Yes, sir, we are eating cake and red crayons today!

I have heard people, particularly those of the liberal persuasion, call us a 'cult,' and they mean it with a measure of derision and dismissal, not understanding that that's okay with us. Because we are, in a way.

Whatever worries our enemies, foreign or domestic. Whatever disturbs their sleep or gives them pause about the very thought of Marines is precisely where we want them. Whether it's our lethality as a force, our tenacity in smaller groups, or our Devil-dogged devotion to each other, or all of it. Marines remain always faithful to each individual Marine Corps green brother or sister and our country with unbreakable bonds forged in the fires of two and a half centuries of unyielding tradition.

TO EACH OTHER, TO OUR COUNTRY, AND TO THE BATTLES AHEAD

Two hundred and fifty-one years of being America's force in readiness, who always fights to win.

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WARRIORS WHO BELIEVE IN THE IDEALS OF THE SOCIETY THEY HAVE SWORN TO PROTECT AND SERVE

By all means, lesser, secretly envious souls - sweat.

And we do have a way of greeting each other that's like a secret handshake, even if we've never met before. The second you find out that other fellow/gal was a Marine, too?

All the 'stranger' falls away.

'Semper Fi!' And the 'when, where, with who' interrogatories begin immediately...even if there is a fifty-year age difference between Marines.

Every Leatherneck wants to brag about what THEY did.

And every Leatherneck loves nothing more than listening to the sea stories of the generations who went before them from the lips of the Marine who lived it. Some of those stories are so harrowing your hair stands on end.

Others are so gut-bustingly funny, you can't believe them. You want them to tell it over and over again. Sure, so you can laugh more. But also so that when it's your turn to pass it on - 'I heard this from a guy who was in...' - you get every detail right and do him proud.

These are the bonds that bind us, oh, so tightly.

It is the collective memories we treasure and pass on that make being a Marine more than simply the best uniform in the services. It is a lifetime of shared pride, devotion to duty, and reverence for those who came before us.

And the confidence that we can lay a hurt - or a help - on anyone at any time or anywhere, even approaching our dotages.

THE NAME IS A WARNING ACROSS TIME TO ANYONE WHO STANDS AGAINST US

This is a great story about the 143rd Marine Corps Birthday spent in France.

Grab yourself a big mug of hot, black coffee, y’all!!!

It was the Marine Corps' 143rd birthday, and the last night of World War I.

The river was the Meuse. The bridge was a string of log rafts about three feet wide, shoved across in the dark and the fog.

German machine guns were waiting on the far side.

Then one of his officers fell off the bridge.

Semper Fi!

You never age out of being a Marine.

If your heart is still beating, it is green doing so.

It’s a bad day to be a beer.

You never lose the joy of saying you are a Marine - never were one. You're just not active duty anymore.

At the beginning of November, I always get a little sniffly as my husband and all our friends' profile pictures on Facebook change to something in their Marine Corps uniform. It is a harbinger of what's to come -THE MARINE CORPS BIRTHDAY - and all the jokes and memes that come with that.

And the memories of other Marines who have gone before.

Breaking out memories of our own.

Yeah.

251 Years at the Tip of the Spear 

For 251 years, Marines have met every fight with resolve, precision, and an ethos that never wavers. The first to fight and the last to yield. America sleeps well because Marines stand the watch.  

Happy Birthday, Marines. 

Semper Fidelis.

Happy Birthday, Marines.

Semper Fi!