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.)
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| 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. |
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