Happy Birthday US Marine Corps!
The United States Marine Corps turns 231 years old today. Jed Babbin has a remarkable tribute today at RealClearPolitics that’s worth reading.
It’s not particularly in vogue these days to hold up our soldiers as heroes, not when they’re being called war criminals from the well of the US Senate or by long-time journalists. It’s almost quaint to think that a child might look upon a soldier in full dress and think that one day, they could be that noble and strong and brave. It seems even more quaint to think that an adult might do the same.
One of my best friends is a Marine. He’s noble and gracious and honorable and all those things a young man hopes he will be when he reaches his old age. This friend of mine fought at one of the most horrible battles the Corps has ever fought – the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. He mentioned this casually to me one day at a choir rehearsal when I told him about a book I had been reading that mentioned the battle. I was almost dumbfounded to know that the quiet, witty man next to me had once fought there. As you might expect, those of you who know a Marine well, he was humble and self-effacing about his service. He didn’t spend much time in combat, he said. His CO kept sending him to the rear with messages and deliveries and such. His friends did the fighting. Not him.
I’m not sure that I believe very much of that.
He has faced a lot since the days when he and his comrades faced 70,000 Chinese troops and fought for their very lives. He married a formidable and lovely woman who I’m proud to consider an adopted Grandmother. He became an immensely successful lawyer whose expertise in First Amendment law has allowed him to brush shoulders with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He is a father and has known the singular pleasure of dandling grandchildren on his knee and spoiling them rotten. He endured back surgery and recuperated well enough to share Weissbier with me all over Bavaria and Austria this past July. He’s my singing partner in the Concert Choir where I am an Assistant Director. His support and advice has been simply invaluable.
This past weekend I was pleased to sing at the ceremony where he and his wife renewed their marriage vows on their 50th Anniversary.
He has told me that much of what he has become is because he is a United States Marine.
He will be out tonight, celebrating the birthday of his beloved Corps with those friends – Marines all – who have survived the wars and the inexorable passage of time.
And I find myself just a little bit jealous.
See, I was one of those kids who admired soldiers nearly to the point of reverence. There were few things that stirred my heart more than the sight of a parade with the soldiers in their crips uniforms, marching as one. The Marines, most of all, in their dress blues, captured my imagination. If you had asked me back then what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have said “a Marine” pretty much without thought.
That aspiration went by the wayside as I got older and started into my teenage years. Like a lot of kids, I suppose, I didn’t believe for a moment that I could ever become one of those men. Their heroics were far from anything I ever realistically thought I could attain – me the chunky suburban kid who had a hard enough time keeping up with the older kids in my gym class (skipped ahead, I did, so everyone was a year older than I). There’s a long way sometimes between what a kid can dream and what he believes he can reach and that dream just wasn’t within my reach. So I shelved it.
But every once in a while I take it out and dust it off, especially when I’m around my friend. See, I think that if I can learn a bit more about life from my friend, I’m learning a bit of what the Corps taught him. More importantly, I’m learning how he took those lessons and applied them to his life. In that way, I get to put a secondhand bit of the honor, wisdom, and courage of the Marine Corps into my life. For that, and for my friend, I’m intensely thankful.
So, Happy Birthday Marines, from a grateful young man who has always seen you as heroes.
Other Posts of Interest:
Category: Stuff I Like, The Long War Here At Home
