"Ab Uno Disce Fidelis"
(FROM THE FIRST COMES FAITHFULNESS)

Within 1st Recruit Training Battalion, there are four companies: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta. Each company contains an average of six platoons with 60 to 80 recruits per platoon. 

The battalion was established on Aug. 6, 1940, 25 years after Parris Island was first designated as a Marine Corps Recruit Depot.

The location selected for the battalion was previously known as “East Wing” but was redesignated as the “Training Center” in January 1940. During World War I, the area initially served as the primary training site for first and third phases of recruit training. The battalion’s actual activation began with the building of H-style wooden barracks. One of these barracks, Building 620, remained for many years as the battalion headquarters.

By the outbreak of the Korean War, 1st RTBn. was the only remaining recruit training battalion actively training male recruits. On June 1, 1952, 1st RTBn. was temporarily redesignated as a “Special Training Battalion” in order to train more than 1,000 college students assigned to officer candidate training with the Platoon Leaders Class program. 

During that time, 1st RTBn. hit the silver screen. Cpl. J. Brown, a 1st RTBn. drill instructor, so impressed actor Jack Webb that he cast Brown to act as one of the assistant drill instructors in his movie "The DI.” Lt. Col. W. B. Carneal Jr., the commanding officer of 1st RTBn. from March 1956 until January 1957, served as a technical advisor for the film.

From the 1960s to the present, 1st RTBn. has continued in the pursuit of training our nation's sons into the finest United States Marines. Celebrating many years of developing smartly disciplined, physically fit, basic Marines, the battalion holds special pride in maintaining the professionalism and esprit de corps which has distinguished 1st RTBn. Marines during service to both Corps and country from World War II to present.

In 2022, 1st Recruit Training Battalion became fully integrated with male and female recruits.