Did you know that Nov. 10 the U.S. Marine Corp will celebrate it’s 236th birthday? I didn’t know that until I read it on the Mini Page of the San Marcos Daily Record, the newspaper of the town we live in. So this Veterans Day I’d like to salute this fine branch of the service.
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As you know the United States has five branches of military forces: the Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard. The branches work together on some missions including during wartime, but the Marines are the United States expeditionary force in readiness at all times. They are trained in and work at responding quickly in a crisis on land or sea.
I really didn’t know much about the Marines. I knew several who joined the Marines, and when I saw a picture of one dressed in his dress uniform, he never did have a smile on his face, only a solemn expression.
The second Continental Congress made a resolution on Nov. 10, 1775, to form the Continental Marines. The first eight Marines signed up that day in Philadelphia.
In March 1776, the Marines made their first amphibious landing at New Providence Island in the Bahamas. They captured a British fort and took away the supplies there for Washington’s army in the Revolutionary War. Marines helped with other battles of the war and fought off pirates. After the war ended, the Continental Marines were disbanded.
In July 1798, President John Adams signed an act to establish the U.S. Marine Corps. Three years later the Marines joined the U.S. Navy to respond to raids on merchant ships carrying goods in the Mediterranean Sea. In June 1805, after several battles in Tripoli, Libya, a treaty was signed with the leader of Tripoli.
President Adams decided he should have a band of his own to provide music for special events and ceremonies and he signed an act of Congress in 1798 to establish the United States Marine Band. It was known as the President’s Own. The band has played at every presidential inauguration since Thomas Jefferson’s in 1801. This group of professional musicians do not deploy or serve in combat.
At the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Va., there are a thousand exhibits which tell the story of this important branch of military service by drawing people into scenes from Marine History. For example visiting the Korean War gallery visitors enter a night battle in cold temperatures and snow. They can feel the cold and hear the Marines talking.
In the Vietnam gallery, visitors experience a mission to take out dead and wounded Marines and bring in supplies. They arrive in helicopters and you feel the vibrations as a shell hits the aircraft. You also feel the high temperatures as they “land” in the jungle.
You’d be surprised what you can learn by reading the kids’ pages in the paper sometime. Those who have been in the Marines or have family members in the Marines no doubt know all this and more, but since I was only in the Army in two wars I learned something and hope you find it interesting. My library is full of books about the Army, but I have only one, I think, about the Marines or Navy.
To all veterans from all wars and as a proud veteran, I want to salute you on this Veteran’s Day 2011.