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…You should see the group about me as I write- dirty, bearded, their clothing food-spattered and filthy- they look like the castoffs of creation. Yet they have a sense of loyalty, generosity, even piety greater than any men I have ever known. These rugged men have the simple piety of children. You can’t help loving them, in spite of their language and their loose sense of private property. Don’t ever feel sorry for a priest in the Marines. The last eight weeks have been the happiest and most contented in my life.
Father Kevin Kearney, 1st Marine Division Chaplain, Korean War
Something for the weekend. The Marines’ Hymn. The music is from an 1867 French tune by Jacques Offenbach, with the lyrics written by that most prolific author Anonymous. It is the most well-known of the service songs and captures well the spirit of the Marines.
Good stuff. Hope they win the war with the Obama pandemic of “wokeness”.
My son was/is a Marine. He was a Marine Embassy Guard. Their duty requires them to be assigned to one bad place and another of their own choosing. He was assigned to Kuwait during the Iran/Iraqi war and choose Panama when Noriega was being expelled. He always wanted to be where the action was. Personally is modest, quiet and unassuming with a good sense of humor.
Good stuff.
One of my wife’s life-long friend’s husband was a Marine 2Lt in Vietnam. He stayed with the Marine Reserves and got himself deployed to every war since Vietnam, too. The last one was the 2003 Iraq fracas where he wangled his way onto a combat helicopter attack because he was the Div. historian. Nice man. One Christmas he got himself sent to Haiti to assist in humanitarian aid. I like the man. I don’t tell the Warden that her friend may be why he prefers to go to war . . .
During WWII and Korea, the USMC was all volunteers. In Vietnam they needed to draft men.
Marines were drafted in both World War II and Korea:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/3en1xr/in_ww2_did_marines_get_drafted/
They did their best to get draftees who expressed a preference for the Marines.
In Vietnam they needed to draft men.
If I’m reading the data tables in the Statistical Abstract correctly, all conscripts during the period running from 1965 to 1973 went into the Army.
Most people who went into the service during the period running from 1945 to 1973 enlisted. Some were career military, some were volunteers full stop, and some enlisted as a way to a posting more to their liking than wherever Army conscripts were deployed. In my parents’ social circle (among those born after 1926 or thereabouts), you see the same milestones again and again: finish school; enlist; get married just before you enter, or during your time in the service, or just after your discharge; 1st child born just before your second anniversary.
I was drafted in Jan 1966 and 25 % of my group were drafted into the Marines