 Unlike the United States Army, which had an all Puerto Rican unit (the 65th Infantry Regiment) and other units in the Southwest region of the United States mostly made up of Hispanics, the Marines have never had any Hispanic-oriented units.As of 2003, those who join the U.S. Armed Forces are not required to identify themselves as Hispanics, therefore a person of Hispanic descent who decides that he or she does not want to be considered as a Hispanic and chooses to identify themselves with any race was not be included in the statistics of the Department of Defense as Hispanics.While specific statistics were not kept on the number of Hispanics in the Marine Corps, history documents instances of their heroic actions.