'Opium' (i) was the US transfer of the 3^rd Marines from the continental USA to Samoa for onward transmission to the South Pacific combat area (September 1942).

The 3^rd Marines had been reactivated on 16 June at New River, North Carolina, and reached US Samoa on 14 September to become part of the 2^nd Marine Brigade. The regiment reached New Zealand on 23 May 1943 as part of Major General Charles D. Barrett’s 3^rd Marine Division, and later fought on Bougainville in the Solomon islands group in 'Cherryblossom' and on Guam in the Mariana islands group in 'Forager'.