at Hawaii in response to strategic requirements in the
Pacific Theater. One reinforced regiment of the 3d Marine Division,
together with elements of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing were shifted
from the Far East to Oahu to build the task force, later called the 1st
Marine Brigade, to desired strength.
On the other side of the world, the commitment of a Marine
battalion landing team to the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean, which
began in 1948, continued except for brief periods in 1950-51 and 1955.
During the Korean War, this practice was briefly interrupted due to
wartime needs and during 1955 a reduction in amphibious shipping forced
the termination of the rotating assignment for nearly a year. The
deployment to the Sixth Fleet was designed to give the fleet commander
a ready landing force in an area left unstable in the aftermath of World War II.
Events in the Far East from 1955 on likewise pointed out the
need for a ready battalion of Marines afloat with the fleet, and from
1960 on, the 3d Marine Division maintained such a floating battalion
under Commander Seventh Fleet.
