Happy birthday to the U. S. Marine Corps from an old, former sailor.
Gary
Anderson, a retired Marine Corps colonel, looks back at Marine Corps history
and it’s future in a piece in the Washington Times.
Starting
an organization in a bar is a risky proposition, and one of two things can
happen. First, it might degenerate into a drunken brawl — the alternative is
that you will end up with a very interesting organization. In the case of the U.S. Marine Corps, the second happened.
When it began recruiting at Tunn
Tavern in Philadelphia following a 1775 act of the Continental Congress, the Marine Corps consisted of a few hundred qualified
riflemen designated to act as shipboard policemen, provide the nucleus for
boarding parties and provide snipers to fire at the crews of opposing ships. It
would have taken a very prescient visionary in 1775 to envision an organization
of nearly 200,000 with its own air force. Despite its present size and
prestige, the Marine Corps has been
on the endangered species list a number of times approaching its 243d birthday
on Nov. 10. This year, its existence is not in question, but its core mission
may be.
… The Marine
Corps‘ official motto is
Semper Fidelis (always faithful), but its unofficial motto has always been “we
do windows.” That attitude has served the Corps and its nation well.
You can
read the rest of the piece via the below link:
Note:
In the above released photo U.S. Marine Sgt. Bryan Early, a squad leader
assigned to 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, leads his
squad of Marines in Afghanistan in 2013. The photo was taken by Cpl Austin
Long.
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