General Graves Blanchard Erskine was a United States Marine Corps officer who led the 3rd Marine Division during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.
Graves B. Erskine
John Wayne (left) and Erskine (right) on the set of the film Sands of Iwo Jima (1949). Erskine was a technical advisor.
The 3rd Marine Division is a division of the United States Marine Corps based at Camp Courtney, Marine Corps Base Camp Smedley D. Butler in Okinawa, Japan. It is one of three active duty infantry divisions in the Marine Corps and together with the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing (1stMAW) and the 3rd Marine Logistics Group forms the III Marine Expeditionary Force. The division was first formed during World War II and saw four years of continuous combat in the Vietnam War. Today, elements of the 3rd Marine Division are continuously forward deployed and forward postured to carry out the US Government's mission of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific in conjunction with its sister services.
3rd Marine Division, 2nd Raider's sign on Bougainville
A young Marine waits on the beach at Da Nang in Vietnam during the Marine landing, March 8, 1965.
U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Eric Kassow, a rifleman with 3d Marine Division, provides security during the 3d Marine Division Rifle Squad Competition at Camp Gonsalves, Okinawa, Japan
U.S. Marines with 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division conduct parachute operations by jumping out of a KC-130 Hercules Okinawa, Japan
