Second Battalion First Marines Vietnam Memorial

Navy Unit Commendation Streamer

Meritorious Unit Commendation Streamer with 2 Bronze Stars

National Defense Service Streamer

Vietnam Service Streamer with 2 Silver and 3 Bronze Stars

Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm Streamer

Vietnam Meritorious Unit Citation Civil Actions Streamer. Initially, units of the battalion conducted heliborne raids into enemy-held areas. Because these assault units would suddenly appear, then disappear oly to reappear in a different location, the enemy radio operators referred to the battalion as "Ghosts."

During May 1968 while operating in the Khe Sanh area, the battalion outmaneuvered element of the North Vietnamese Army. When the NVA commander informed his HQ command that he lost contact with the battalion, he was relieved of his command. The intercepted NVA message traffic referred to 2d Battalion, 1st Marines as a "Ghost Battalion."

"They learned not to rely on us; they learned to rely on each other. And they were special in another way: They chose to be faithful. They chose to reject the fashionable skepticism of their time. They chose to believe and answer the call of duty. They had the wild, wild courage of youth. They seized certainty from the heart of an ambivalent age; they stood for something. And we owe them something, those boys. We owe them first a promise: That just as they did not forget their missing comrades, neither, ever, will we." Ronald Reagan, 1986