14th Marine Regiment (United States)

The 14th Marine Regiment (14th Marines) is a reserve artillery regiment of the United States Marine Corps comprising four firing battalions and a headquarters battery. The regiment is based in Fort Worth, Texas however its units are dispersed among 19 different sites in 13 states. Its primary weapon system is the M777A2 Howitzer with a maximum effective range of 30 km however two of its battalions will be converted to fire the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) weapon system.

Mission
14th Marine Regiment provides the Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF) with a Force Artillery Headquarters in order to command, control, and coordinate Force Artillery delivered fires. On order, 14th Marines assumes the civil military operations mission for the MAGTF with focus on coordinating and achieving unity of effort among all forces and non-military organizations participating in stability operations in the MAGTF’s battle space.

Current units

 * Headquarters Battery (HQ/14) - Fort Worth, Texas
 * 2nd Battalion 14th Marines (2/14) - Grand Prairie, Texas
 * 3rd Battalion 14th Marines (3/14) - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
 * 5th Battalion 14th Marines (5/14) - Seal Beach, California

World War I
The 14th Marine Regiment was activated at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, on November 26, 1918. It was created to replace the 10th Marine Regiment, an artillery unit, that was being sent to Indian Head Proving Grounds in Maryland to transition to new tractor-mounted 7 in naval guns. The 14th Marines had a headquarters detachment and ten artillery companies divided into three battalions. Each company was alloted four officers, twenty-four non-commissioned officers, and seventy-five privates. About one-third of their number comprised a cadre of trained artillerymen left behind by the 10th Regiment, the remainder were newly minted Marines fresh from recruit training or part of the pool of men available for overseas deployment.

Throughout this initial tenure, the regiment remained at MCB Quantico and was armed with carriage-mounted Navy 3 in landing guns. These guns had been developed by the Naval Weapons Factory at the turn of the 20th century. Unfortunately, these guns and their ammunition were not compatible with contemporary U.S. Army field guns. Training days consisted of three intervals. Mornings were devoted to normal military duties and infantry drill, afternoons were used for gun drills and technical training, in the evenings junior enlisted men cared for the more than one hundred horses and mules assigned to the regiment.

As part of the massive demobilization of the American military following the signing of the treaties ending World War I, the 14th Marine Regiment was deactivated in June 1919 and would remain inactive until the Second World War.