Humanitarian· Civil Aid and Humanitarian Operations
Hindenburg crash rescue and riot control at Lakehurst
The Corps' most notable disaster response of the late interwar years.
When the German passenger zeppelin Hindenburg burst into flames and was destroyed while attempting to moor at the Naval Air Station at Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing dozens of those aboard in front of newsreel cameras, Marines were on hand to respond. A detachment from Quantico under Lieutenant Colonel W. T. H. Galliford carried out rescue work in the immediate aftermath of the fiery crash and then took on crowd and riot control over the following days, managing the throngs of spectators, press, and onlookers who converged on the station after the disaster. No Marines were injured. The catastrophe, witnessed by the world through film and radio, ended the era of commercial passenger airships, and the Marines' part in it, rescue followed by the control of chaotic crowds, was a fitting late example of their disaster-response role.
Record no. 560