Expeditionary· Nuclear Testing Support
Marine Detachment Provisional Eniwetok
The Marine Detachment at Eniwetok was a small security force assigned to the atoll in the Marshall Islands during the early atomic testing era.
Eniwetok, seized from the Japanese in 1944, became one of the principal sites of the United States' postwar nuclear weapons test program, and the atoll required a permanent military guard to control access, secure the test facilities, and protect classified material in one of the most sensitive and remote installations in American hands. The provisional Marine detachment provided that security presence, manning the guard and protecting the proving ground through the years of testing. It was garrison and security duty rather than combat, performed in isolation far out in the Central Pacific, and it reflected the Marine Corps' continuing role in guarding vital naval and strategic installations during the Cold War's opening phase.
Record no. 647