Mike Hudack

Happy 234th Birthday to the USMC

Once a Marine, always a Marine. If you come across an active duty Marine or the many veterans who served in the Marine Corp, say thank you today. Throughout our country’s history they have led whatever fight we may have been fighting they led the way. Agree or disagree with our foreign policy, the Marines deserve our admiration & appreciation today.

My father was a Marine. I have his Mameluke in the corner of my living room. It reminds me of what he did when he was my age. Younger, actually.

When my father graduated from college at 21 the Marine Corps immediately put him in charge of a 36 man platoon. Think about that.

When my father was 22 and a 2^nd Lieutenant he defended a man at court martial. The defendant was facing 25 years of hard labor at Leavonworth for pulling a weapon on a superior officer. This was heavy stuff. My father had no legal training whatsoever. The man was convicted but received only a slap on the wrist: two months of hard labor and forfeited pay. The sentence was suspended indefinitely. The panel, in other words, agreed that while the man had pulled his weapon on a superior officer — a rather large no-no in the Marine Corps — that he was likely justified in doing so.

In 1962 while Officer of the Day (OOD) at the US Naval Base, Newport, Rhode Island, he came across a fire in the barracks. He received a commendation in 1962 which read in part: “Upon the arrival of the Fire Fighting Detail from these Barracks, and prior to the arrival of the Base Fire Department Trucks, you took charge of the aforesaid detail and proceeded to extinguish the fire.”

He was 23.

The world has changed, but the Corps continues to expect the best of young Marines and officers. Where else can you command 36 at 21, defend a man facing 25 years of hard labor at 22, and extinguish a fire at 23? There’s a reason why they say that once you’re a Marine you’re always a Marine. The Marines change people.

The military — the Marines in particular — are an amazing institution. And Marines are amazing people. They have a certain image — that of the Leather Neck, the hard-charging, take-no-prisoners, warrior. This is accurate. It’s also insufficient. Marines are surprisingly nice when it’s appropriate. It was the Marines who forced a revision of counter-insurgency doctrine in Iraq and Afghanistan because the Army was being too harsh. It was the Marines who began treating the local population with respect and triggered the Sunni Awakening. It was also the Marines who set the stage for this reversal of fortune with a punishing campaign in Fallujah.

It’s worth reading their history.