Do you have info on what policy or criteria the Marines used to determine who returned to the States from the Pacific during the war? My father, a PFC radio operator, returned to the States and took a new radio course. It seems obvious that the Marines planned to send him back into action, but Japan surrendered before he finished the course. I've seen brief casual references to Marines being "rotated" back to the States, but I haven't found anything lengthy or official explaining it. Some of the discussions indicate it was whole units (not individuals) that were rotated. Was that always the case? I know about the War Department's ASR "point system" used during demobilization after the war. Was something similar used for temporary transfers during the war? Thanks for any insight.
Interesting question. I'm not sure if it has been raised before. I found this brief reference to rotation with a quick search. Most Marines got rotated back to the states if they survived three campaigns. Many old hands were already back in the states before Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and many of the men in those campaigns were on their third operation. http://www.answers.com/Q/How_many_marines_were_deployed_in_World_War_2
Marine Corps Chevron, Volume 3, Number 47, 25 November 1944, page 10. http://historicperiodicals.princeton.edu/historic/cgi-bin/imageserver.pl?oid=MarineCorpsChevron19441125-01&getpdf=true "Rotation Policy" Editor, The Chevron —How much longer does a Marine In the 2nd Div. have to stay overseas after he has been in three major battles and come out without a scratch? This particular Marine we are longing to see has been overseas more than 25 months and we haven't seen him since he joined the Corps in June, 1942. Mrs. FRED SCHAPLOWSPY 15710 Carse Aye., Harvey, ILL. Editor's note —It is impossible to give a specific answer to this and dozens of similar letters. The Corps has a definite rotation policy, providing for return, first,'' of those seriously wounded; second, of those physically unfit for further combat service; and third, those longest outside the U. S. In the latter bracket, consideration necessarily has to be given to a system of rotation that will not impair the combat efficiency of the Corps. Groups recently returned to the U. S. have included men with as much as 30 and 31 months overseas service.