Making it through boot camp at Parris Island creates a special warrior.  There is time later for training in speciality, weapons and tactics, but boot camp teaches a Marine how to be a Marine: how to honor fellow warriors, personal obligation, unit obligation, honor, code, history, and the consequences of personal or unit failure.  The pits, the sand fleas, the austere conditions - all go into making the Island what it is.  Sitting at attention on benches the week of lecture on targeting at the range drives home the necessity to qualify with the rifle at 500 yards, the longest distance of any branch in any armed forces in the world.

Many stories come from boot camp, and these are followed by stories of School of Infantry and the fleet, followed on by stories of Marines from horrible and epic battles in Fallujah and other places where they are deployed.  These stories can never be written down and fully captured, but just as surely must be told with timbre, inflection and context to be understood.  But these stories travel, and people remember.  They know all about the Marines and what it takes to be considered among the greatest warriors on earth.

I know a certain Marine who left his dress shoes with me to take to a repair shop several months ago, and upon picking them up, the owner said “these are nice shoes, where can I get a pair of these?”  I responded by saying that the shoes were purchased on Parris Island.  He and I stood without response for a while, and a man whom I didn’t know in line behind me ended the standoff by yelling to the owner “Sir, you don’t buy those shoes.  You have to earn them!”

And to all who have earned the right to carry the title United States Marine in life and after, happy birthday, 10 November 1775.

Other sources:

Happy Birthday, Marines!, Human Events (h/t Tom Smith at The Tank)

Marine Corps Birthday Message, USMC

232 Years and Counting, US Cavalry On Point

Marines at Landstuhl celebrate Corps’ birthday, Stars and Stripes

Hotel Tango (H/T) to our friend Smitten Eagle, here is the Commandant’s birthday message.  It is made even better by the fact that my favorite actor, Sam Elliot, helps to narrate it.