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by Fiona G. Holter, USAICoE Staff Historian
On 24 October 1950, the 181st Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) Detachment was activated for service in the Korean War. The detachment was attached to the 1st Marine Division (MarDiv), providing valuable support to Marine operations and training the division’s personnel in tactical CI procedures. The 181st CIC Detachment remained with the 1st MarDiv until early 1955 when the division rotated back to the United States.
When the Korean War began in June 1950, the Marine Corps was in the early stages of establishing its counterintelligence (CI) mission. Prior to World War II, the Marine Corps did not have its own CI branch or mission; rather it relied on the Navy and Army for intelligence support. After the U.S. entered World War II, the Marine Corps began to establish its own footing in CI. With the increased need for CI in the war, a few Marines were assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). In April 1943, the Department of the Navy officially authorized the Marine Corps a CI role separate from the Navy itself; however, formal CI training did not occur until April 1948.
While Marines began CI training in 1948 at the Army’s CIC School at Fort Holabird, Maryland, the number of CI personnel remained low. The Corps had no Table of Organization for their placement, which created a gap in its CI capabilities at the beginning of the Korean War. To fill this gap, the 441st CIC Detachment attached a provisional team, under the command of Capt. Millard F. Dougherty, to the 1st MarDiv. On 24 October, the provisional detachment became the 181st CIC Detachment.
In September, the 181st CIC supported CI activities and logistical support for the Inchon landings (Operation CHROMITE). After the Marines landed at Inchon, the 181st CIC led tactical CI operations for the division and trained the two Marines assigned to the detachment. Their primary duties included interviewing refugees, interrogating enemy prisoners of war and line crossers, delivering security briefs to command personnel, and setting up ambush sites in regions where they suspected enemy agents were rendezvousing. Sgt. William Onash (Army) and Sgt. Roger Throckmorton (USMC) recalled, in addition to their CI duties, they conducted nighttime river patrols with Marine Amphibious Tractor (AMTRAC) units looking for enemy line crossers and sometimes escorted allied line crossers to the frontlines.
Throughout their service with the 1st MarDiv, the 181st CIC personnel trained CI Marines in interrogation techniques, including checking prisoners and suspected enemies for documents or other means of identification. Often enemy spies posed as refugees but, to identify one another in their group, they all carried a particular marker of identification denoting their alliance. For example, during an interview of refugees, the 181st CIC uncovered a communist spy ring after finding copper spoons, all broken in the same place, on several people. Another time, the CIC detachment noticed that two refugees both had a trouser-fly button sewn on with red thread. The detachment soon found more than 120 individuals with the same recognition signal and successfully apprehended everyone in their organization.
Because of the support and training the 181st CIC Detachment provided to the 1st MarDiv throughout the Korean War, Maj. Gen. Thomas Holcomb, commandant of the Marine Corps, recommended the Marines organize and train CI teams for each MarDiv. He further recommended that “where Marine Corps employment in peace time does not allow for exercise of CIC personnel, that arrangements be made to attach such Marine Corps personnel to Army CIC units in Europe and the Far East for wider experience and training.”
To see more entries visit the interactive timeline on the MI history website: https://ikn.army.mil/apps/MIHistory/ (CAC required)
Errors or questions? Contact usarmy.huachuca.icoe.mbx.command-historian@army.mil
| Date Taken: | 10.24.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 10.24.2022 12:31 |
| Story ID: | 431898 |
| Location: | FORT HUACHUCA, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 432 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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