One of the Marine Corps’ most deployed units in history celebrated its triumphant return to the force last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following a nearly 16-month hiatus from the Marine Corps, the <\/span>3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, held its reactivation ceremony on Thursday aboard\u00a0Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center\u00a0Twentynine Palms, California, at the Lance Cpl. Torrey L. Gray Field \u2014\u00a0a parade ground named after one of the battalion’s\u00a0own\u00a0Marines who was killed fallen <\/span>in Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Over its 90-year history, the “Thundering Third” \u2014 originally stood up in 1925 on Naval Base San Diego \u2014 deactivated and reactivated seven other times, and in between participated in some of the nation’s most grueling conflicts. The unit was the most combat-deployed battalion in the service throughout the Global War on Terror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Whether one considers the battalion’s experiences in China, the unparalleled challenges endured during World War\u00a0II, the savage fighting in the jungles of Vietnam, or the iconic downing of the Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad’s Firdos Square, members of 3\/4 always performed beyond expectation,” executive officer Maj. Jonathan Kenney said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The unit 3\/4 <\/span>deactivated in May\u00a02014 as the Corps adjusted to Congress\u2019 mandate to draw down to a total force structure of 175,000 in the wake of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Officials reversed course last summer, however, as it became clear that Marines are still in high demand around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maj. Gen. Daniel J. <\/span>O\u2019Donohue, who recently assumed command\u00a0of the <\/span>1st Marine Division, noted\u00a0at the ceremony on Thursday that the unit will step up to meet this demand through distributed operations, expeditionary maneuver and an upcoming deployment “back to the strategic main effort,\u00a0which is the Pacific.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Falling under the 7th Marines, the unit 3\/4 <\/span>is currently slated to deploy\u00a0in\u00a0spring 2017 to Australia in support of Marine Rotational Force \u2013 Darwin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tapped for command of the “Thundering Third” is <\/span>Lt. Col. Brian S. <\/span>Middleton will serve as 3\/4’s commanding officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Although there’s a lot of work to be done ahead, we are off to a great start,” Middleton said at the ceremony.\u00a0“We will carry the burden every day to get better, bigger, stronger, faster \u2026 to be the most ready, when the nation is least ready.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The unit’s top enlisted leader\u00a03\/4’s sergeant major <\/span>has yet to be identified, pending this December\u2019s sergeant major board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the Marine Corps\u2019 most deployed units in history celebrated its triumphant return to the force last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":57564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":69,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[12,69],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1080],"class_list":["post-27787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-your-marine-corps"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"U4MLGLXKEJH4ZNJJZUGFFC37OQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2015\/09\/23\/corps-reactivates-3rd-battalion-4th-marines\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n