Remembering the USMC – 1775 to 2009
November 4th, 2009 by Jack Orth | FLASHBACKS | | 0 Comments
The Gunny
Birthday Edition Polo
Can’t believe it’s Birthday time again! I’m at an age when I think I was back at The Tun Tavern in 1775, signing on the dotted line and heading off to boot camp! Well, I guess I don’t feel 234 years old .. but, some days I’m not too sure!
Checked out my “mini” Marine Corps medals for the Birthday bash at The Marine Corps League in Hendersonville, and pulled out my blue blazer from the locker to be sure it still fits. Then, took the Birthday Edition Polo out of the footlocker … the deep corps green long-sleeve polo is perfect with the sport coat … and ya gotta look good for the Birthday! The USMC EGA and Semper Fidelis logo set it off in great style, and I hung it in the locker for the big day .. then, had a flashback”!
I was back in boot camp in 1941, and had only been there a week or so. The shock of being there hadn’t worn off yet, and wouldn’t until practically the day I left! However, my initial feeling, along with every recruit there, was What the hell have I done? By the end of twelve weeks, I was thinking, I made it! I made it! The rest is a piece of cake!
The Marine Corps Birthday in 1941, kind of set the stage for me. I hadn’t been away from home for any length of time before, and the rude awakening at boot camp made me realize how good I had had it. We were all young, but one kid had just turned seventeen a few weeks before, and he enlisted in The Marine Corps. The chow hall served us cake on that Marine Corps Birthday, and I’ll never forget the kid from Kentucky.
While eating my cake, I remember thinking of my birthday coming up in December, and that I wouldn’t have a birthday cake this year for the first time. Then, “Kentucky” said in a low mixture of sad and happy, if that’s possible,
“This is the first birthday cake I’ve ever had!” How could that be? I thought .. Ya mean no one ever sang Happy Birthday to “Kentucky”, and he never blew out any candles? Well, it hit the other boots within earshot of “Kentucky”, and, practically in unison, we split our Marine Birthday cake in half and put it on his mess tray!
I must tell ya, it brings a tear to my eye thinking about it. Yeah, real Marines cry ya know! I hope “Kentucky” has had many birthdays since that day, and will have his slice of Marine Corps cake this year. It will once again bring him back to what the Marine Corps is all about. We’ve always taken care of each other .. and always will!
Oh, how fortunate we’ve all been to have joined forces with the first “Jarheads” to enlist in our great Corps way back in 1775. We all bitched and moaned many times when on active duty, but only to each other. Let someone other than another Marine wise off about our Corps, and they’d better stand by for a ram!
I join the other Marines at Leatherneck Square in wishing you a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! May all of you have “flashbacks” to your first Marine Corps Birthday as a Marine, and if you happen to run into a Marine who doesn’t have a slice of cake on November 10th, set them up with a slice for old times sake!
Semper Fi ……. The Gunny
