234....

.... five years ago tomorrow, I posted this in honor of Veteran's Day..... today, I am reposting it in honor of all my fellow Marines - past & present....... Semper Fi, brothers & sisters...... here's to 234 more years of the United States Marine Corps....

... "In the big war companies, 250 strong, you could find every sort of man.. from every sort of calling... There were Northwesterners with straw-colored hair that looked white against their tanned skins.... and delicately spoken chaps with the stamp of eastern universities on them.... There were large-boned fellows from Pacific-coast lumber camps... and tall, lean Southerners who swore amazingly in gentle drawling voices....

.... There were husky farmers from the corn-belt... and youngsters who had sprung, as it were, to arms from the necktie counter... And there were also a number of diverse people who ran curiously to type, with drilled shoulders, and bone-deep sunburn... and a tolerant scorn for everything on earth....

... Their speech was flavored with navy words... and the words culled from all the folk who live on the seas and the ports where our warships go.... In easy hours, their talk ran from the Tatar Wall beyond Peking to the Southern Islands, down under Manila; from Portsmouth Navy Yard - New Hampshire and very cold - to obscure bushwhackings in the West Indies, where Cacao Chiefs, whimsically sanguinary... barefoot generals with names like Charlemagne and Christophe, waged war according to the precepts of the French Revolution and the Cult of the Snake... They drank their eau de vie of Haute-Marne... reminisced on sake, and vino, and Bacardi Rum - Strange drinks in strange cantinas at the far ends of the earth; and they spoke fondly of Milwaukee beer.

... Rifles were high and holy things to them, and they knew five-inch broadside guns.... They talked patronizingly of the war, and were concerned about rations.... They were the Leathernecks, the Old Timers: collected from the ship's guard and shore stations all over the earth to form the 4th Brigade of Marines... the two rifle regiments, detached from the Navy by order of the President for service with the American regulars... regarding the service as home and war as an occupation; and they transmitted their temper and character and view-point to the high-hearted volunteer mass which filled the ranks of the Marine Brigade.."

... quoted from "Fix Bayonets"... by Col. John W. Thompson , Jr. 1926

... Happy Birthday, Marines!... oh, and check out Mike's latest creation!..... most excellent....