1.7 by 2.2 inches
provenance Morton Cohen
The First Saman Marine Battalion
USMCR was given autborization on De-
cember 20, 1940 The order called for a
battalion of 500 men to be trained and
commanded by regular Marine personnel.
The battalion was authorized only to be
used on Samoa for defensive purposes.
Recruitment for the Samoan Marines
started on July 10, 1941. The recrutshadto
be American Samoan citizens. By Septem-
ber the battalion had 120 Samoan recruits.
The First Samoa Battalion disbanded with
a strength of 494 Samoans on January IS,
1944. Sergeant was the bighest rank at-
tained by a Samoan while the battalion was
active.
The First Samoan Manne Battalion was
attached to the 7th Defense Battalioo It
has been erroneously called the Fita-Fita.
The Fita-Fita date back to the early Twen-
tieth century as a Guard unir of the US
Governor General of Samoa. Fita-Fita did
serve as instructors for the FSMB, how-
ever
The Battalion was organized into East-
ern and Western Districts, with each con-
sisting of a rifle company and three platoons. There were also gun crews to man 6
inch guns and .50 caliber machine guos.
Dnll pay for the bauation was 70 cents
per drill for the first four moats of service,
then raised to one dollar. Iroaically, ibe
battalton drew overseas pay while serving
in defense of beir native Samoa.
The equipment of the Samoan Marines
was the World War I US steel helmet, 1903
Spnagfield rifle and cartridge belt. In 1943
the Samoan CO's were issued side arms.
The dress uniform unitially consisted of
a kbaki wraparound skirt called a lava-
lava, a white T-shirt and no shoes. By 1943
the Samoan Marines were also wearing a
red sash. It is believed that NCO's and
Buglers had a fringe at be end of their
sashes. This same year a red border was
added to the lava-lava. la |944 the Samoan
Marinesbegan wearing khaki garrison caps
with red piping.
The lava-lava is a heavy cotton kbaki
rectangle with a red border on one side and
along the bottom. The patch of a gold
USMC emblem embroidered on a red felt
rounded shield was wom on the lower front; in the case of a NCO, the gold em-
broidered on red felt chevron was wor
below the patch
The sash is of red cotton and is made
like a long flattened tube
The garnson cap is the standard USMC
khaki cap, but with red cotton piping and
the smaller patch of a gold USMC emblem
embroidered on a red felt pointed shield
sewn to the left side.
No manufacturer's tags or marks, ex-
cept for the size tag in the cap, are on this
particular uniform.
