The day before Veterans Day

[Jarhead]

Tomorrow is the 240th birthday of the US Marine Corps. I have a feeling that there are a number of Marines around here that will give note to that. Here is something out of Leatherneck Magazine that will express how all Marines feel at this time each year on November 10.

Love
The wonderful love of a beautiful maid,
The love of a staunch true man,
The love of a baby unafraid,
Have existed since time began.

But the greatest of loves,
The quintessence of loves,
even greater than that of a mother,
Is the tender, passionate, infinite love,
Of one drunken Marine for another.

The toast offered by General Louis H. Wilson Jr.,
26th Commandant of the Marine Corps, at the
Marine Corps Birthday Ball, Camp Lejeune, NC, 1978.

Semper Fidelis

[Olympic Fan]

Tomorrow is the 240th birthday of the US Marine Corps. I have a feeling that there are a number of Marines around here that will give note to that. Here is something out of Leatherneck Magazine that will express how all Marines feel at this time each year on November 10.

Semper Fidelis

No disrespect to the Corps, but I've always thought the timing of the Marine anniversaries odd.

I understand that the first two battalions of the Continental Marines were formed on Nov. 10, 1775 ... but those are the CONTINENTAL Marines, which were disbanded in April of 1783.

The United States Marine Corps was established on July 11, 1798 -- so by rights, the Marines should be coming up on their 218th anniversary in about seven months.

To be fair, the Army and Navy also count back to their Continental roots ... June 3, 1775 and Oct. 13, 1775 respectively.

Again, I mean no disrespect -- from Nicholas in the Revolutionary War to O'Bannon in Tripoli to Dan Daly at Belleau Wood to Devereux on Wake to Vandergrift and Foss and Edson and Puller on the Canal to the heroes of Tarawa, Iwo Jima and Okinawa to the frozen Marines who made the epic retreat from the Chosin Reservoir to the Marines who made the difference at Hue ... what a great record they have compiled. Believe me, I admire their contribution more than I can say.

I just question the direct link between the Continental Marines and the U.S. Marines. Should the Army's Rangers trace their roots back to Rodger's Rangers in the French and Indian War?

[captmojo]

Thank you, veterans.