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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Military / US Marine Corps 244th Birthday

US Marine Corps 244th Birthday

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The US Marine Corps is 244 years old today. And yes, there will be cake!

For those who have never participated in a USMC birthday, there is a very interesting tradition and ritual involved. The cake is escorted by Marines, including the most senior (oldest) and the most junior (youngest) Marines in attendance. The cake is then cut with a Mameluke sword, which is the style/type of sword worn by Marines as part of their dress uniforms. The first slice is then presented to the guest of honor in attendance. The second piece is then presented to the oldest Marine present out of respect. He or she then passes that slice of cake to the most junior Marine present to signify the passing of experience knowledge from the oldest to the newest members of Corps. Here’s B-roll from the cake cutting ceremony at Camp Pendelton this year.

Here are US Marine Corps Commandant, Gen. David H Berger’s and Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Troy E Black’s birthday message to the Corps.

And since it’s a long holiday weekend:

Open thread!

 

Reader Interactions

101Comments

  1. 1.

    raven

    And my 70th and 53 years ago today I got on the train and went to the induction center in Chicago and took “The Last Train to Clarksville” and Ft Campbell, KY for Army Basic.

  4. 4.

    Mike in NC

    No tweets from Putin (or his puppets and minions) this weekend lamenting the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall? Sad!

  5. 5.

    Jay

    R.I.P. Noel Ignatiev, longtime member of Sojourner Truth, founder of Race Traitor magazine, and author of the landmark study of US racial construction, “How the Irish Became White”. A lifelong revolutionary who even in his last days was in conversation with militants. Love & rage pic.twitter.com/ynDAeuwVW9— B r e a k a w a y (@Breakaway_chi) November 10, 2019

  6. 6.

    RAVEN

    “Pogey Rope” is the nickname for the “Foureguerre” (probably misspelled), a braided attachment worn on the left shoulder of winter green Class A uniform jackets of the 5th and 6th Marines. They are the only units in the entire Marine Corps, outside of Washington DC postings, authorized to wear braiding of any sort. It is a battle award presented to these units by the French government during WW1.

    The 5th and 6th regiments took part in the famous Belleau Wood fighting. For their ferocity, they earned the nickname Devil Dogs from their astonished German foes. The French were so grateful for the holding action in the Somme region ,that they decorated the two Marine units involved with the “Foureguerre”, which loosely translates into the saying “For Battle”.

    The cording used to make pogey ropes is Winter Green in color, with crimson red intermingled. The color matched Marine combat uniforms, and the red signified the blood shed in the “Woods”. At the end of the pogey rope is a black metal weighted endpiece, for which I don’t recall the correct nomenclature. The decoration is held in place by buttoning beneath the left epaulet button, with the metal cap in front on the upper chest near your ribbons.

    The reason “Pogey” is used in the nickname is because guys can use it to wow young ladies, with wild stories of derring do, and impress them with their Marine prowess. All the while, the men are trying to establish their beachhead for the night.

  8. 8.

    Patricia Kayden

    Bill Moyers says that he fears for the U.S. "for the first time in my long life.""A democracy can die of too many lies. And we're getting close to that terminal moment unless we reverse the obsession with lies that are being fed around the country."https://t.co/N5AzIOceHS— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) November 10, 2019

  10. 10.

    Rand Careaga

    My old man (1921-2015) was a Gunnery Sergeant with the First Marine Raiders serving on Guadalcanal and elsewhere in the Solomons; was shot while storming ashore in Guam in July 1944, the injury being sufficiently severe that he was obliged to spend the following year under medical supervision (I learned a couple of decades ago that one of the Navy surgeons offshore was one James V. McNulty, who eight years later officiated at my entrance into this wicked world. It would be nice to imagine that he might have treated der Alte back before he was der Alte).

    My father seldom alluded to his war years, apart from occasionally getting together with other veterans and, when sufficiently lubricated, singing raucous songs, when I was growing up, but starting at around sixty he talked of little else, and became active in vet groups. In the mid-eighties, while visiting the DC area, he decided that he would call upon the USMC Commandant unannounced. The front office informed him that this wasn’t done, dear fellow. “Tell General Kelley that Gunny Careaga from Edson’s Raiders is her to see him!” the old man (younger than I am today, come to think of it) thundered.

    He got his audience. I related this tale years later to someone who’d been in the Corps at the time, and he said “That was your dad? They told us that story in boot camp so we’d know what a regular guy the Commandant was.”

  12. 12.

    Jay

    Last night protesters burned Evo Morales' sister's house down. The houses of the governors of Oruro and Chuquisaca were also set on fire. https://t.co/3ELAt84wPx Seems like those events didn’t make as big a news story as the “police mutiny” that is totally not a coup ?— Erin Gallagher (@3r1nG) November 10, 2019

  13. 13.

    Raven

    @Rand Careaga: I wonder if he was on the USS Crosby, APD 17? My dad served on it throughout the war and, at one point, the ship members were made associate members of the Raider Association. They trained and transported the Raiders and my old man never stopped his admiration for them.

    “High-speed transports were converted destroyers and destroyer escorts used in US Navy amphibious operations in World War II and afterward. They received the US Hull classification symbol APD; “AP” for transport and “D” for destroyer.

    APDs were intended to deliver small units such as Marine Raiders, Underwater Demolition Teams, and United States Army Rangers onto hostile shores. An APD could carry up to 200 troops – a company-size unit. It could also provide gunfire support if needed. USS Manley was officially designated the Navy’s first high-speed transport on 2 August 1940 when she became APD-1.[1]”

  14. 14.

    Jay

    they’re already talking about armed guards in the park & shooting children who get too close to the statue. this has been bad for a long time but the camera & the booby trap on top of these threats should be taken seriously. https://t.co/APyaCjdRgO— molly conger, communist degenerate (@socialistdogmom) November 10, 2019

    Charllotsville,……

  15. 15.

    ThresherK

    Winnipeg have pasted the Calgary Stampeders, in Calgary, 35-14. Not an easy thing to do in November, on the road, against the Grey Cup champions.

    My Roughriders are hosting the Western Final next week for the first time in ages.

  17. 17.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jay: Andy Ngo might do well to realize that the other white supremacists recognize that he’s not white.

  18. 18.

    Jay

    “We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings … The name of our beautiful reward is not profit. Its name is freedom.” ― Ursula K. Le Guin

    If billionaires have this level of class solidarity, so should we. ? https://t.co/D2xJNjSfXz— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 10, 2019

  19. 19.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Rand Careaga: I have one of the last surviving Carlon’s Raider’s bowie knives. I know that’s the 2nd Marine Battalion, but it’s the closest I’ve got to the 1st.

  22. 22.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Adam L Silverman:
    There was video of him yuking it up with some neo-Nazis, which was evidence he had planned some attack on Antifascists. He’s no different than Clarance Thomas or Dinesh D’souza. They’re used as shields by the alt-right and identitarian movement to “prove” they’re not racist. The New Right loves to pretend they care about LGBTQ+ people too.

    Once they achieve power useful idiots like Andy Ngo will be cast aside

  26. 26.

    Baud

    @Jay:

    If billionaires have this level of class solidarity, so should we. ?

    And that’s why we should condemn and ostracize Bernie Bros.

  28. 28.

    Adam L Silverman

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: As the editor at Quillette, he also responsible for publishing an AtomWaffen kill list within the past couple of weeks.

    Eventually he’ll get someone killed, though he won’t and can’t be held responsible because of the 1st Amendment, and then he’ll play martyr over it because people are being mean to him because he got someone killed.

  29. 29.

    Lapassionara

    @Rand Careaga: What a great story. So glad you shared it.

    My favorite book about WWII is William Manchester’s memoir of his time in the Marine Corps during that war. I think it is “Beyond Darkness,” and it is both a history of the fighting across the Pacific and a personal memory of the horrors experienced.

  33. 33.

    Adam L Silverman

    @HinTN: I’m not a Marine. But I’ve been fortunate enough to be included in attending the formal birthday dinner for the small contingent assigned to Carlisle Barracks as faculty and students.

  48. 48.

    Steeplejack

    @Raven:

    No, I was born in Kentucky, at the base hospital at Fort Campbell. Dad was in the Air Force, they were in the process of being transferred from Indiana to Texas and didn’t quite make it to my mom’s parents’ farm.

  52. 52.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mary G: @Ruckus: The narrator was the USMC Combat Center’s Commanding General, William F. Mullen lll and the check out guy was the Installation Sergeant Major, Michael J. Hendges

  54. 54.

    Mary G

    @Ruckus: It is Troy Black, the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, yes. I looked it up after I posted. He’s got great eyebrow-raising technique.

  57. 57.

    Jay

    I saw @MikeBloomberg speak to a group of rich executives end of 2018, when he was already considering running for president. I was so shocked at his views that I took notes. Here are the highlights: (thread)— Federica Pelzel (@federicca) November 8, 2019

  58. 58.

    Ruckus

    @Steeplejack:
    Those of us who are there don’t like to think of it that way.
    We are fucking old enough as it is.
    Raven is my junior by just a few months of time, senior in so many other ways.
    So I’m over 80? Yeah I don’t think so……….

  60. 60.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @raven:
    Happy birthday!
    @Adam L Silverman:
    Ngo was put in the hospital some months back by an attack by alleged antifascists.

    Seems to me Ngo himself will get killed eventually if he keeps his shit up

  61. 61.

    Baud

    Rep. Adam Schiff said he would deny any request that might turn the hearings into “sham investigations” into Joe and Hunter Biden.

    House Democrats have flatly denied Republicans’ request to call the anonymous whistleblower to testify during upcoming public impeachment inquiry hearings, and have indicated they’re unlikely to approve several others Republicans are hoping to hear from.

    https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/11/10/20958051/trump-impeachment-inquiry-democrats-republican-request-whistleblower-testimony

  66. 66.

    Steeplejack

    @Baud:

    If he has lived 70 years, he is not starting his seventh decade, no matter if you count him as 1 year old at birth.

  68. 68.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Baud: I’ll have more on this tomorrow. What Nunes and Jordan and Meadows and McCarthy, as well as a plethora of Republican senators are trying to do is to turn the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence’s public impeachment hearings, the House of Representatives, and the Senate into the information laundry for the Black PSYOP I wrote about two weeks ago.

  69. 69.

    dmsilev

    @Baud: Devin Nunes is stupid, but not stupid enough to believe that he could get Hunter Biden added to the witness list. This was all just posturing for the base and for Trump.

  70. 70.

    Steeplejack

    @Ruckus:

    No, you are starting your eighth decade. You could have said, “Welcome to your 70s,” which would have been true.

  72. 72.

    Raven

    “Although the official address of the U.S. Army’s Fort Campbell reads, “Fort Campbell, Kentucky,” two-thirds of the installation by area is in Tennessee. Fort Campbell came into existence in 1941 as the United States prepared for war. In need of additional large training facilities, army planners chose an area northwest of Clarksville for a new camp. ”

    And when you are in Basic you get to see most of it!

  73. 73.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:
    As I said, the real deal, not an actor.
    I’ve been around a few marines when I was in, remember I was in the Marine delivery service, more commonly known as the navy.
    I was on temp duty with the SP in Long Beach for a while towards the end of my enlistment and served with a staff sgt who was one of the few natural leaders I met in the service. Fun to talk to and work with. Good times, which can be rare in the military.

  74. 74.

    Steeplejack

    @Raven:

    I get that. The goddamn hospital is (or was) in Kentucky. I’ll be glad to show you my birth certificate with Christian County, Kentucky, on it. Jesus. What a hill to die on.

  76. 76.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Really? All I saw was that he ended up in the hospital. Doesn’t surprise me, I guess given what I do know of him.

    He’s also directly attacked mainstream Democratic politicians, saying their ultimate goals are little different than those of “Antifa”. Which is true in the sense that both groups are antifascist.

  78. 78.

    Adam L Silverman

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: The question is whether he actually believes the bullshit he’s peddling or he knows it is bullshit and knows that the white supremacists he’s cozied up to will only tolerate them as long as he can effectively distract from what they actually believe and what they’re actually doing so he’s trying to capitalize on this grift while he can.

    The third possibility of course is he’s smart, but developmentally disabled and just doesn’t really understand what it is he’s doing. Which based on some of the videos I’ve seen of him may also be a possibility.

  79. 79.

    Ruckus

    @Steeplejack:
    I thought we were just kidding. Ageist jokes and all that. Wasn’t discussing maths or specifics. Being old gives you some rights to poke others about age doesn’t it?

  82. 82.

    Jay

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:

    Naw, Andy was faking. He claimed that getting punched once and milkshaked, caused a brain hemmorage.

    He flew cross country the next day to attend the Straight Pride Parade and milk the gullible media for victimhood status.

    Of course, flying with a brain that’s hemmorageing kills most people, cripples the rest.

    https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/andy-ngo-right-wing-troll-antifa-877914/amp/

    The reality is, Gender Reveal parties have killed way more people in the US than antifa.

    Since 1970,

    antifa, 1,
    Gender Reveal parties, 9
    Nazi’s, 738+

  83. 83.

    BC in Illinois

    @Lapassionara:
    @HinTN:

    My favorite book about WWII

    Mine is anything Ernie Pyle wrote.

    My Mother was a WAC at the Allied Headquarters in London on D-Day, and in Paris on VE Day.* Her favorite book (and now, that I think of it, her only WW II book until I gave her a book of Churchill speeches) was Up Front by Bill Mauldin.**

    * My Father was an Army Air Corps officer (weatherman). [He was with the British in Baghdad on D-Day.] He thought it was important that my brother and I make E-5, so that Mom wouldn’t outrank us.

    ** And now that I think of it, I’m going to order a copy of Up Front for myself. I remember reading it several times, even when I visited in later years.

  84. 84.

    Sloane Ranger

    Happy Birthday US Marine Corps!

    Watched the Remembrance Ceremony at the Cenotaph earlier today and, honestly, if Jeremy Corbyn had turned up looking like Boris Johnson did the right wing press would be hitting the fainting couch and complaining loudly about the disrespect shown to our veterans He looked like a sack of potatoes and couldn’t even be bothered to do up his jacket!

    Corbyn, in contrast, was neat and tidy and he remembered to at least seem to be singing the national anthem.

  88. 88.

    AM in NC

    My dad was a marine, and he gave me his green marine corps jacket that’s belted at the waist and has a slightly flared “skirt”. It fit him at 18 and me as an adult. I generally get comments from older marines who are wary of me wearing it (that was particularly true when I was younger and not many women were in the armed services) until they hear it was my dad’s, and then everything’s cool. I love that his name is stenciled inside.

  89. 89.

    Feathers

    I think of the USMC birthday as the anniversary of when my cute and flirty cousin noticed the bartender’s tattoo and wished him a very happy birthday. The drinks weren’t ALL free that night, but we got very good and friendly service from everyone in the place. I hope folks don’t mind.

  93. 93.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Sloane Ranger: My mistake, right wing press actually criticising Corbyn for not bowing his head low enough after laying wreath and some criticism of Boris’ fashion choice.

  96. 96.

    J R in WV

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Andy Ngo might do well to realize that the other white supremacists recognize that he’s not white.

    Isn’t that odd? These guys would be on the second truck-load of people sent to the camps, yet they seem utterly unaware of their precarious position!! Almost unbelievable. I guess their hatred of African-Americans overrules their common sense totally. Same for Milo — he’s on the edge just like Ngo…

  98. 98.

    J R in WV

    @Ruckus:

    Yes, you are allowed to poke fun at others regarding age, and comparative ages. I’m a little more than a year younger than you are… hahaha. Still, old enough, rode hard and put away wet.

  99. 99.

    Jay

    @J R in WV:

    Andy has gone from being a Campus shitlord to a guy who doesn’t have to work for a living, ( GoFundMe, PayPal, YouTube, Instagram, Quilegte), flies first class, and gets paid to show up on CNN, Faux, et as a so called antifa “expert”.

    It’s a grift. That’s all it is.

  100. 100.

    Ruckus

    @J R in WV:
    And a fellow swabby!
    I finally earned something just by still being on this rock. Well the right to be wrong about maths was never something I was aiming for but ya gotta take what ya can.

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