1st Battalion, 23D Marine Regiment

1st Battalion, 23d Marines – the Lone Star Battalion – is one of eight reserve Marine infantry battalions spread across the United States.  Our Marines meet to train and prepare for war each month across the states of Texas and Louisiana – in Houston; Austin; and Corpus Christi, Texas as well as Bossier City, Louisiana.

OUR MISSION AND PURPOSE

The 1/23 Selected Marine Corps Reserve (SMCR) Inspector-Instructor (I-I) team works together to prepare the Marines and Sailors for high intensity combat operations against a near-peer adversary in a multi-domain operations and degraded command and control environment, and is prepared to deploy as a battalion or as companies in support of crisis and conflict within 30 days of receiving a mobilization order. 1/23 Inspector-Instructors facilitate battalion mobilization readiness, set conditions for enhanced lethality, and develop leaders of character in order to provide a capable force ready to augment active component requirements and to serve as ambassadors for the Marine Corps to the states of Texas and Louisiana.
 

OUR HISTORY

1st Battalion, 23d Marines was activated 22 July 1942 at New River, North Carolina and deployed to the South Pacific in February 1944, participating in every campaign with the 4th Marine Division including Roi-Namur, Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima. Two Marines from the battalion were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity, including Private Joseph Ozbourn, for actions on Tinian, and Sergeant Darrell Cole, for actions on Iwo Jima. The battalion deactivated on 15 November 1945, but was reactivated on 1 July 1962 in Houston, Texas as part of the Marine Corps Reserve. 1/23 mobilized in support of Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in January 1991 and deployed to Camp Pendleton, and mobilized and deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in January 2003, Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) in August 2004 and May 2007, and again in support of OEF in and March 2011. With the battalion headquarters previously located at Old Spanish Trail in Houston, the unit now calls Joint Reserve Base Ellington the battalion headquarters.
 

OUR UNIT INSIGNIA

On our unit insignia, we honor our fallen in Iraq/Afghanistan, and we honor our Pacific Campaign legacy in the order which the battles were fought: Roi Namur, Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima. The 4th Marine Division patch from the WWII-era, on which the great state of Texas rests, is reflective of the patch worn by Marines across the Pacific in 1943 and on. The shape of the golden-orange number four is said to reflect the airfields at Roi Namur in Kwajalein, where this battalion first waged war. And the state of Texas is depicted and colored by the Lone Star State flag, where many of the SMCR and I-I team call home. Thus, this insignia honors our past, celebrates our warfighting legacy, and reflects the heart of this unit, the Lone Star Battalion.