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Saturday, November 10. 2012

Happy 237th Birthday USMC




The name Marine still and always will mean something special, the best, and our ranks and merits grow with each generation. In addition, maybe a bit out of form, but yesterday a young friend on active duty in the Navy in his pure dedication to why he serves, patriotic idealism that does not expect or demand recompense, reminded me of how I felt 44-years ago when I dropped out of grad school and enlisted in the USMC as an enlisted man. The USMC was all enlistees then. Now all branches are enlistees. Today's military are committed professionals fired by love of country. We are all Semper Fidelis now and I welcome the other servicemembers into our fraternity.


Oh yeah, did I forget to mention, Marines are still and will always be the best. And, Always Faithful, as you can see from this special story, special but not untypical. 

Posted by Bruce Kesler at 10:37 | Comments (8) | Trackbacks (0)

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Ooo-rah! Happy Birthday Marine Corps, glad to have you warriors in the big tent of the Dept of Navy.
#1 NavyOne (Link) on 2012-11-10 10:55 (Reply)
Squids - can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em. :>)

Semper Fi.
#2 Tom Francis on 2012-11-10 12:31 (Reply)
Nice to know the Marines are still a part of the NAVY! (Happy Birthday, Marines!)
#3 Old Salt on 2012-11-10 17:09 (Reply)
Happy Birthday to you too Bruce.

Semper Fi

TC
#4 Leatherneck on 2012-11-10 17:13 (Reply)
It's true, the Marines are a Department of the Navy.

The Men's department.
#5 Billy Oblivion on 2012-11-10 18:32 (Reply)
2132841.

Carry on, Marines, for another 237 years. There is no one that can replace you. Specialists may do better on smaller tasks but when the country needs a large can of whoop ass, you're it, and the best there is at it.
#6 XRay on 2012-11-10 22:26 (Reply)
Well hell. On a more sensible tack, the word that struck me in the video above was idealism, an attempt to make the world a better place for others. That was surely true of me, at eighteen, volunteering for the first of two tours in Vietnam.

I swear, I was motivated by wanting to help folks live in greater freedom than their/our foe offered. That was it. I wasn't alone in my beliefs among my fellow Marines.

Today though, I, and my fellow Marines of the period are considered to have been mere pawns in a larger political game. There may be some truth to that assumption.

But for the boots on the fucking ground it was a very real attempt to secure freedom for others.

Sorry for my inarticulateness.
#7 XRay on 2012-11-10 23:03 (Reply)
You're plenty articulate, XRay. I too sometimes resent being played as "those tools of the capitalistic empire-building elites." I know plenty of Vietnam-era Marines who were just post-war kids raised correctly and who had noble reasons for joining us. Some kids today aren't all different.

TC
#7.1 Leatherneck on 2012-11-11 03:14 (Reply)

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