Joint Assault Signal Company (JASCO)

Joint shore-fire-control, air-liaison, and beach-comms teams that synchronized naval gunfire, close air support, and amphibious landings — born from the bloody lessons of Tarawa. Five Marine JASCOs and multiple Army ones served at Normandy, Southern France, Philippines, and Okinawa.

The Story

MajGen Alexander Vandegrift built JASCO after Tarawa cost 1,000+ Marine dead in 76 hours, much of it to the failure of ship-shore fires. The fix worked — but the joint billet was killed by the same 1947 reorganization that created the modern Department of Defense.