Happy Birthday, Marines
by Tom Neven on 11/10/2008 at 12:16 PM
I can't let a November 10 go by without a shout-out to my fellow Marines. Today is the 233rd birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps, which was founded this day in 1775 in Tun Tavern in Philadelphia. 
On that day they began recruiting for two battalions of Marines who would fight primarily from the mast tops of the ships, sniping into the decks of enemy ships that had pulled alongside for a broadside. But the Marines were also prepared to fight ashore, and their first battle on foreign soil was in Derna, Tripoli, where in 1805 a contingent of Marines marched 600 miles overland to free American sailors from the U.S.S. Philadelphia who were being held captive by Barbary Pirates. (That's the "Shores of Tripoli ..." line in The Marines' Hymn.) In 1847, during the Mexican-American War, they stormed Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City, taking heavy casualties in the process. (That's where the "Halls of Montezuma ..." line comes from.)
The Marine Corps has had a long and distinguished history since. In World War I the Germans referred to Marines as teufelhunden (devil dogs) because of the tenacity of their fighting. In World War II, they more than earned their reputation. The Japanese commander of Tarawa, a heavily fortified speck of coral and sand in the middle of the Pacific, boasted that it would take a million men a thousand years to take the island. The 2nd Marine Division (approximately 35,000 men) took the island in three days. And Admiral Chester A. Nimitz, watching the tough fighting on Iwo Jima, said admiringly of the Marines, "Uncommon valor was a common virtue." I highly recommend you read Flags of Our Fathers and With the Old Breed to get a feel for the type of war the Marines had to fight in the Pacific. (And don't bother with the movie version of the former, which doesn't begin to capture the true story and invents some incidents out of whole cloth.)
Marines are different, both in their training and in their outlook on life. Robert Kaplan captured that well in an article in The Atlantic Monthly about five days he spent with the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines in Fallujah, Iraq:
The idea that Marines are trained to break down doors, to seize beachheads and other territory, was an abstraction until I was there to experience it. Running into fire rather than seeking cover from it goes counter to every human survival instinct—trust me. ... As the weeks had rolled on, and I had gotten to know the 1/5 Marines as the individuals they were, I had started deluding myself that they weren't much different from me. They had soft spots, they got sick, they complained. But in one flash, as we charged across [a road under heavy fire] amid whistling incoming shots, I realized that they were not like me; they were Marines. ...
What the Marines really had going for them was their warrior spirit and a matter-of-fact willingness to die, if circumstances demanded. It was never spoken of; it was simply there. Concomitantly, they had stores of compassion. The two occasions when I had seen the Marines of 1/5 most depressed in Fallujah were when the civilian was accidentally shot in the firefight next to the mosque, and when a six-year-old girl was killed by a mortar that missed the FOB [forward operating base] and hit a nearby house.
I joined the Marines fresh out of high school, a long-haired surfer dude not really sure what he wanted to do in life so long as it was gnarly. When I stepped off the bus at Parris Island, I quickly discovered that I hadn't the slightest idea of what gnarly truly meant. Indeed, there's no faster cure for long-haired surfer-dudeness than Marine boot camp. There was a still a war on, but I wasn't afraid of that. I even volunteered for the infantry. I wanted to be part of something larger than myself and engage in an honorable cause big enough to believe in. I’m a better person for those seven years I served, and it's hard to imagine what turns my life would have taken had I not. (I do know my hearing would probably be a lot better, though.)
A lot of Marines have gotten off the bus since that day long ago. There has always been some grumbling that new Marines don't have it as tough as we old Marines, but I'll quote Chesty Puller on this one: "New breed, old breed, it don't make a bit of difference so long as it's the Marine breed."
Happy Birthday to all Marines, young and old, and especially to those serving in a combat zone in Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm proud to have worn the uniform alongside you and generations of Marines past and to come.
Semper Fi!
1. Susie said the following at 1:19 PM on Nov 10:
I didn't realize that you were a Marine. Well, Happy B-day Marines! I have a copy of Flags of our Fathers, but haven't read it yet. I read another book about boot camp though, following one platoon from start to finish of their boot camp. I sure am grateful for all of you Devil dogs!
2. Adam said the following at 2:43 PM on Nov 10:
To all the Marines out there: Thank you!
3. IMO said the following at 2:55 PM on Nov 10:
I echo Adam. Thank you Marines!
4. Mike said the following at 6:47 PM on Nov 10:
Thank you and God Bless you and all veterans for your service.
5. Nat said the following at 8:09 PM on Nov 10:
Thanks for your service, Tom. My grandfather was a Marine and in the fall of 2004, I went to a reunion with him in Washington DC and had an opportunity to meet many of his fellow veterans. They were an amazingly diverse group- from a congressman and medical doctors, to big city blue collar types and ranchers from Texas. We even got to see the President's Own band and drill team at barracks in DC.My grandpa fought on Guam and Okinawa. What I found amazing was the way that other Marines- like the doorman at a shopping mall, or a waiter at a restaurant all took time to help the older veterans. Anyways, thank you and God bless you.
6. Beatrice81 said the following at 9:04 PM on Nov 10:
Does this mean you'll no longer feel the need to mention it in virtually every diary you write?
7. Lee said the following at 10:36 PM on Nov 11:
OORAH, Devil Dog.
8. John said the following at 4:12 AM on Nov 12:
Thanks everyone! I'm actually in Iraq right now, a Marine rifleman with not much war left to fight here. But thanks for thinking of us all!
9. Chris said the following at 7:47 AM on Nov 12:
Just got around to reading this today. SEMPER FI, Marine!
10. Loris said the following at 8:03 AM on Nov 12:
Wow, now I really need to read With the Old Breed. My dad gave me that book for Christmas last year because E.B Sledge is a distant relative.
I work for a Navy contractor and on Monday we had a cake-cutting ceremony to honor our Marine coworkers. It was fun to watch the long-in-the-tooth Marines harass the equally long-in-the-tooth Air Force guys milling around in the back of the room. "Come sit down on the front row. We promise not to hurt you...."
11. Jarod said the following at 9:30 AM on Nov 12:
So how is there some quaint anecdote about the Marines and yet nothing on the 90th anniversary of WW1??
Me thinks Boundless is losing it...
12. Ted L. said the following at 12:23 PM on Nov 12:
Dear Marines,
Happy Birthday and God Bless! Remembering all the Beirut vets in the 80's!
God Speed and Sempre Fi!
13. Karen said the following at 7:34 AM on Nov 13:
I just got to see some pics my brother sent from being at the Marine Corp Ball this weekend. It was awesome! Thank you to everyone out there serving our country!
14. JoshuaKeirn said the following at 8:10 PM on Nov 13:
Mr. Neven, I thank you, my brother, my father, and all other Marines (and other servicemen and women as well) for your service.
God bless.