Happy 242nd Birthday coming up, US Marines!!!

witchbottles

Forum Guru
Joined
Feb 26, 2010
Messages
9,100
Reaction score
2,254
Location
Rio Vista, CA
Country
llUnited States
"The United States Marine Corps And What It Means To Us Marines:

I think that what makes Marines special, if only in our own minds, is that elusive Quality of Esprit de Corps. It's the fact that we, as individual Marines, don't feel that we are individual Marines. When we wear our uniform, when we hear our Hymn, when we go into battle, we are going with every other Marine who ever wore the uniform.

Standing behind us are the Marines who fought during the birth of our nation. We're standing with the Marines who fought in WWI and gave birth to the legend of the "Teufel Hunden," or "Devil Dogs." We are standing with the Marines who took Iwo and Tarawa and countless other blood-soaked islands throughout the Pacific.

We are standing with the "Frozen Chosin" and our beloved Chesty Puller. We are standing with the Marines who battled at Hue City and Khe Sanh and the muddy rice paddies of South East Asia. We are standing with the Marines who fought in Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom and now are fighting in Afghanistan.

Like real brothers, their blood courses through our veins, and when we go into battle, we would rather lay down our lives than being a disappointment to them. We carry on our backs their legacy, their deaths, and their honor. We carry that for the rest of our lives.

The Marine Corps uniform doesn't come off when our active duty is over. We wear it daily in our attitude and our love of Corps and country. We wear it on our tattoos and our bumper stickers. We wear it on our hearts.

It's why, no matter where we are in the world, on November 10th, every Marine celebrates the Marine Corps birthday. It's why we'll never be an army of 1. It's why we never stop being Marines. It's why, for most of us, being a Marine isn't something we were. It's something we are.

It's the most important part of who and what we are. Some say we're arrogant. We say we're proud. We have a right to be proud. We are the United States Marines, the most feared and ferocious group of warriors to walk the face of this earth.

When America's enemies formulate their battle plans, they plan on going around Marine units because they know Damn well that they can't go through them. We are what other branches wish they were.

We are the modern-day Spartans. This isn't bragging. It's written in the battle history of our country. When there's a parade and the Marines march by, everyone pays a little more attention. Some say, "arrogance." We call it "pride."

It's why, in a crowd of servicemen, you can always spot the Marine. Why are Marines special? I don't know. We just are.

If you are a Marine reading this; would you be found guilty if you are accused of being a Marine?

Saepius Exertus, Semper Fidelis, Frater Infinitas, Often Tested, Always Faithful, Brothers Forever,

-Semper Fidelis!"

Says it all - brothers and sisters - wherever you may be - Semper Fi. I hope all of us may be able to find a reason to celebrate and reminisce this 242nd anniversary of our beloved Corps tomorrow- the 10th of November, 2017.

Jon H.
GySgt, USMC (ret).
 

zgrose

Elder Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2004
Messages
4,235
Reaction score
948
Location
Kingwood, TX
First name
Zoltan
Country
llUnited States
My boy is in Marine boot camp right now. Will be interested to see the transformation. Cousin served, too.
 

witchbottles

Forum Guru
Joined
Feb 26, 2010
Messages
9,100
Reaction score
2,254
Location
Rio Vista, CA
Country
llUnited States
upload_2017-11-10_6-5-0.png



242 years, and still going strong. If you are reading anything on Gamesquad Forums today, thank a Marine. If you read anything here tomorrow, thank a Veteran. (Marines get to go first, well, because we are just that damn good... hahaha SF!! ) :D
 

witchbottles

Forum Guru
Joined
Feb 26, 2010
Messages
9,100
Reaction score
2,254
Location
Rio Vista, CA
Country
llUnited States
"Marines! Attention to Orders!"


MARINE CORPS ORDERS
No. 47 (Series 1921)
HEADQUARTERS U.S. MARINE CORPS
Washington, November 1, 1921

759. The following will be read to the command on the 10th of November, 1921, and hereafter on the 10th of November of every year. Should the order not be received by the 10th of November, 1921, it will be read upon receipt.

1.On November 10, 1775, a Corps of Marines was created by a resolution of Continental Congress. Since that date many thousand men have borne the name "Marine". In memory of them it is fitting that we who are Marines should commemorate the birthday of our corps by calling to mind the glories of its long and illustrious history.

2.The record of our corps is one which will bear comparison with that of the most famous military organizations in the world's history. During 90 of the 146 years of its existence the Marine Corps has been in action against the Nation's foes. From the Battle of Trenton to the Argonne, Marines have won foremost honors in war, and in the long eras of tranquility at home, generation after generation of Marines have grown gray in war in both hemispheres and in every corner of the seven seas, that our country and its citizens might enjoy peace and security.

3.In every battle and skirmish since the birth of our corps, Marines have acquitted themselves with the greatest distinction, winning new honors on each occasion until the term "Marine" has come to signify all that is highest in military efficiency and soldierly virtue.

4.This high name of distinction and soldierly repute we who are Marines today have received from those who preceded us in the corps. With it we have also received from them the eternal spirit which has animated our corps from generation to generation and has been the distinguishing mark of the Marines in every age. So long as that spirit continues to flourish Marines will be found equal to every emergency in the future as they have been in the past, and the men of our Nation will regard us as worthy successors to the long line of illustrious men who have served as "Soldiers of the Sea" since the founding of the Corps.

JOHN A. LEJEUNE,
Major General Commandant
75705—21

10 NOVEMBER 2017

A MESSAGE FROM THE COMMANDANT OF THE MARINE CORPS



Seventy-Five years ago today, after months of fighting at Henderson Field and along Edson’s Ridge, Marines on Guadalcanal spent the night of 10 November 1942 planning and preparing. Although the Battle of Guadalcanal would continue for three more months, the plans laid on our Corps’ most sacred day became integral to the amphibious campaigns that followed. Success at Guadalcanal proved to be the turning point that ultimately paved the way for Allied victory in the Pacific. Those warriors defended their positions in brutal conditions against a formidable enemy – and triumphed. Through every major conflict our Nation has seen since the Revolution, Marines performed their duty with utmost courage, devotion, and raw determination. Their valiant deeds in the face of overwhelming challenges give us confidence and inspire us to meet the trials of today. As we pause to celebrate the birth of our Corps this year, we honor the legacy that was passed down to us and we recommit ourselves to carrying those traditions into the future.



This November 10th marks 242 years of warfighting excellence. At places like Trenton, Tripoli, Chapultepec, Belleau Wood, Guadalcanal, Chosin, Khe Sanh, Fallujah, Sangin, and so many others, Marines have fought with an inner spirit – a spirit that bonds us, binds us together as a cohesive team. It’s that intangible spirit that has formed the foundation of our warfighting reputation for the past 242 years. Now it’s our responsibility to ensure we honor and carry on that legacy. The American people expect a Corps of men and women who are committed, selfless, willing to sacrifice, who epitomize honor, courage, commitment, virtue, and character. We owe our Nation and our predecessors no less.



Today, as we celebrate our 242nd birthday, we must remember who we are, where we came from, and why we’re here. We must remember the past, honor those who are no longer with us, focus on today’s battles, and get ready for tomorrow. We can and will prevail as we always have, in any clime and place. But we must prevail together, united by the unyielding spirit in each of us that makes our Corps unique – that willingness to put our Corps and fellow Marines ahead of ourselves. Victory in battle comes through the integrated efforts of many – teamwork. We value the sacrifices and contributions of every Marine and Sailor, as well as our family members without whose support we would not be able to accomplish our mission. And we remain committed to being our Nation’s Expeditionary Force in Readiness that sets the standard for honor, discipline, and courage. I am proud of each and every one of you. Happy Birthday, Marines!



Semper Fidelis,



Robert B. Neller



General, U.S. Marine Corps



Commandant of the Marine Corps




"That is all. Take Charge and carry out the Plan of the Day. DISSSSS- Missed!!"
 

macrobo

King of Boxcars
Joined
Nov 5, 2005
Messages
1,266
Reaction score
622
Location
Geelong Melbourne
First name
Rob
Country
llAustralia
Hi All

If I might celebrate as one of your allies your important day (also Nov 11 is important for ANZACS as our remembrance day (as well as yours) when I pen this note though I am not sure you have such a deep connection as an Aussie since WW1 was terrible for all of us but did in particular give birth to the ANZAC spirit)

I had the pleasure of Serving with Marines when they supported us during the Timor incident (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_East_Timorese_crisis). The Okinawa MOU spent the period deployed in Northern Australia to protect our country since our entire operational deployment force was used for the incident (they even issued the rifles to Artillery and Tankers and deployed them sans hardware!!)

This is not a very well known fact and you will not find it on the internet since it was operational but.......... Thank You :clap: for your assistance and protection you provided our country in our time of need as you did when you stooped us being invaded back in WWII - You have always been there for Aussies and God Bless That FACT!! :D

Cheers

Rob:)
 
Last edited:

witchbottles

Forum Guru
Joined
Feb 26, 2010
Messages
9,100
Reaction score
2,254
Location
Rio Vista, CA
Country
llUnited States


For every person who has ever served in the cause of freedom - from want, from fear, of speech, of religion.
 

witchbottles

Forum Guru
Joined
Feb 26, 2010
Messages
9,100
Reaction score
2,254
Location
Rio Vista, CA
Country
llUnited States
Here's one to share with anyone who doesn't understand us or why we joined the Marines.

The The Marine Corps is the only branch of the U.S. Armed Forces that recruits people specifically to fight.
The Army emphasizes personal development (an Army of One), the Navy promises fun (let the journey begin), the Air Force offers security (its a great way of life). Missing from all the advertisements is the hard fact that a soldier’s life is to suffer and perhaps to die for his people, and take lives at the risk of his/her own.

Even the thematic music of the services reflects this evasion. The Army's Caisson Song describes a pleasant country outing. Over hill and dale, lacking only a picnic basket. Anchors Aweigh the Navy's celebration of the joys of sailing could have been penned by Jimmy Buffet. The Air Force song is a lyric poem of blue skies and engine thrust. All is joyful, and invigorating, and safe. There are no land mines in the dales nor snipers behind the hills, no submarines or cruise missiles threaten the ocean jaunt, no bandits are lurking in the wild blue yonder.

The Marines' Hymn, by contrast, is all combat. "We fight our Country's battles", "First to fight for right and freedom", "We have fought in every clime and place where we could take a gun", "In many a strife we have fought for life and never lost our nerve". The choice is made clear. You may join the Army to go to adventure training or join the Navy to go to Bangkok or join the Air Force to go to computer school. You join the Marine Corps to go to War.

But the mere act of signing the enlistment contract confers no status in the Corps. The Army recruit is told from his first minute in uniform that "you're in the Army now, soldier". The Navy and Air Force enlistees are sailors or airmen as soon as they get off the bus at the training center.

The new arrival at Marine Corps boot camp is called a recruit, or worse (a lot worse), but never a MARINE. Not yet, maybe never. He or she must earn the right to claim the title of UNITED STATES MARINE and failure returns you to civilian life without hesitation or ceremony.

An example: Recruit Platoon 2200 at San Diego, California trained from October through December of 1968. In Viet Nam, the Marines were taking two hundred casualties a week and the major rainy season and Operation Meade River had not even begun, yet Drill Instructors had no qualms about winnowing out almost a quarter of their 112 recruits, graduating 81. Note that this was post-enlistment attrition. Every one of those 31 who was dropped had been passed by the recruiters as fit for service. But they failed the test of Boot Camp! Not necessarily for physical reasons. At least two were outstanding high school athletes for whom the calisthenics and running were child's play. The cause of their failure was not in the biceps or the legs but in the spirit. They had lacked the will to endure the mental and emotional strain, so they would not be Marines. Heavy commitments and high casualties notwithstanding, the Corps reserves the right to pick and choose.

History classes in boot camp? Stop a soldier on the street and ask him to name a battle of World War One. Pick a sailor at random and ask for a description of the epic fight of the Bon Homme Richard. Ask an airman who Major Thomas McGuire was and what is named after him. I am not carping and there is no sneer in this criticism. All of the services have glorious traditions, but no one teaches the young soldier, sailor or airman what his uniform means and why he should be proud of it.

But...ask a Marine about World War One and you will hear of the wheat field at Belleau Wood and the courage of the Fourth Marine Brigade comprised of the Fifth and Sixth Marines. Faced with an enemy of superior numbers entrenched in tangled forest undergrowth the Marines received an order to attack that even the charitable cannot call ill-advised. It was insane.
Artillery support was absent and air support hadn't been invented yet. Even so, the Brigade charged German machine guns with only bayonets, grenades, and an indomitable fighting spirit. A bandy-legged little barrel of a Gunnery Sergeant, Daniel J.Daly, rallied his company with a shout, "Come on you sons a bitches, do you want to live forever?" He took out three machine guns himself.
French liaison-officers hardened though they were by four years of trench bound slaughter were shocked as the Marines charged across the open wheat field under a blazing sun directly into the teeth of enemy fire. Their action was so anachronistic on the twentieth-century field of battle that they might as well have been swinging cutlasses. But the enemy was only human. The Boche could not stand up to the onslaught. So the Marines took Belleau Wood. The Germans, those that survived, thereafter referred to the Marines as "Teufel Hunden" (Devil Dogs) and the French in tribute renamed the woods "Bois de la Brigade de Marine" (Woods of the Brigade of Marines).

Every Marine knows this story and dozens more. We are taught them in boot camp as a regular part of the curriculum. Every Marine will always be taught them! You can learn to don a gas mask anytime, even on the plane in route to the war zone, but before you can wear the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor and claim the title United States Marine you must first know about the Marines who made that emblem and title meaningful. So long as you can march and shoot and revere the legacy of the Corps you can take your place in line. And that line is as unified in spirit as in purpose.

A soldier wears branch service insignia on his collar, metal shoulder pins, and cloth sleeve patches to identify his unit, and far too many look like they belong in a band. Sailors wear a rating badge that identifies what they do for the Navy. Airmen have all kinds of badges and get medals for finishing schools and doing their work.

Marines wear only the Eagle, Globe and Anchor together with their CHERISHED marksmanship badges. They know why the uniforms are the colors they are and what each color means. There is nothing on a Marine's uniform to indicate what he or she does nor what unit the Marine belongs to. You cannot tell by looking at a Marine whether you are seeing a truck driver, a computer programmer or a machine gunner or a cook or a baker. The Marine is amorphous, even anonymous, by conscious design.

The Marine is a Marine. Every Marine is a rifleman first and foremost, a Marine first, last and Always! You may serve a four-year enlistment or even a twenty plus year career without seeing action, but if the word is given, you'll charge across that Wheatfield! Whether a Marine has been schooled in automated supply or automotive mechanics or aviation electronics or whatever is immaterial. Those things are secondary - the Corps does them because it must. The modern battle requires the technical appliances and since the enemy has them so do we. But no Marine boasts mastery of them.

Our pride is in our marksmanship, our discipline, and our membership in a fraternity of courage and sacrifice. "For the honor of the fallen, for the glory of the dead", Edgar Guest wrote of Belleau Wood. "The living line of courage kept the faith and moved ahead." They are all gone now, those Marines who made a French farmer's little Wheatfield into one of the most enduring of Marine Corps legends. Many of them did not survive the day and eight long decades have claimed the rest. But their actions are immortal.
The Corps remembers them and honors what they did, they live forever.

Dan Daly's shouted challenge takes on its true meaning - if you lie in the trenches you may survive for now, but someday you may die and no one will care. If you charge the guns you may die in the next two minutes, but you will be one of the immortals.
All Marines die in either the red flash of battle or the white cold of the nursing home. In the vigor of youth or the infirmity of age, all will eventually die, but the Marine Corps lives on. Every Marine who ever lived is living still, in the Marines who claim the title today and tomorrow
.
It is that sense of belonging to something that will outlive our own mortality, which gives Marines a light to live by, and a flame to mark their passing.

Semper Fi.
 

Martin Mayers

Elder Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2008
Messages
4,569
Reaction score
1,989
Location
The Gulag
First name
Gulagwanker
Country
llUkraine
Here's one to share with anyone who doesn't understand us or why we joined the Marines.

The The Marine Corps is the only branch of the U.S. Armed Forces that recruits people specifically to fight.
The Army emphasizes personal development (an Army of One), the Navy promises fun (let the journey begin), the Air Force offers security (its a great way of life). Missing from all the advertisements is the hard fact that a soldier’s life is to suffer and perhaps to die for his people, and take lives at the risk of his/her own.

Even the thematic music of the services reflects this evasion. The Army's Caisson Song describes a pleasant country outing. Over hill and dale, lacking only a picnic basket. Anchors Aweigh the Navy's celebration of the joys of sailing could have been penned by Jimmy Buffet. The Air Force song is a lyric poem of blue skies and engine thrust. All is joyful, and invigorating, and safe. There are no land mines in the dales nor snipers behind the hills, no submarines or cruise missiles threaten the ocean jaunt, no bandits are lurking in the wild blue yonder.

The Marines' Hymn, by contrast, is all combat. "We fight our Country's battles", "First to fight for right and freedom", "We have fought in every clime and place where we could take a gun", "In many a strife we have fought for life and never lost our nerve". The choice is made clear. You may join the Army to go to adventure training or join the Navy to go to Bangkok or join the Air Force to go to computer school. You join the Marine Corps to go to War.

But the mere act of signing the enlistment contract confers no status in the Corps. The Army recruit is told from his first minute in uniform that "you're in the Army now, soldier". The Navy and Air Force enlistees are sailors or airmen as soon as they get off the bus at the training center.

The new arrival at Marine Corps boot camp is called a recruit, or worse (a lot worse), but never a MARINE. Not yet, maybe never. He or she must earn the right to claim the title of UNITED STATES MARINE and failure returns you to civilian life without hesitation or ceremony.

An example: Recruit Platoon 2200 at San Diego, California trained from October through December of 1968. In Viet Nam, the Marines were taking two hundred casualties a week and the major rainy season and Operation Meade River had not even begun, yet Drill Instructors had no qualms about winnowing out almost a quarter of their 112 recruits, graduating 81. Note that this was post-enlistment attrition. Every one of those 31 who was dropped had been passed by the recruiters as fit for service. But they failed the test of Boot Camp! Not necessarily for physical reasons. At least two were outstanding high school athletes for whom the calisthenics and running were child's play. The cause of their failure was not in the biceps or the legs but in the spirit. They had lacked the will to endure the mental and emotional strain, so they would not be Marines. Heavy commitments and high casualties notwithstanding, the Corps reserves the right to pick and choose.

History classes in boot camp? Stop a soldier on the street and ask him to name a battle of World War One. Pick a sailor at random and ask for a description of the epic fight of the Bon Homme Richard. Ask an airman who Major Thomas McGuire was and what is named after him. I am not carping and there is no sneer in this criticism. All of the services have glorious traditions, but no one teaches the young soldier, sailor or airman what his uniform means and why he should be proud of it.

But...ask a Marine about World War One and you will hear of the wheat field at Belleau Wood and the courage of the Fourth Marine Brigade comprised of the Fifth and Sixth Marines. Faced with an enemy of superior numbers entrenched in tangled forest undergrowth the Marines received an order to attack that even the charitable cannot call ill-advised. It was insane.
Artillery support was absent and air support hadn't been invented yet. Even so, the Brigade charged German machine guns with only bayonets, grenades, and an indomitable fighting spirit. A bandy-legged little barrel of a Gunnery Sergeant, Daniel J.Daly, rallied his company with a shout, "Come on you sons a bitches, do you want to live forever?" He took out three machine guns himself.
French liaison-officers hardened though they were by four years of trench bound slaughter were shocked as the Marines charged across the open wheat field under a blazing sun directly into the teeth of enemy fire. Their action was so anachronistic on the twentieth-century field of battle that they might as well have been swinging cutlasses. But the enemy was only human. The Boche could not stand up to the onslaught. So the Marines took Belleau Wood. The Germans, those that survived, thereafter referred to the Marines as "Teufel Hunden" (Devil Dogs) and the French in tribute renamed the woods "Bois de la Brigade de Marine" (Woods of the Brigade of Marines).

Every Marine knows this story and dozens more. We are taught them in boot camp as a regular part of the curriculum. Every Marine will always be taught them! You can learn to don a gas mask anytime, even on the plane in route to the war zone, but before you can wear the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor and claim the title United States Marine you must first know about the Marines who made that emblem and title meaningful. So long as you can march and shoot and revere the legacy of the Corps you can take your place in line. And that line is as unified in spirit as in purpose.

A soldier wears branch service insignia on his collar, metal shoulder pins, and cloth sleeve patches to identify his unit, and far too many look like they belong in a band. Sailors wear a rating badge that identifies what they do for the Navy. Airmen have all kinds of badges and get medals for finishing schools and doing their work.

Marines wear only the Eagle, Globe and Anchor together with their CHERISHED marksmanship badges. They know why the uniforms are the colors they are and what each color means. There is nothing on a Marine's uniform to indicate what he or she does nor what unit the Marine belongs to. You cannot tell by looking at a Marine whether you are seeing a truck driver, a computer programmer or a machine gunner or a cook or a baker. The Marine is amorphous, even anonymous, by conscious design.

The Marine is a Marine. Every Marine is a rifleman first and foremost, a Marine first, last and Always! You may serve a four-year enlistment or even a twenty plus year career without seeing action, but if the word is given, you'll charge across that Wheatfield! Whether a Marine has been schooled in automated supply or automotive mechanics or aviation electronics or whatever is immaterial. Those things are secondary - the Corps does them because it must. The modern battle requires the technical appliances and since the enemy has them so do we. But no Marine boasts mastery of them.

Our pride is in our marksmanship, our discipline, and our membership in a fraternity of courage and sacrifice. "For the honor of the fallen, for the glory of the dead", Edgar Guest wrote of Belleau Wood. "The living line of courage kept the faith and moved ahead." They are all gone now, those Marines who made a French farmer's little Wheatfield into one of the most enduring of Marine Corps legends. Many of them did not survive the day and eight long decades have claimed the rest. But their actions are immortal.
The Corps remembers them and honors what they did, they live forever.

Dan Daly's shouted challenge takes on its true meaning - if you lie in the trenches you may survive for now, but someday you may die and no one will care. If you charge the guns you may die in the next two minutes, but you will be one of the immortals.
All Marines die in either the red flash of battle or the white cold of the nursing home. In the vigor of youth or the infirmity of age, all will eventually die, but the Marine Corps lives on. Every Marine who ever lived is living still, in the Marines who claim the title today and tomorrow
.
It is that sense of belonging to something that will outlive our own mortality, which gives Marines a light to live by, and a flame to mark their passing.

Semper Fi.
I celebrate your birthday every year thanks to the friend I've made through ASL.

But as an Englishman who has visited the US Army resting places at The Argonne, Bastogne, and next week Omaha for the first time, to pay my immense respects, I'm finding your mockery of the other branches a tad tasteless.

Sorry if I'm being a tad touchy. I'm just finding it all a bit OTT.
 

witchbottles

Forum Guru
Joined
Feb 26, 2010
Messages
9,100
Reaction score
2,254
Location
Rio Vista, CA
Country
llUnited States
I celebrate your birthday every year thanks to the friend I've made through ASL.

But as an Englishman who has visited the US Army resting places at The Argonne, Bastogne, and next week Omaha for the first time, to pay my immense respects, I'm finding your mockery of the other branches a tad tasteless.

Sorry if I'm being a tad touchy. I'm just finding it all a bit OTT.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/11/12/army-lifts-ban-recruits-history-self-mutilation-other-mental-health-issues/853131001/

https://www.bustle.com/p/the-army-now-accepts-some-recruits-with-mental-health-struggles-3903313

http://www.theroot.com/u-s-army-quietly-lifts-ban-on-recruits-with-some-menta-1820393222

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/01/10/air-force-expands-medical-waivers-no-questions-prior-marijuana.html


---------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://marines.army.com/info/join/medical

When the US Army lowers their standards to a point where there is a real concern of the "22" becoming more simply due to major mental health issues or addictions, I will stand and say the Army needs to reconsider its enlistment waiver program. 22 a day is enough, too much in fact. We need to step in to prevent it and make that number smaller, not give those suffering from major depression issues access to weapons and ammunition with which they can "opt out" at their own whim.

____________________________________________________________

I don't fault the other branches of service, their dedication to their service and commitments of their oath they took. Nor do I impugn their bravery. I have met few Soldiers who could tell me why Audie Murphy won his Medal of Honor, fewer airmen who tell me who Richard Bong was, and even fewer Sailors who could tell me who Admiral King was.

Ask a Marine why Dan Daly won both of his Medals of Honor, or Maj Smedley Butler. Ask them what was the first battle the USMC took part in during the Vietnam conflict of 1965-1973. Ask them who Gregory Boyington was, or how many confirmed kills he ended the war with. Ask them who General H/M Smith was, or what was the famous radio message sent on the first evening at Betio, or why the 5th and 6th Marines wear the "Fourregere", or what Chesty's 5 Navy Crosses were won for, or why the quatrefoil decorates every officer's cap, or the call sign of the initial BLT at Inchon, or any of hundreds of other questions specifically designed to ensure Marines understand their history, their traditions, or even why their trousers have 7 belt loops or their buttons have 13 stars on them. Most Marines could tell you where Audi Murphy won his MoH - Every one of them knows who Admiral King was - they also know many of their Commandants, if not most of them. How many soldiers know the names of most of the US Army Chiefs of Staff to the War(Defense) Department? the list goes on and on and on, as the initial post illustrates. 1st LT Audie Murphy deserved every ounce of his MoH, as did Sgt Alvin York before him. How many soldiers can identify the purpose, formation and major combat actions of the 442nd RCT ( one of the most decorated units in the US Army ever), during WW2 ? Every Marine can identify every major combat action of the 1st Marine Division ( The "Old Breed") during WW2.

No one faults the tenacity of any one person in service of this Country, at least, not I. I will fault, and do fault, the training , policies, or lack thereof, that enhance the capacity for the "22" to become more.


____________

In case you do not understand the "22" :

https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2016/07/07/new-va-study-finds-20-veterans-commit-suicide-each-day/
 

bendizoid

Official ***** Dickweed
Joined
Sep 11, 2006
Messages
4,630
Reaction score
3,244
Location
Viet Nam
Country
llUnited States
I'd say they were in some crags, you'll know what I mean after watching this marine story, bootless one man infantry platoon:

I wonder when he finally got some boots on, jeez Louez.
 
Last edited:
Top