We’ve been covering the Marines’ interest and initiative in fielding their own, more legitimate, take on the narco sub or LPSS for use in supplying isolated outposts and quiet Marine Littoral Regiment fires elements dotted around the less visited atolls and islands of the Western Pacific.
With that in mind, check out these recently cleared images of 1st Marine Logistics Group Marines testing an Autonomous Low-Profile Vessel, on or about 22 January 2026.
The ALPV is an autonomous logistics delivery system the Marine Corps is experimenting with to deliver supplies and equipment in a timely manner throughout the littorals.
U.S. Marine Corps photos by Sgt. Mary Torres.
U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Carlos Perez-armenta, a logistics specialist with 1st Distribution Battalion, Combat Logistics Regiment 1, 1st Marine Logistics Group, operates an Autonomous Low-Profile Vessel during testing on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, Jan. 22, 2026. The ALPV is an autonomous logistics delivery system the Marine Corps is experimenting with to deliver supplies and equipment in a timely manner throughout the littorals. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Mary Torres)
U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Luna Eben, a logistics specialist with 1st Distribution Battalion, Combat Logistics Regiment 1, 1st Marine Logistics Group, conducts safety pre-checks before operating an Autonomous Low-Profile Vessel during testing on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, Jan. 22, 2026. The ALPV is an autonomous logistics delivery system the Marine Corps is experimenting with to deliver supplies and equipment in a timely manner throughout the littorals. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Mary T
U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Carlos Perez-armenta, a logistics specialist with 1st Distribution Battalion, Combat Logistics Regiment 1, 1st Marine Logistics Group, conducts safety pre-checks before operating an Autonomous Low-Profile Vessel during testing on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, Jan. 22, 2026. The ALPV is an autonomous logistics delivery system the Marine Corps is experimenting with to deliver supplies and equipment in a timely manner throughout the littorals. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by
U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Carlos Perez-armenta, a logistics specialist with 1st Distribution Battalion, Combat Logistics Regiment 1, 1st Marine Logistics Group, operates an Autonomous Low-Profile Vessel during testing on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, Jan. 22, 2026. The ALPV is an autonomous logistics delivery system the Marine Corps is experimenting with to deliver supplies and equipment in a timely manner throughout the littorals. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Mary Torres)
And these earlier shots in early December 2025 of India Company, Battalion Landing Team 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, conducting an at-sea resupply drill with supplies from an autonomous low-profile vessel during unmanned surface vessel training operations as part of MEU Exercise at White Beach Naval Facility, Okinawa, Japan.
U.S. Marine Corps photos by Sgt. Alora Finigan.
U.S. Marines with India Company, Battalion Landing Team 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, conduct a simulated resupply with supplies from an autonomous low-profile vessel to during unmanned surface vessel training operations as part of MEU Exercise at White Beach Naval Facility, Okinawa, Japan on Dec. 2, 2025. The ALPV has the ability to deliver multiple variations of supplies and equipment through contested maritime terrain. The 31st MEU, the Marine Corps’ only continuou
U.S. Marines with India Company, Battalion Landing Team 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, conduct a simulated resupply with supplies from an autonomous low-profile vessel to during unmanned surface vessel training operations as part of MEU Exercise at White Beach Naval Facility, Okinawa, Japan on Dec. 2, 2025. The ALPV has the ability to deliver multiple variations of supplies and equipment through contested maritime terrain. The 31st MEU, the Marine Corps’ only continuou
U.S. Marines with India Company, Battalion Landing Team 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, conduct an at sea resupply drill with supplies from an autonomous low-profile vessel during unmanned surface vessel training operations as part of MEU Exercise at White Beach Naval Facility, Okinawa, Japan on Dec. 3, 2025. The ALPV has the ability to deliver multiple variations of supplies and equipment through contested maritime terrain. The 31st MEU, the Marine Corps’ only continuo
U.S. Marines with India Company, Battalion Landing Team 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, conduct an at sea resupply drill with supplies from an autonomous low-profile vessel during unmanned surface vessel training operations as part of MEU Exercise at White Beach Naval Facility, Okinawa, Japan on Dec. 3, 2025. The ALPV has the ability to deliver multiple variations of supplies and equipment through contested maritime terrain. The 31st MEU, the Marine Corps’ only continuo
Looking back over the huge photo dump from the recent UNITAS 2025 exercise– which has been trucking along annually since 1960– a somewhat composite view arises of the Marine’s new Maritime Reconnaissance Companies (MRC), and the drone supply boats it looks to use to supply its pair of expeditionary Marine Littoral Regiments in forward, likely isolated, islands in the Western Pacific.
I present to you the carbon-fiber hulled Whiskey Bravo boat in operation, utilizing a tire-clad, retired USCG 87-foot Marine Protector-class patrol boat as the target for a training VBSS team. In Marine use, the 40-foot Australian-built Whiskey Bravo is referred to as the more official Multi-Mission Reconnaissance Craft, or MMRC.
U.S. Marines with 4th Assault Amphibian Battalion, 4th Marine Division and marines with Batallón de Infantería de Marina, Armada de la República Dominicana, (marine Infantry Battalion within the Dominican navy) board a moving ship while on Multi Mission Reconnaissance Craft-A littoral craft, to conduct visit, board, search and seizure training during exercise UNITAS 2025 Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, Sept. 23, 2025.
U.S. Marines with 4th Assault Amphibian Battalion, 4th Marine Division, prepare to visit, board, search, and seize a vessel during exercise UNITAS 2025 at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, Sept. 24, 2025. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Michail Stankosky)
U.S. Marines with 4th Assault Amphibian Battalion, 4th Marine Division, prepare to visit, board, search, and seize a vessel during exercise UNITAS 2025 at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, Sept. 24, 2025. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Michail Stankosky)
The Whiskey Bravo accommodates up to six operators seated on shock-absorbing seats and two crew members at the forward control console.
It can carry twin 4-round Rafael (Lockheed) Spike NLOS canister launchers on the stern (17nm range and a Mini-Typhoon remote-controlled stabilized .50 cal up front.
Without the armament, it can carry as many as 17 combat-loaded troops for short stints. The boat can be rushed to a forward area via C-17 and is air-droppable. Further, the WB can be optionally manned, controlled instead via remote datalink.
A take on how it could be employed.
As described in a November 2024 Proceedings piece by Lt.Col Brian Lusczynski, three active and perhaps one reserve Maritime Reconnaissance Companies will be established, each with 18 Whiskey Bravo boats (MMRCs) and 12 unnamed USV types.
Within a Marine division, the MRC will fall under a parent O-5 command such as the future mobile reconnaissance battalions (which are replacing the light armored reconnaissance units). Each MRC will consist of a headquarters element and three maneuver platoons operating MMRCs and USVs. Each platoon will comprise a headquarters element and three maneuver sections, with each section consisting of two MMRCs and two USVs.
Next, we have the Autonomous Low-Profile Vessel, or ALPV, which takes the nearly awash “narco sub” concept long used to run all sorts of contraband and options it for remote use to carry supplies to calm little lagoons right under the eyes of the PLAN.
It has been tested out by the Logistics Battalions of the Marine Littoral Regiments, and is described as “a semi-submersible autonomous logistics delivery system that has the ability to deliver multiple variations of supplies and equipment through contested maritime terrain.”
An autonomous low-profile vessel assigned to 2nd Distribution Support Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, pulls out of Mile Hammock Bay during exercise UNITAS 2025 at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Sept. 15, 2025. 2nd MLG is working with the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab to experiment with the ALPV for a more lethal, agile, and resilient capability while conducting expeditionary advanced base operations. (U.S. Marine Corps photo Lance Cpl. Franco Lewis)
U.S. Marines with Maritime Distribution Platoon, 2nd Distribution Support Battalion, Combat Logistics Regiment 2 open an autonomous low-profile vessel for refueling operations during exercise UNITAS 2025 at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Sept. 18, 2025. 2nd Marine Logistics Group is working with the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab to experiment with the ALPV for a more lethal, agile, and resilient capability while conducting expeditionary advanced base operations. (U.S. Marine Corps photo Sgt. Rafael Brambila-Pelayo)
ALPV has also been seen recently underway in Okinawa.
The Marine Corps tested the Autonomous Low-Profile Vessel (ALPV) during exercise Resolute Dragon 2025 (RD25), in Okinawa, Japan, and surrounding outlying islands. The ALPV is an autonomous logistics delivery system that can be configured to deliver multiple variations of supplies and equipment throughout the littorals. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Connor Taggart)
And a recent view of the cargo capability of the 65-foot ALPV, which seems to have several pallet-sized cargo holds.
The concept of getting some diesel, a few pallets of MREs and water, plus extra batteries and an assortment of lickies and chewies, shipped quietly into a forward atoll, could be a realistic way to keep isolated garrisons fed and semi-happy.
U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Conor Bassham, left, a metal worker and Sgt. Daymion Noisewater, a small craft mechanic with Combat Logistics Battalion 8, Combat Logistics Regiment 2, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, guides cargo onto an Autonomous Low-Profile Vessel during a concept of operations test at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, April 23, 2025. The ALPV is an autonomous logistics delivery system that the Marine Corps is testing to resupply a dispersed lethal fighting force discreetly and allow those operating in the littorals to be more sustainable, resilient, and survivable, both in competition and in conflict. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Christian Salazar)
250923-N-N3764-1097. ATLANTIC OCEAN (Sep. 23, 2025) A U.S. Navy Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft (GARC) maneuvers in the Atlantic Ocean during UNITAS 2025, the 66th iteration of the world’s longest-running multinational maritime exercise. Unmanned and remotely operated vehicles and vessels extend the capability of interconnected manned platform sensors to enhance capacity across the multinational force. (Official U.S. Navy photo)
250923-N-N3764-1077 ATLANTIC OCEAN (Sep. 23, 2025) A U.S. Navy Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft (GARC) maneuvers in the Atlantic Ocean during UNITAS 2025, the 66th iteration of the world’s longest-running multinational maritime exercise. Unmanned and remotely operated vehicles and vessels extend the capability of interconnected manned platform sensors to enhance capacity across the multinational force. (Official U.S. Navy photo)
After years of field testing, the Marines this week issued the service’s largest contract for polymer-cased .50 cal BMG ammunition.
The five-year $95 million contract, awarded to Nammo to be filled at the company’s MAC facility in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, was issued on Tuesday by the Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Virginia.
As I previously reported at Guns.com, the Marines have been ordering polymer-cased .50 cal from MAC as far back as 2019. The company uses an advanced polymer caselet over a metal cap to reduce ammo weight by as much as 30 percent and provide cooler chamber temperatures, ejecting cool-to-the-touch cases. No modifications are necessary in weapons or procedures when using their polymer-cased cartridges.
Both the case and link are polymer. (Photos: Lance Cpl. Ryan Ramsammy/USMC)
Lighter weight per round comes in handy in logistics-limited operations typical of the Marines, who must move every bullet ashore either via aircraft, landing craft, or amphibious vehicle. In tests, a 100-round belt of polymer-cased .50 cal is 7 pounds lighter compared to legacy brass-cased rounds.
“This polymer ammunition also reduces fuel costs not only for aircraft but also for logistics and supply,” said Marine CWO3 Chad Cason, the project officer for .50-cal polymer ammunition at MCSC, in a 2022 release. “You can fit more ammunition on the pallet, increasing the overall pallet space used on a truck or ship. You can carry more on vehicles into combat or training as well.”
The Marines issued a $10 million contract to MAC in 2020.
Marines getting in some live-fire training, while embarked on a Navy amphibious warfare ship, were recently spotted with some interesting new gear.
The Marines, part of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable)’s Maritime Special Purpose Force, are currently deployed aboard the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Bataan(LHD-5). An elite unit within an elite unit, the MSPF typically includes a SEAL Strike Platoon, a Force Recon Direct Action Platoon, and a platoon from the MEU(SOC)’s boat company, among others. That would explain the extensive use of M27s— itself a version of the well-liked Heckler & Koch HK 416 rifle– modified with HK’s Reconnaissance Weapon Kit.
The recent photos of the 26th MEU(SOC)’s MSPF show Recon-kitted M27s complete with EoTech holographic sights and PEQ-16 flashlight/laser aiming devices. (Photo: Cpl. Kyle Jia/U.S. Marine Corps)
First spotted in use in 2021, the kit includes a 416A5 upper with an adjustable gas system and 11-inch barrel, allowing for a more compact and suppressor-friendly close-quarters weapon rather than the 16-inch barrel on the standard M27.
For longer-range work, they have been seen with EoTech magnifiers as well. (Photo: Cpl. Kyle Jia/U.S. Marine Corps)
The SIG Sauer M18, recently adopted as standard across the Marine Corps, is also present on each of the MSPF members, complete with Surefire X300 lights, and lanyards.
The 26th MEU(SOC), embarked with the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group, has been deployed in European waters conducting exercises with NATO allies in the Mediterranean, but this week arrived in the Middle East to support deterrence efforts in the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has been harassing oil tankers as of late
While the Union Army during the Civil War numbered a whopping 2,213,000 individuals in service between the regulars, USCT, and myriad of state volunteer units taken on the roles, the peak strength of the U.S. Marine Corps during the conflict only hit 3,860 officers and men, making them one of the smallest units in Federal service– and their uniforms among the rarest today.
Washington, D.C. Six marines with rifles and fixed bayonets at the Navy Yard. LC-DIG-cwpb-04148
On display (and for sale of course) at the shop. One of the rarest Civil War uniform groups. This Marine Corps uniform group belonged to Private John Hammond and includes his dress coat with epaulets, shako, fatigue cap, trousers, and rarest of the rare, his knapsack marked “USM.”
Hammond was a shoemaker who enlisted in the Marine Corps in Boston to serve four years on May 15, 1861, and served until discharge on August 24, 1865, at the barracks in Boston. His trousers have the marking of the frigate USS Santee, one of Farragut’s West Gulf Blockading Squadron’s most active ships, on the pocket.
Besides its obvious humanitarian “hearts and minds” goodwill in stretches of the Western Pacific that often don’t get a lot of attention, it also provides a chance for C-130 units around the Rim to get some real-world training should they be needed to, say, handle low-key resupply for isolated company-sized Marine rocket batteries dropped off on random atolls with little infrastructure but within range of Chinese maritime assets.
Anyway, the 71st OCD just concluded, seeing a few interesting things including seven Herky birds from the U.S. Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force (No.37 Sqn), Japan Air Self-Defense Force (401st Tactical Airlift Squadron), Republic of Korea Air Force (251st Tactical Air Support Squadron), and Royal New Zealand Air Force (No. 40 Sqn) taxi in formation during a multinational “elephant walk” at Andersen Air Force Base, in Guam.
“Operation Christmas Drop 2022” graphic placed onto a C-130J Super Hercules assigned to the 36th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron at Yokota Air Base, Japan, Nov. 16, 2022. The artwork celebrates the 71st annual Operation Christmas Drop which is the longest-running Department of Defense humanitarian and disaster relief mission. Each year, the USAF partners with countries in the Pacific Air Forces area of responsibility to deliver supplies to remote islands in the South-Eastern Pacific. (U.S. Air Force photo by Yasuo Osakabe)
U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Jeffrey Furnary, 36th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron director of operations, uses a radio to communicate with C-130 pilots at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Dec. 10, 2022, during Operation Christmas Drop 2022.
(Right to Left) A Japan Air Self-Defense Force C-130H Hercules assigned to the 401st Tactical Airlift Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force C-130J Super Hercules assigned to the 37 Squadron, Republic of Korea Air Force C-130H Hercules assigned to the 251st Tactical Air Support Squadron, Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130H Hercules assigned to 40 Squadron, and U.S. Air Force C-130J Super Hercules assigned to the 36th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron sit on the flightline at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam
Seven C-130 Aircraft from the U.S. Air Force, Republic of Korea Air Force, Japan Air Self-Defense Force, Royal Australian Air Force, and Royal New Zealand Air Force take part in an elephant walk to signify the end of Operation Christmas Drop 2022, Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Dec. 10, 2022.
U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Jeffrey Furnary, 36th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron director of operations, salutes to an Air Force C-130J Super Hercules’ crewmembers at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Dec. 10, 2022, during Operation Christmas Drop 2022.
In all, the C-130 crewmembers delivered 209 bundles with humanitarian aid totaling more than 71,000 pounds of cargo to more than 22,000 remote Micronesian islanders on 56 islands throughout the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau.
This broke last year’s record of 185 bundles.
These included snorkels, flippers and fishing equipment; rice, eskies, containers and cookware; and gifts including colouring pencils, books, sporting equipment and toys.
The box-build process gets a lot of involvement on base from the community, cumulating in a “Bundle Build Day” at Andersen.
After rigging, Andersen’s 734th Air Mobility Squadron and the 44th Aerial Port Squadron (Reserve Component) Port Dawgs partnered to load the 450-pound chute-rigged bundles and service the C-130s for continued sorties.
“It remains the longest-running U.S. Department of Defense humanitarian and disaster relief mission that is supported by multiple Herc fleets from across the region.”
Earlier this summer, members of Task Force 61 Naval Amphibious Forces Europe/2d Marine Division (TF-61/2), operating under U.S. Sixth Fleet, joined their Estonian counterparts to kick off exercise Siil 22, also known in English as Exercise Hedgehog 22. While not a large force of Marines involved, TF-61/2 took advantage of the deployment to test out the new Commandant’s concept for Stand-in Forces (SIF) to generate small, highly versatile units that integrate Marine Corps and Navy forces and have “multi-domain reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance (RXR)” capabilities.
When talking of Maritime Awareness in 2022, the above references little groups of Marines– a team small enough to be inserted in a UH-1Y Venom which can only lift 8-10 combat-loaded men– equipped with back-packable/UTV-mountable Small Form Factor surface search radars, SATCOM, small UAS, and enhanced observation telescopes/binos to provide actionable intelligence and targeting data to upper headquarters.
Check out the highlight reel:
Highly mobile SATCOM on a UTV:
U.S. Marines with 2nd Marine Division test a Small Form Factor Satellite Communication (SATCOM) on the move (SOTM) device, while it’s attached to a Utility Task Vehicle (UTV) on Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, April 10, 2019. The CopaSAT STORM is a replacement for the current Networking on the move (NOTM) system, which will allow Marines better communication services while stationary or forward deployed. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Nathaniel Q. Hamilton)
The Marines in the video are shown with Lockheed-Martin’s Stalker VXE Block 30 VTOL UAV, which can be shipped in three large pelican-style cases.
Another new tool is the Next-Generation Handheld Targeting System, or NGHTS, which allows the deployment of laser designation and target location at extended ranges, day and night, in a GPS-denied environment with high accuracy and “allows Marines to prosecute targets at increased standoff ranges.”
MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. – Marine peers through a prototype version of the Next-Generation Handheld Targeting System, March 2021 at U.S. Army Garrison Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia. The Next-Generation Handheld Targeting System, or NGHTS, is an innovative, man-portable targeting system allowing Marines to rapidly and accurately conduct target location and laser guidance during combat operations. Photo By: MCSC_OPAC
More on NGHTS:
Years of market research, technology maturity and miniaturization resulted in NGHTS. The unit, lighter and less bulky than past targeting systems, includes a selective availability anti-spoofing module GPS, a celestial day and night compass, a digital magnetic compass, a laser designator and a laser range finder, all in a single handheld system weighing less than ten pounds.
The Marines have recently been fielding more AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (GATOR) systems, including one in Estonia but there may be something smaller at play here that was kept off-camera.
GATOR, for reference:
All in all, this all seems right on point for use across nameless Pacific atolls in addition to its already-interesting use in the Baltic.
“Regulation Army .45 Colt and its effect on bulletproof glass used in the new armored postal trucks which it is proposed to put into use as a further protection of valuable mails,” December 1, 1921.
Via The Library of Congress, National Photo Company Collection. LC-F8-16987
The destructive tester seems to be a Marine, which tracks because the same year this image was taken, President Warren G. Harding sent 2,200 Marines to guard mail delivery across the nation in the wake of a spate of high-profile robberies.
Note the trench guns and M1911s
How about that early M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle? Also, it must have been odd to be on armed details with neckties and campaign hats.
The Devils were tasked with riding shotgun over high priority certified mail, which included cash and negotiable bonds. Reportedly, in the five years that the Marines were on guard, not one robbery on an escorted shipment was attempted.
Warship Wednesday, June 30, 2021: Cleaning Up After the Queen
Here, in this grainy still from a 16mm camera, we see one of the last organized surrenders of Japanese forces, some 70 years ago today– 30 June 1951– on the island of Anatahan to a whaleboat sent ashore by the Abnaki class fleet tug USS Cocopa, whose hull number (ATF-101) can be seen on the boat. The group of Japanese had previously refused to believe World War II ended in 1945, but surrendered to LCDR James B. Johnson, after losing their queen.
But we will get to that.
The 27 hulls of the Abnaki-class were intended for far-reaching ocean operations with the follow-on tail of the fleet. Constructed during the war, they were large for tugs, stretching out 205-feet in length and weighing almost 1,600 tons when fully loaded. Capable of 16.5 knots, they could steam a whopping 15,000 miles at half that clip on a quartet of economical GM diesels. Fairly well-armed for tugs, they carried a 3″/50 DP main gun, two twin 40mm/60 Bofors, and two Oerlikons.
USS Abnaki (ATF-96) underway at Pearl Harbor, February 1952, showing the simple and effective layout of the class, which kept their WWII-era armament well into the 1950s. Cocopa surely emulated the above impression at Anatahan.
Named for Native American tribes, Cocopa carried the name of an Arizona tribe and was constructed by Charleston Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Charleston, S.C., commissioned 25 March 1944.
Cocopas by Balduin Mollhausen, circa 1860. DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University
Her war history was largely skipped over by DANFS, with just 88 words dedicated it the period, but it was interesting if not the stuff of military legend, taking the tug from the Palmetto State to Shanghai with stops in the English Channel and brushes with German U-Boats while in two cross-Atlantic convoys.
Amazingly, she did not earn a single battle star for her WWII service.
Following a postwar overhaul at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, she was assigned to Alaskan waters, which at the time were still strewn in wartime wreckage and threats of mines. While operating out of Guam in 1951, she was dispatched to a far-off island to respond to the strange story of a group of Japanese holdouts that the war had forgotten.
Anatahan
Located in the Northern Marianas, the natives there were removed by the Spanish in the 17th Century to turn the 8,300-acre volcanic island into a large coconut/copra plantation. This continued under the Germans, who picked up Spain’s remaining Pacific territories in 1899, and by the 1920s or so, the plantations had fallen into disrepair and, with the Japanese in charge, they stayed that way.
Fast forward to June 1944 and U.S. air assets from the 15 carriers of VADM Marc A. Mitscher’s TF 58 found a Japanese convoy in the area, sailing from Tanapag to Japan.
Over the next three days, as a sideshow to the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot” they had easy pickings, splashing the torpedo boat Otori, net layer Kokku Maru, transports Batavia Maru, Hinko Maru, Kamishima Maru, Imizu Maru,Nitcho Maru, Reikai Maru, and Tenryugawa Maru: the freighter Bokuyo Maru, Japanese Army cargo ships Fukoku Maru and Moji Maru, and the coaster Tsushima Maru.
Marianas Operation, 1944. Caption: Burning Japanese cargo ship that was attacked by USS LEXINGTON (CV-16) planes off Saipan, 14 June 1944. Description: Catalog #: 80-G-236902
In the aftermath, a group of some 31 Japanese soldiers and mariners including navy seamen, army privates, and four merchant ship captains, the survivors of several of the ships that were sunk, made it to the lush shores of Anatahan where they lived with a handful of locals who were leftovers from the old plantation days alongside Mr. Kikuichiro Higa, the Okinawan plantation manager, and one Japanese woman, Kazuko Higa, his common-law wife. The senior-most Japanese military member was Sgt. Junji Inoue.
War came to the island when a Saipan-based B-29 Superfortress, T Square 42 (42-74248), from the 498th Bomb Group, 875th Squadron, 73rd Wing, crashed on 3 January 1945 on Anatahan, with no survivors. Meanwhile, the Japanese hid.
On 10 May 1945, elements of the U.S. Army’s 24th Infantry Regiment, carried by the USS Marsh (DE-669), LCI(L)-1054 and LCI(L)-1082, landed on Anatahan and scouted around a bit, staying for a week. The Japanese continued to hide.
In July 1945, the 6th Marine MP Battalion landed on the island and again the Japanese hid inland. They removed the 45 native Carolinians who remained in the village. Other Navy ships visited the island and, hailing the emperor’s remaining subjects there, urged them to surrender.
After the war, in February 1946, a U.S. Army AGRS search party visited the island, located the crash site near the top of its 2,500 ft volcano, and recovered the remains of the crew. Still, the Japanese remained in hiding, despite messages to them that the war was over, including Japanese newspapers and magazines chronicling the peace, which were dismissed as a trick.
As noted by the National Park Service, the Japanese eventually found the B-29, and their fortunes changed.
Early in September 1946, Kazuko and Kikuichiro Higa were crossing the steaming 2,500-foot volcanic crater atop the island when they stumbled upon the wreckage of an American B-29. Parachutes found in the aircraft yielded nylon for clothing and cord that was carefully unraveled, then rewoven into fishing lines. Using stone hammers, the men chopped away the duralumin plates and beneath them found aluminum, which was eventually formed into cooking utensils, razors, harpoons, fishhooks, spears, and knives. Wire from the springs in the machine guns was twisted into shark hooks. Oxygen tanks were modified for use as water catchments. Engine bolts were fashioned into chisels and other cutting and drilling tools. Plexiglass and strips of rubber were made into pairs of underwater goggles. Everything that could be carried away from this great prize was taken and zealously guarded. When one man discovered a method for making a new implement, the less inventive of the group made copies. One man designed a model sailing vessel from duralumin and copper wire from the aircraft. Another produced several banjo-like samisens, traditional Japanese three-stringed instruments.
It also provided instruments of death: A pair of 45 caliber automatic pistols. The weapons were seized by two of Kazuko’s suitors. For the remaining months of their lives, the two reigned as kings of the island.
Soon, Kikuichiro was killed, as were no less than three other survivors, in a series of feuds over crab fishing and Kazuko, who became something of the Queen of Anatahan.
In June 1950, LCDR James Johnson, Deputy Civil Administrator on Saipan, began to wage a hearts and minds campaign to get the Japanese on Anatahan to lay down their arms and go home. This included regular delivery of care packages under a white flag, amounting to letters from the soldiers’ relatives and Japanese authorities, Tokyo newspapers, magazines, food supplies, Japanese beer, and cigarettes.”
This brought about the “surrender” of Queen of Anatahan, who was eager to leave her subjects behind.
Johnson kept up his efforts to get the last of the marooned Japanese off the island for eight months. After dropping leaflets promising the 18 men who were left would be returned to their families, a white flag appeared and our tug sailed from Guam, complete with a platoon of armed Marines and a LIFE journalist, Michael Rougier.
By Rougier, via the LIFE Archives:
I found these two videos in the National Archives of the event and uploaded them to YT. They are silent but moving.
Junji Inoue, the day of his surrender at Anatahan, June 1951. (N-1993.05). Inoue reads a document urging his compatriots to surrender. Scene aboard M.V. Cocopa, Anatahan, June 1951. Inoue’s personal implements. Note fiber zoris, coconut husk hat, knives fashioned from B-29 wreckage. (N-1993.07)
Once the men arrived in Guam, they were hospitalized for a week then flown to Japan.
From the Aug. 1951 All Hands
The Lord of the Flies tale of shipwrecked soldiers and sailors fighting over a single queen while surviving on coconut wine and crabs was turned into several books and at least one internationally popular film, Josef von Sternberg’s Anatahan (1953).
Meanwhile, back to our ship!
With the war in Korea increasingly drawing in naval assets after the entrance of Chinese volunteers by the hundreds of thousands, USS Cocopa (ATF-101) was soon off to combat. Deployed to the region in the summer and fall of 1953, she was key in saving the Canadian Tribal-class destroyer HMCS Huron (G24), which had grounded while in range of Nork shore batteries. The mighty tug took the damaged Canuck, stern-first, to Sasebo.
Cocopa did receive a battle star for Korea.
USS Cocopa (ATF-101) moored pier side, date, and location unknown. Note The tug’s engineers have managed to paint their battle efficiency “E” on their ship’s tiny smokestack. NHHC
By 1954, she was supporting Operation Castle, a series of atomic tests at Bikini Atoll.
Then came numerous trips to Vietnam, deploying there five times between 1963 and 1972, earning five stars for her service in Southeast Asia. One of the most interesting taskings during her time there was as a “Yankee Station Special Surveillance Unit” to deceive and jam Soviet Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) and Electrical Intelligence (ELINT) trawlers that were monitoring American operations in the Gulf of Tonkin.
USS Cocopa (ATF-101) underway,1969, still with her 3-inch gun but with her Bofors and Oerlikons removed. L45-54.04.01
Decommissioned, 30 September 1978, she would go on to continue her service in more North American waters.
Viva Armada!
Sold under the Security Assistance Program to Mexico, 30 September 1978, Cocopa was commissioned into the Republic of Mexico Navy as ARM Jose Maria Mata (ARE-03) until 1993, then as ARM Seri with the same hull number.
She is still on active duty, based in Tampico.
ARM Seri ARE03 Tampico Mexico 2016 via ShipSpotter IMO 7342691
Check out this video of her underway in 2017, looking good for her age.
Epilogue
Of Cocopa’s 26 Abenaki-class sisters, they have been very lucky with two exceptions– USS Wateree (ATF-117) was sunk during a typhoon, 9 October 1945 with a loss of eight crew members; and USS Sarsi (ATF-111) met her fate during Typhoon Karen in 1952 at the hands of a drifting naval mine off the coast of Korea. The rest lived to a ripe old age with the U.S. Navy, eventually being retired by Uncle Sam in the 1960s and 70s. While the last of her class in U.S. service, USS Papago (ATF-160), was disposed of in 1997, many were transferred overseas– such as Cocopa, who continues to serve alongside classmates ARM Yaqui (ex-Abnaki) and ARM Otomi (ex-USS Molala ATF-106).
The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.
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Ten U.S. Marines with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force – Southern Command teamed up with the U.S. Navy for a three-month deployment aboard the Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport USNS Burlington (T-EPF 10), returning to Little Creek this week. The SPMAGTF-SC detachment provided the 1,500-ton Burlington, officially a noncombatant manned by civilian mariners of the MSC alongside a USN commo team, with an embarked security team, providing force protection for the deployment.
This is the type of tasking that little groups of Marines will increasingly see in the future, no longer just the stuff of the “Gator Navy.”
Of course, it is something of a case of everything old is new again, as the Marines for something like 220 years regularly provided small dets on surface ships for security/gunnery/landing force missions. Back in the day, ships as small as gunboats, sloops, and frigates often had Marines aboard, although the practice was trimmed back to cruisers, battleships, and carriers by the 1920s (with a few notable exceptions).
The Marine Detachment, gunboat USS Dauntless (PG-61) – mid-1942
The last Marine Carrier Dets, useful for guarding admirals, performing TRAP missions, and keeping an eye on “special munitions” (aka nukes) were disbanded in 1998.
