Home > Uncategorized > Gunny G: MARINES ARE SOLDIERS! — SOLDIERS OF THE SEA

Gunny G: MARINES ARE SOLDIERS! — SOLDIERS OF THE SEA

June 27, 2012 Leave a comment Go to comments

(Excerpted/backlinked from-to old gyg webpage……….) Members of our sister-service, for example, the U.S. Army, are soldiers, that is their name, but Marines are not soldiers in that sense at all. I am referring to Marines as soldiers in a much broader, higher sense, as a class of soldier that goes to the root of what a Marine is and does.

Reminds me of an oft-times repeated story of a U.S. Army major visiting the wounded in a WWI French hospital in 1918. As the story goes, the major asked a young soldier if he was indeed an American. “No sir,” he replied, “I’m a Marine.” (Ref US Marine Corps In World war I 1917-1918, Osprey, by Henry/Pavlovic, 1999) Such it is that Marines have always exemplified the inherent pride in their identity as a member of the MarineCorps.

But, many Marines seem to be unaware of the fact that the Marine Corps itself, as well as individual Marines, has long referred with pride to themselves as soldiers. To be sure, we are, each of us, a United States Marine, that is our TITLE, earned and claimed by us all as the capstone of that which we are. But somewhere within that coveted title lies the soldier referred to in the following examples.

One dictionary defines the word Marine as, an infantry soldier associated with a navy. No doubt there are many references to the Royal Marines as soldiers back through history. But we need not go back that far. Our own U.S. Marine Corps has a long listing of examples supporting the notion of Marines as soldiers.

A U.S. Marine Corps Recruiting Service poster, dated May 1866, announces that it is seeking MEN for its ranks; it then goes on to refer to such recruits as SOLDIERS no less than six times, and not once using the word Marine or Marines! (Ref the book, The Marines, by Simmons/Moskin, Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, 1998)

And there is the USMC Recruiting Poster of more recent vintage, shown at the top of this page. And, in the book, Marine Corps Book of Lists, by Nofi, Combined Publishing, 1997, the following.

“The Marines are both soldiers and sailors, a part of the sea services.” (Page 154)

“Some Marine Wisdom on Soldiering” ‘To be a sergeant, you have to show your stuff. I’d rather be an outstanding sergeant than just another officer,” -GySgt Dan Daly (Page 159)

“In 1928 the period of the training was reduced to seven weeks, divided into two phases. The first phase, lasting three weeks, included the basic instruction necessary to convert civilians into soldiers, plus an innovation. This was an interview of each recruit by a selection clerk, who recorded the recruit’s qualifications of education and experience. In embryo form, this procedure anticipated the specialty classification which was later to become indispensable as the complexity of paperwork increased and the material of war became even more technical and complicated. The four-week second phase was spent on the rifle range.”

Ref Marine Corps Historical Reference Series No. 8, A Brief History of MCRD, Parris Island, SC, 1891-1962 http://www.maxwell.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/usmchist/parris.txt

“Soldiers trained in the ways of the sea,” -CMC, BGen Benjamin H. Fuller, c. 1934 (Page 181)

“A Dozen Nicknames For Marines” 2. “The Soldiers of the Sea, a traditional term for Marines dating back at least to the seventeenth century.” (Page 180)

“The finest soldier any captain could wish to have,” said of Dan Daly by BGen W.P. Upshur (Page 182)

The book, “Soldiers of the Sea: The U.S. Marine Corps,” by Col Robert D. Heinl USMC (Ret.), Annapolis, 1962

The play, (and later, two films) “What Price Glory,” by Andersen/Shillings, 1926, has numerous references to Marines as soldiers.

“He turned down the gold bars of a second lieutenant. ‘I’m a plain soldier,’ he said, ‘and I want to stay one.’”

-GySgt John Basilone (Ref John Basilone –Italian-American Hero http://www.cimorelli.com/pie/heroes/basilone.htm)

Chapter XX, page 69,The United States Marine Corps in the World War, by Major Edwin N. McClellan, USMC,1920, Historical Branch, HQMC, Wash, DC

“In recent years the Marine Corps has devoted a great deal of time and energy to rifle practice, believing that one of the first requirements of a soldier is to know how to shoot….”

isdees

isdees (Photo credit: GunnyG1345)

And, finally…………..

EXCERPT

via MARINES ARE SOLDIERS! — SOLDIERS OF THE SEA.

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