On November 10th 1775 before there was a United States the Continental Marines were formed as a naval infantry. Thus November 10th is the best day of the entire year. Marines serve as a separate armed service within the department of the Navy. All Marines are rifleman. The experience of being a Marine is an experience in the skills of making war and fighting as a cohesive unit regardless of the mission. This shared experience is the esprit de corps that is the reason once a Marine always a Marine is a truism.
The old, fat, ugly, bald guy studiously writing as an academic has slogged through the mud, perceived through terror, engaged in the act of fighting through the pain, fear, and angst to walk out the other side of the experience. The young man standing proud many years ago in his dress blues (Marine Corps uniform) for pictures after boot camp has persevered through the trials and tribulations of being broken down and recreated into a vision of a Marine. The same experience as every Marine prior and every Marine ever after.
There are touchstones of history such as the World War 1 battle of Belleau Wood where Germans bestowed the term Teufel Hunden (Devil Dog) upon the Marine Corps. There is the historic if less consequential battle of Barbary Pirates where the Mameluke sword was bestowed upon Marine Corps officers. Every skirmish, battle, war, whether remembered by the public or scarring the memory of the participants is carried on the battle standard of every unit.
I served for a short time in the 1980s in a period of relative peace challenged more by the dust bunnys under a squeaky world war 2 era rack (bed to civilians) than the dangerous scourges of Communism. In my short world view the Marine Corps held a party and the red commies didn’t show up.
As I buy a drink for the young Iraq Veteran, or the Vietnam Veteran I look into those young eyes and behind the battle tested hallow expression of mortality I see the fierce determination that has been the legacy of generations of Marines. Those less willing to serve or who make excuses that they serve in other ways will criticize or pander excuses. The reality is they do not, cannot, will not, and dare I say should not expect to pass judgment ever on a Marine. The embodiment of national security and the purity of a weapon is a United States Marine with a rifle. There is no other instrument of national power so capable of ingenuity as a Marine with a mission.
As I look back on a life filled with interesting anecdotes (especially when lubricated primarily with good Scotch) I think of those events that shape life. I have been through Army basic training and Marine Corps boot camp. Where the Army was a bludgeon the Marine Corps experience was a scalpel to my world view. Existence pared down to the absolute minimum. An older academic told me that I had been brain washed and was not right in the head. Imagining me an unquestioning automaton filled with strategic centrally controlled initiatives must amuse most of my students.
I would say that the experience, the life, the risk, the “blank check ” I wrote as a young man has paid many dividends. I will never wear the Marine Corps uniform again. As I have said many times before I feel that I have many things undone, unsaid, and even forgotten. As I get older there are few things I have belonged to that have the legacy to continue into the future. Two of the colleges I attended, and each with over a 100 years of existence, have closed their doors. Clubs and associations flit onto the scene but you join them. The experience of a club or association is rarely earned. I won’t be buried in a military cemetery that is a right I don’t have. What I will know is long after I am gone the Marine Corps will exist with the motto Semper Fidelis “Alawys Faithful”. It will be adapting to new forms of conflict. The Marine Corps is if anything an adaptable and intuitive organization. There is a certain transcendence of mortality that is earned by every Marine.
As an academic I will have a fleeting legacy with my students. Perhaps as a technologist I may have some notoriety though Gordon Moore suggest that will be even more fleeting. In the young Marine recruiters who timidly wander our campus. In the eyes of future Marines and determined eyes of veterans. In the future there will always be a Marine Corps. The Marine Corps is the flexible service. The Marine Corps will fight on every terrain, in every condition, in every spectrum of conflict. Air, land, sea and someday maybe space are the terrains of the Marine Corps.
There is a specific difference between the Marine Corps and the other services that may bring the birthday celebration into view. Where the other services celebrate their officers, and their generals. The Marine Corps celebrates the private. The young rifleman is the Marine Corps.
Happy Birthday to every United States Marine.
OORAH!
Another “OORAH” from this corner of the peanut gallery (though my Robert DeNiro could use some work).
I never served, but both my parents were active duty WW vets. Wonderful post by Sam, but one small comment I have: I like to think of the Marines as being skilled at winning and finishing wars, not “making war.” The latter just makes more enemies. Let the bad guys fire the first shot. Let the good guys make sure they never shoot again.
Thank you, Sam, for supporting the true soldier: the rifleman as a natural warrior on the front lines… and the Marines as the bravest, brightest and best. I realize we have to always have to be steps ahead of our foes, but I hope technology never takes away the need for learning how and why and what it means for a soldier to hold a sword and rifle.
I will mark November 10th on my calendar, too.
Paul