Happy 250th Birthday, Marines!

  All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

10 November 2025 is the 250th anniversary of the United States Marine Corps. I served in the Corps, and today I work for the Corps s a historian. I am proud to be a Marine, proud of my Corps. We celebrate our birthday every year with balls and ceremonies, and for the past few years I've celebrated by sharing quotes about Marines on line. Not all positive - loving the Corps means taking the bad with the good - but they all illustrate, in my opinion, some aspect of the Corps and the Marines who make it what it is. So, through 10 November, I'll share several quotes a day, a long with a iconic painting or photograph about Marines. You can find the previous quote posts and all other Marine Corps related posts here. 

I was part of the team that wrote Semper Fidelis: 250 Years of U.S. Marine Corps Honor, Courage, and Commitment. You can get free pdf and epub copies of the work at the link provided.

Today, 10 November 2025, is the 250th birthday of the United States Marines. 

The Birthday celebrations, along with so many other traditions that enhance the Corps' esprit de corps were created by Major General John A. Lejeune. Lejeune is, in my opinion, the true father of the modern day Marine Corps. He decided the Marine Corps would be an elite fighting force, and he understood precisely how to make that happen. The Marine Corps was not created as an elite force, it made itself one intentionally. Its success in doing so has been stupendous. 

As the 13th Commandant, Lejeune issued the first Commandant's Birthday Message. Every year Marines still hear it read, along with a message from the current Commandant. I urge you to read it as well, here. 

Today's Marine Corps Quotes are three that I feel are the foundations of the Corps. First, the resolution that created the Corps:

"That two battalions of Marines be raised consisting of one colonel, two lieutenant colonels, two majors and officers as usual in other regiments, that they consist of an equal number of privates with other battalions; that particular care be taken that no person be appointed to office or enlisted into said battalions, but such as are good seamen, or so acquainted with maritime affairs as to be able to serve to advantage by sea." 

(Resolution of the Continental Congress, 10 November 1775.) 

Second, the oath that ALL U.S. military service members swear upon enlistment:

"I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God." 

(Title 10, US Code; Act of 5 May 1960 replacing the wording first adopted in 1789, with amendment effective 5 October 1962).

And finally, I the words to our Hymn:

From the Halls of Montezuma

To the shores of Tripoli;

We fight our country's battles

In the air, on land, and sea;

First to fight for right and freedom

And to keep our honor clean;

We are proud to claim the title

Of United States Marine.

Our flag's unfurled to every breeze

From dawn to setting sun;

We have fought in every clime and place

Where we could take a gun;

In the snow of far-off Northern lands

And in sunny tropic scenes,

You will find us always on the job

The United States Marines.

Here's health to you and to our Corps

Which we are proud to serve;

In many a strife we've fought for life

And never lost our nerve.

If the Army and the Navy

Ever look on Heaven's scenes,

They will find the streets are guarded

By United States Marines.

The west side of the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington County, Virginia.

Marine Corps Birthday Quotes post, #9

 All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

10 November 2025 is the 250th anniversary of the United States Marine Corps. I served in the Corps, and today I work for the Corps s a historian. I am proud to be a Marine, proud of my Corps. We celebrate our birthday every year with balls and ceremonies, and for the past few years I've celebrated by sharing quotes about Marines on line. Not all positive - loving the Corps means taking the bad with the good - but they all illustrate, in my opinion, some aspect of the Corps and the Marines who make it what it is. So, through 10 November, I'll share several quotes a day, a long with a iconic painting or photograph about Marines.

Today's Marine Corps Quotes:

Son, when the Marine Corps wants you to have a wife, you will be issued one.

—LtGen Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller when asked by a PFC for permission to marry.

"Retreat Hell! We're just attacking in another direction." 

(Attributed to Major General Oliver P. Smith, USMC, Korea, December 1950.)

"Goddamn it, you'll never get the Purple Heart hiding in a foxhole! Follow me!" 

(Captain Henry P. "Jim" Crowe, USMC, Guadalcanal, 13 January 1943.) 

The raging battle of Edson's Ridge is depicted in all its fury in this oil painting by Col Donald L. Dickson, who, as a captain, was adjutant of the 5th Marines on Guadalcanal. Marine Corps Art Collection. ⁠

Marine Corps Birthday Quotes post, #8

 All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

10 November 2025 is the 250th anniversary of the United States Marine Corps. I served in the Corps, and today I work for the Corps s a historian. I am proud to be a Marine, proud of my Corps. We celebrate our birthday every year with balls and ceremonies, and for the past few years I've celebrated by sharing quotes about Marines on line. Not all positive - loving the Corps means taking the bad with the good - but they all illustrate, in my opinion, some aspect of the Corps and the Marines who make it what it is. So, through 10 November, I'll share several quotes a day, a long with a iconic painting or photograph about Marines.

Today's Marine Corps Quotes:

If the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eaton, the Japanese bases in the Pacific were captured on the beaches of the Caribbean.

—LtGen H. M. “Howlin’ Mad” Smith: “Coral and Brass,” 1949

A man with a flag in his pack and the desire to put it on an enemy strong point isn’t likely to bug out.

—Col Lewis B. “Chesty“ Puller to an Army staff officer who, watching Marines raise the flag over Seoul, complained “Marines would rather carry a flag into battle than a weapon.”

I’m going to fight my way out, I’m going to take all my equipment and all my wounded and as many dead as I can. If we can’t get out this way, this Division will never fight as a unit again.

—MajGen Oliver P. Smith, CG, lstMarDiv, Korea, 1950, to LtGen Ned Almond, USA, X Corps, who suggested Smith’s division escape the Chosin Reservoir by letting “every man go out on foot by himself.”

Marines make their way down Funchilin Pass on their way from Chosin Reservoir to the port of Hungnam. Painting by Charles H. Waterhouse "Band of Brothers."

Marine Corps Birthday Quotes post, #7

 All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

10 November 2025 is the 250th anniversary of the United States Marine Corps. I served in the Corps, and today I work for the Corps s a historian. I am proud to be a Marine, proud of my Corps. We celebrate our birthday every year with balls and ceremonies, and for the past few years I've celebrated by sharing quotes about Marines on line. Not all positive - loving the Corps means taking the bad with the good - but they all illustrate, in my opinion, some aspect of the Corps and the Marines who make it what it is. So, through 10 November, I'll share several quotes a day, a long with a iconic painting or photograph about Marines.

Today's Marine Corps Quotes:

Their fiery advance and great tenacity were well recognized by their opponents.

—LtCol Ernst Otto, Historical Section of the German Army writing about U.S. Marines in the fighting at in 1918 Belleau Wood, France

Marines have a cynical approach to war. They believe in three things; liberty, payday and that when two Marines are together in a fight, one is being wasted. Being a minority group militarily, they are proud and sensitive in their dealings with other military organizations. A Marine’s concept of a perfect battle is to have other Marines on the right and left flanks, Marine aircraft overhead and Marine artillery and naval gunfire backing them up.

—War correspondent Ernie Pyle, killed on Ie Shima, Ryukyu Archipelago, 1945

We Marines are truly blessed. We get to enjoy the sweet taste of freedom because we know its price.

—Marine veteran John Chipura, survivor of the 1983 Beirut bombing, a NY Fireman, who wrote the above for the 225th Marine Corps birthday, 2000. He was later killed while responding to the terrorist attack, Sept. 11 at the World Trade Center, Tower 2.

The explosion of the Marine Corps building in Beirut, Lebanon on October 23, 1983
created a large cloud of smoke that was visible from miles away.
Photo by: Official USMC Photo PhotoID: 2001101810128 

Marine Corps Birthday Quotes post, #6

  All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

10 November 2025 is the 250th anniversary of the United States Marine Corps. I served in the Corps, and today I work for the Corps s a historian. I am proud to be a Marine, proud of my Corps. We celebrate our birthday every year with balls and ceremonies, and for the past few years I've celebrated by sharing quotes about Marines on line. Not all positive - loving the Corps means taking the bad with the good - but they all illustrate, in my opinion, some aspect of the Corps and the Marines who make it what it is. So, through 10 November, I'll share several quotes a day, a long with a iconic painting or photograph about Marines.

Today's Marine Corps Quotes:

"To our Marines fell the most difficult and dangerous portion of the defense by reason of our proximity to the great city wall and the main city gate. . .The Marines acquitted themselves nobly." 

(Mr. Edwin N. Conger, U.S. Minister, in commending the Marines for the defense of the legations at Peking, China, in 1900.) 

"Retreat Hell! We've just got here!" 

(Attributed to several World War I Marine Corps officers, Belleau Wood, June 1918.)

"Once a Marine, always a Marine!"

(MSgt Paul Woyshner, a 40-year Marine, is credited with originating this expression during a taproom argument with a discharged Marine.) 

"Wheat Field" charge of 6th Marines—around Belleau Wood—to town of Bouresches.
Schoonover, Frank Earle (September 1919). "Souvenir Pictures of the Great War-caption: How Twenty Marines Took Bouresches". Ladies' Home Journal vol. 24 (no. 1).

Marine Corps Birthday Quotes post, #5

   All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

10 November 2025 is the 250th anniversary of the United States Marine Corps. I served in the Corps, and today I work for the Corps s a historian. I am proud to be a Marine, proud of my Corps. We celebrate our birthday every year with balls and ceremonies, and for the past few years I've celebrated by sharing quotes about Marines on line. Not all positive - loving the Corps means taking the bad with the good - but they all illustrate, in my opinion, some aspect of the Corps and the Marines who make it what it is. So, through 10 November, I'll share several quotes a day, a long with a iconic painting or photograph about Marines.

Today's Marine Corps Quotes:

"A ship without Marines is like a garment without buttons." 

(Admiral David D. Porter, USN, 1863.) 

"The Marines have landed and have the situation well in hand." 

(Attributed to many sources and popularized by the correspondent Richard Harding Davis during the late nineteenth-century.) 

"Casualties many; Percentage of dead not known; Combat efficiency; we are winning." 

(Colonel David M. Shoup, USMC, Tarawa, 21 November 1943.) 

Marines struggle ashore on Tarawa Atoll's Betio Island
Charles Waterhouse, Tarawa, 20 Nov. 1943

Marine Corps Birthday Quotes post, #4

  All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

10 November 2025 is the 250th anniversary of the United States Marine Corps. I served in the Corps, and today I work for the Corps s a historian. I am proud to be a Marine, proud of my Corps. We celebrate our birthday every year with balls and ceremonies, and for the past few years I've celebrated by sharing quotes about Marines on line. Not all positive - loving the Corps means taking the bad with the good - but they all illustrate, in my opinion, some aspect of the Corps and the Marines who make it what it is. So, through 10 November, I'll share several quotes a day, a long with a iconic painting or photograph about Marines.

Today's Marine Corps Quotes:

"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." 

(First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, USMC, 96th Co., Soissons, 19 July 1918.) 

You cannot exaggerate about the Marines. They are convinced to the point of arrogance, that they are the most ferocious fighters on earth - and the amusing thing about it is that they are. 

(Father Kevin Keaney, 1st Marine Division Chaplain, Korean War)

"They [Women Marines] don't have a nickname, and they don't need one. They get their basic training in a Marine atmosphere, at a Marine Post. They inherit the traditions of the Marines. They are Marines." 

(Lieutenant General Thomas Holcomb, USMC, 1943.) 

Marines attacked by a German airplane at Vierzy during the Battle of Soissons July 18-19, 1918.
Lithograph by Lucian Jonas, 1927.

Marine Corps Birthday Quotes post, #3

 All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

10 November 2025 is the 250th anniversary of the United States Marine Corps. I served in the Corps, and today I work for the Corps s a historian. I am proud to be a Marine, proud of my Corps. We celebrate our birthday every year with balls and ceremonies, and for the past few years I've celebrated by sharing quotes about Marines on line. Not all positive - loving the Corps means taking the bad with the good - but they all illustrate, in my opinion, some aspect of the Corps and the Marines who make it what it is. So, through 10 November, I'll share several quotes a day, a long with a iconic painting or photograph about Marines.

Today's Marine Corps Quotes:

"The raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years."

(James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy, 23 February 1945)

"I still need Marines who can shoot and salute. But I need Marines who can fix jet engines and man sophisticated radar sets, as well."

(General Robert E. Cushman, Jr., USMC, 17 May 1974.)

"The Marine Corps...believes that it has earned this right—to have its future decided by the legislative body which created it—nothing more. Sentiment is not a valid consideration in determining questions of national security. We have pride in ourselves and in our past, but we do not rest our case on any presumed ground of gratitude owing us from the Nation. The bended knee is not a tradition of our Corps. If the Marine as a fighting man has not made a case for himself after 170 years of service, he must go. But I think you will agree with me that he has earned the right to depart with dignity and honor, not by subjugation to the status of uselessness and servility planned for him by the War Department."

(General Alexander A. Vandergrift, USMC, to the Senate Naval Affairs Committee, 5 May 1946.)

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, by Joe Rosenthal, 23 February 1945
Despite Forrestal's prediction, within the year the Marine Corps
was fighting against the most serious threat to its existence it ever faced. 

 

Marine Corps Birthday Quotes post, #2

All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

10 November 2025 is the 250th anniversary of the United States Marine Corps. I served in the Corps, and today I work for the Corps s a historian. I am proud to be a Marine, proud of my Corps. We celebrate our birthday every year with balls and ceremonies, and for the past few years I've celebrated by sharing quotes about Marines on line. Not all positive - loving the Corps means taking the bad with the good - but they all illustrate, in my opinion, some aspect of the Corps and the Marines who make it what it is. So, through 10 November, I'll share several quotes a day, a long with a iconic painting or photograph about Marines. 

Today's Marine Quotes:

I selected an enormous Marine Corps emblem to be tattooed across my chest. It required several sittings and hurt me like the devil, but the finished product was worth the pain. I blazed triumphantly forth, a Marine from throat to waist. The emblem is still with me. Nothing on earth but skinning will remove it.

—MajGen Smedley D. Butler, recalling his time as a lieutenant in Asia.

The Marine Corps is the Navy’s police force and as long as I am president that is what it will remain. They have a propaganda machine that is almost equal to Stalin’s.

—President Harry S Truman, 29 Aug. 1950 letter to Congressman Gordon L. McDonough replying to his 21 Aug. 1950 suggestion that the Marine Corps be entitled to full recognition as a major branch of the armed forces.

"Marines I see as two breeds, Rottweilers or Dobermans, because Marines come in two varieties, big and mean, or skinny and mean. They're aggressive on the attack and tenacious on defense. They've got really short hair and they always go for the throat."

-RAdm. "Jay" R. Stark, US Navy; 10 November 1995.

Smedley Butler at Marines vs. American Legion Football Game, 11 November 1930
"11 November 1930: Major General Smedley D. Butler, USMC, Cheerleader at a football game at Franklin Field, where American Legion versus U.S. Marines at football."
Butler is one of two Marines awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor twice. Sadly, there are no pictures of him shirtless, showing off the tattoo he proudly describes above. 

Marine Corps Birthday Quotes post, #1

All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

10 November 2025 is the 250th anniversary of the United States Marine Corps. I served in the Corps, and today I work for the Corps s a historian. I am proud to be a Marine, proud of my Corps. We celebrate our birthday every year with balls and ceremonies, and for the past few years I've celebrated by sharing quotes about Marines on line. Not all positive - loving the Corps means taking the bad with the good - but they all illustrate, in my opinion, some aspect of the Corps and the Marines who make it what it is. So, through 10 November, I'll share several quotes a day, a long with a iconic painting or photograph about Marines. 

Today's Marine Quotes:

"On board the GANGES, about 12 mos. ago, Lt. Gale, was struck by an Officer of the Navy, the Capt. took no notice of the Business and Gale got no satisfaction on the Cruise; the moment he arrived he call’d the Lieut. out and shot him; afterwards Politeness was restor’d”

—Signed “Yr obdt. Svt, W. W. Burrows, LtCol Comdt, MC” (2d Commandant of the Marine Corps)

"The Continental ship Providence, now lying at Boston, is bound on a short cruise, immediately; a few good men are wanted to make up her complement." 

—Marine Captain William Jones, Providence Gazette, 20 March 1779.) 

Visit the Navy-Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts, —a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out alive and standing, and already, as one may say, buried under arms with funeral accompaniments…

—Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, 1854

Charles Waterhouse's "Cutting Out of the Sandwich, Puerto Plata, 11 May 1800" depicts Marines capturing a French privateer during the Quasi War with France.