Reflecting on commitment
the Marines on their day
One of the annual highlights of teaching at a joint professional military educational institution for thirty years was the period around, if not on, 10 November as it is the day the Marine Corps celebrates its founding. Each of the service birthdays, as we call them, involves at a bare minimum a flag officer speaking and a cake, followed by singing the service song.
The Marine Corps takes this to a completely different level. Those of us early birds hear the annual preparations, run by the students of the National War College and Eisenhower School for Resource Strategy, beginning at 0600 three or four mornings weekly for a month before the public gathering itself. Each participant rehearses each minute step carefully to assure a quality visual event. Each participant actually has a specific point taped onto the floor of the Roosevelt Hall Rotunda so that it appears a seamless event after the hours and weeks of preparation.
A Marine Corps band plays martial music which assists with the choreographed entry by Marine students in their dress uniforms with swords as emblems of their enduring role as warfighters. A senior Marine officer reminds attendees of the Corps’ history and commitment to the nation, including remarks from the incumbent Commandant of the Corps on this event. One of the students reads Major General John LeJeune’s 1921 proclamation about the history of the Corps. John A. LeJeune, "Marine Corps Order Number 4 (Series 1921)'7 The Marine students also orchestrates the cake ceremony, a tradition where the senior and youngest Marines in attendance each use a ceremonial sword to cut a cake masterfully (and now mistressfully as well) wheeled into the ceremony by a colour guard. This symbolises continuity for the Corps. The event concludes with singing the Marine Corps Hymn before offering those attending the cake and a beverage in celebration. A Marine Corps Ball occurs in places around the world where the Corps finds itself, another event attended with great anticipation. My description is inadequate to describe the pomp and circumstance this all entails, often a marvel to civilians who have never witnessed it.
Marines do this for many reasons. The Corps leadership has always been savvy about image projection to assure public support for the institution’s survival over almost two hundred and fifty years. But, the Marine Corps birthday also binds together Marines with each other and those with whom they serve. Marines deploy with incredible distinction in the various missions where we the U.S. taxpayers ask them to go on our behalf.Every U.S. embassy anywhere in the world relies on the determination of the Marine Corps guards to protect that piece of the United States in a foreign land. Ambassadors and Foreign Service Officers almost invariably have a soft spot for those youngsters who serve in these distant locations, sometimes in dangerous when host governments allow things to get out of hand around embassy compounds.
Recalling an institution’s history, even its less than positive experiences, binds people together. It gives some direction for the future. In an era of the United States calling upon the military instrument of statecraft to advance our national security aspirations, the Marine Corps is a bedrock of those efforts. And the Corps’ foundation is those who serve within it. They are humans like everyone else but Marine Corps events are always memorable as are the efforts these women and men put forward on our behalf. FIN