The 2nd Marines were most certainly at Camp LJ in the 2nd Mar Div during the Vietnam War. They were the other side of the 6th Marines while the 8th (my unit 64-65) and the 10th were near the EM Club.
No 2nd Div Marines were in RVN as a Unit that I know of. I went there as a transfer into the 7th in 11/65.
When I was with 1/2 the Bn had just rotated out of the Med. while I was with 1/2 we went to the Mojave during DESEX 72 then loaded up for a Carib float. 1/2 was never in Vietnam though many of the Marines while I was there were Veitnam veterans and were sent to 2MarDiv after their tours in country from other commands.
1st and 3rd MarDivs were committed to RVN while 2nd MarDiv covered the Med, Europe, North Africa and Middle East. However, it was part of the rotation cycle so many of it's troops were Nam Returnees.
Joe Carey is correct;2nd Mar DIV was never in Nam,states side at LeJeune protecting Carib and Med. Served in 3rd and 1st Divs in Nam namely 1/4 &2/1 possibly the later being confused with1/2???????????????Also served with 1/6 at Lejeune.
Hi My name is Duncan and I am a former 0811 from 1982 to 1986. I was in India 3/10. I respectfully like to ask a question about Marine Units in Vietnam. Mainly the combat arms MOS's. 1. If the 1st Marine Diviasion was in Vietnam how were the Regiments company's and batteries in say Camp Pendleton named? Such as we are Bravo 1/5 in Vietnam what was at Pendleton at the time.
2. Did units of the 2nd Marine Division get orders as a company or Battalian and get reflagged from say Echo 2/2 to new designation Hotel 3/7.
I can not locate this info from anyone and can not find it on the internet. Even though I have seen Vietnam order of Battle charts from both the Army and Marine Corps.
3. If I was a Navy Corpsman during the Vietnam war and I was attached to a Marine Recon Unit can that person be transferred to a SEAL team if he chose that. My point is that is the Navy and it seems that MOS could from an outsider's point of view that knows nothing about the two inits could be interchangible with like and similar experience. I base that question on Major Bruce Norton's book Force Recon 1969 and 1970 where as a Corpsman he was a qualified team leader.
Vietnam was a rotational war where troops moved between divisions while the divisional units remained in place wherever they were assigned.
Example: 2/2 out of Lejeune makes a complete Med float cycle and then most of it's personnel are transferred to 5th Marines as replacements in Nam. The same holds true as 5th Marines reach their rotation day and they cycle into 2nd Marines in Lejeune.
There was no unit reflagging however when 26th Marines stood up a lot of 9th Marines were transferred incountry to give the 26th combat experienced Marines to balance out all the boots coming in from the States.
Corpsmen served with whoever needed their skill sets and they were assigned according to their level of experience and training. There's no doubt some moved between what is now known as spec ops communities as they served their different tours with different units.
As for a Corpsman being a team leader? Not all that unreasonable if they really wanted it but I doubt they acted as team doc because they would be way too busy in command.
Understand that Nam was it's own unique lifestyle where many guys of all MOS's got hooked on it so it was extremely common for them to serve many multiple tours in different billets and units so they could stay without ever having to come back to the World.
