In the fall of 1942 2/6 sailed to Wellington, New Zealand where it began advanced combat training. This was followed by movement to Guadalcanal on January 1, 1943. The 2/6 also took part in the Battle of Tarawa. That was on November 21, 1943, the second day of the Battle of Tarawa.

On June 15, 1944 the battalion landed on Saipan in the Marianas Islands to take part in the Battle of Saipan. Following the end of the war, 2/6 landed at Nagasaki to take part in the Occupation of Japan from September 1945 until July 1946. In August 1946 the battalion relocated to Camp Pendleton, California.

As part of the post war draw down of forces, 2/6 was deactivated on October 1, 1947.

The exploits of the 2/6 were immortalized in the WWII classic novel, "Battle Cry", by Leon Uris. Although the characters were fictional, the movements of the 2/6 were historically accurate and were based on Uris' own experiences in the 2/6 during WWII as a PFC.


V-12 Navy College Training Program
The V-12 program's goal was to produce officers, unlike the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP), which sought to turn out more than 200,000 technically trained personnel in such fields as engineering, foreign languages, and medicine.[citation needed] Running from 1942 to 1944, its recruits were expected but not required to become officers at the end of their training.

The purpose of the V-12 program was to generate a large number of officers for both the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps to meet the demands of World War II, far beyond that turned out annually by the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis and standing U.S. Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School to that point. Once enrollees completed their V-12 subsidized Bachelor's degree programs, their next step toward obtaining a commission depended on service branch: