Roebling's Amphibian The Origin Of The Assault Amphibian CSC 1987 SUBJECT AREA History ROEBING'S AMPHIBIAN THE ORIGIN OF THE ASSAULT AMPHIBIAN RICHARD W. ROAN Major      USMC Command and Staff College Education Center Marine Corps Development and Education Command Quantico, Virginia  22134 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION CHAPTER l:          Assault From The Sea CHAPTER 2:          Donald Roebling's Alligator CHAPTER 3:          The Marine Corps' Amphibian EPILOGUE CONCLUSION NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY ABSTRACT TITLE: Roebling's Amphibian: The Origin of the Assault Amphibian      The amphibian tractor played a decisive role in contributing to the United States Marine Corps' amphibious victories in World War II.  In a letter sent from Okinawa in 1945 Marine Major General Roy S. Geiger called amphibian tractors, "the work horses of the Marine Corps."  He went on to state, "Except for the 'amtracs' it would have been impossible for our troops to get ashore on Tarawa, Saipan, Guam or Pelelieu without taking severe, if not prohibitive losses."  In 1944, then-Commandant of the Marine Corps, Lieutenant General Alexander A. Vandegrift wrote, "Our success in the bitter fighting at Tarawa was due in a considerable measure to the magnificent performance of the amphibian tractor."      Since World War II, the amphibian tractor, now known as the assault amphibian vehicle, has become a mainstay of the Marine Corps' amphibious arsenal and will remain in the vanguard of amphibious assaults well into the twenty-first century.  Despite the assault amphibian vehicle's significant role in Marine Corps history and modern operations, the story of the origin of this venerable amphibian remains largely untold.  The purpose of this study is to examine the earliest years of the assault amphibian vehicle and identify those factors that led to the vehicle's fortuitous introduction to the Fleet Marine Force in 1941.      This study of the origin of the Marine Corps' amphibian vehicle begins with a general overview of the Marine Corps' development of the amphibious doctrine during the two decades preceding World War II.  The study then turns to the remarkable story of the eccentric inventor of the amphibian tractor, Donald Roebling.  The diverse factors that influenced the pioneering efforts that led to Donald Roebling's achievement are reviewed. The narrative then concludes with a discussion of the joint efforts of the Marine Corps and Donald Roebling to produce the vehicle that would eventually spearhead the Marine Corps' march across the Pacific in World War II. INTRODUCTION      The United States Marine Corps' assault amphibian vehicle stands today as the world's only seaworthy battlefield transport. There is no more obvious symbol of the Marine Corps' unique capability of maneuver on a battlefield including open sea, plunging surf and the entire spectrum of land terrain.  The course of the United States' victorious march across the Pacific in World War II would have been decisively more difficult and prolonged without the assault amphibian vehicle's predecessor, the amphibian tractor.  And, it is difficult to imagine a modern exercise of the Marine Corps' primary task of amphibious assault without the routine participation of assault amphibian vehicles. The assault amphibian vehicle has become a  commonplace and reliable workhorse of amphibious operations.  Yet, the history of the assault amphibian vehicle,  particularly the vehicle's remarkable origin, remains largely untold.       The purpose of this study is to focus on the origin of the assault amphibian vehicle in an attempt to fill in the many gaps in the story of the earliest years of one of the Marine Corps' most venerable performers.  It is hoped that this story will help to provide a special historical perspective that may contribute to the ongoing debate over the future of amphibious vehicles.      In addressing the origin of the Marine Corps' amphibian, a remarkable and unlikely tale unfolds.  The factors leading to the arrival of the first amphibian tractors on the beaches of Guadalcanal in 1942 include some of the same developments that placed United States Marines, and not U.S. Army soldiers,  in the vanguard of amphibious warfare.  The Japanese seizure of central and southern Pacific islands at the close of World War I made Japan the primary focus of United States naval war planning and study.  These efforts led to the recognition of the requirement to aggressively seize advanced bases for the United States Navy. Prior to this recognition the Navy's primary emphasis had been on the traditional task of defending the Navy's overseas facilities. The Japanese threat shifted the emphasis from defense to offense. At the same time, the United States Marines  emerged from World War I searching for a meaningful and unique mission worthy of ensuring the Corps' continued institutional existence.  Evolving from a decade of threatened army encroachment, skeletal budgets and vigorous, sometimes rancorous, Corps-wide conflict and debate, the unique mission of offensive amphibious warfare became the Marine Corps' proprietary domain and primary task.  The newly focused Marine Corps spent the 193Os developing and practicing an amphibious doctrine that until the last months before World War II dangerously lacked the hardware to transform theory into reality.      Joining Japanese imperial expansion and the U.S. Marine Corps' proprietary acceptance and development of amphibious warfare  as factors leading to the origin of the amphibian tractor was an enigmatic personality totally unrelated to the Pacific, the Marine Corps or the business of war.  The story of the robust eccentric millionaire Donald Roebling, inventor of the amphibian tractor, adds one of the most unusual chapters to a Marine Corps' history full of unusual characters.  Finally, the amphibian tractor would never have been conceived without the disastrous Florida hurricane of 1928.  Japanese aggression, Marine Corps innovation born of institutional paranoia, an eccentric millionaire and a devastating hurricane; these were the diverse ingredients that joined to produce the Marine Corps' amphibian vehicle. 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