United States Marine Corps

"Semper Fidelis"

"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 ev'ry 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."

"I wouldn't give a bean to be a fancy pants Marine; I'd rather be a dogface soldier like I am. I wouldn't trade my old ODs for all the Navys dungarees, For I'm the walking pride of Uncle Sam."

""Try"? We don't try in this Marine Corps, we either do or we don't! We don't straddle any fences, understand that?"

"I am sure a vast number of Americans were revulsed when they heard news reports and read about the marine male-prostitute ring uncovered at Camp Pendleton, California, in July 1978. It had been operating for three years with its roots spreading into the Hollywood "gay" community some one hundred miles away. It was reported by an unnamed officer, "The recruiters looked for fair-skinned, young-looking kids and usually approached them on a one-to-one basis. They would strike up a conversation, eventually suggesting that good money could be made on weekends working for the ring." All twelve of the participating marines were discharged."

"Come on, you sons-o'-bitches! Do you want to live forever?"

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

"Otherwise the epitome of male liberation is Marine Corps boot camp, twelve weeks without a moment of liberty, all devoted chiefly to the extirpation of feminine ties and sentiments in the assembled young men. From the moment one arrives, the drill instructors begin a torrent of misogynistic and anti-individualist abuse. The good things are manly and collective; the despicable are feminine and individual. Virtually every sentence, every description, every lesson embodies this sexual duality, and the female anatomy provides a rich field of metaphor for every degradation."

"When you want to create a solitary group of male killers, that is what you do, you kill the women in them. That is the lesson of the Marines. And it works. Artfully exploiting the internal pressures of the group, the instructors manage to evoke a fanatical commitment from almost every recruit. They arrive as various and rebellious boys, swearing under their breath what they will do to any drill instructor who lays a hand on them. They end up, after twelve weeks of manhandling, often including violent physical abuse, gladly and voluntarily making large financial gifts to the instructors. It is the closest thing to an act of love that happens at Parris Island."

"Most of those who have experienced these sentiments would testify that they are not exactly homosexual. They do not represent a shift to males of sentiments conventionally directed toward females. They represent rather a distinctive bonding process that corresponds very closely to the kind of male tie that Lionel Tiger has controversially envisaged. It has its uses in protecting a society from its enemies or in abetting the performance of crucial group activities. But it is deadly to individuality and civilization. It is deadly to the setiments that women evoke from men: love, creativity, nurturance, commitment to the future. Above all, it is perfectly barren (in the etymolohical sense, from the old French word bar, meaning man). The male group, separated from women, is the sterile solidarity. There is no real love, no individuality, and no procreative instinct."

"I Wouldn't Give A Bean To Be A Fancy Pants Marine, I'd rather Be A Dogface Soldier Like I Am."

"[I]nstitutions and communities need to be able to exploit their comparative advantages. It’s not just that the Marine Corps demands more from its members than the Peace Corps; it’s that the Marines demand different things. For some people, being a Marine would be a kind of living Hell; for others it is a reason to live. That’s what the individual pursuit of happiness means... You can’t choose to be a Marine if you do not meet the requirements, but you are free to try."

"There was black smoke in my rearview mirror on the drive back, and I thought, Well, that ain’t good. It wasn’t until I got home and turned on the local news that I found out it was Waymo driverless cars being burned. Five of them. When I turned on the national news after dark, that was pretty much all I saw: the black smoke and flaming carcasses of five empty cars owned by Google or something. Not the concerned citizens that showed up for their neighbors just to be greeted by flash grenades and rubber bullets. If you got all of your information from cable news, burning cars would be all you’d think happened. Donald Trump called in the Marines the next morning, and they drove in from Twentynine Palms. Right now the local news is doing a segment on Father’s Day gift ideas. The president thinks the situation is dangerous enough to require the military, but KTLA does not think it is important enough to preempt a piece on backgammon sets and coffee mugs repurposed from MLB game bats. They’re here now, I guess, 700 strong, and nobody seems to know what they’re going to do, or even where they’re going to stay or what they’re going to eat, because now we know that nobody budgeted for the lodging or meals of the 2,000 National Guard members who’ve been sent here, who woke up this morning on the cold stone floor of some federal building."

"Anyway, the Marines are here, and we’re all just kind of waiting. Around the corner and a world away. And I’m thinking of Barbara Kruger’s questions that hung above the protest I attended on Sunday. Who follows orders? Who salutes longest? Who dies first? Who laughs last?"

"When our Marines, sent to Lebanon on a multinational peacekeeping mission with the consent of the United States Congress, were murdered in their sleep, the "blame America first crowd" didn't blame the terrorists who murdered the Marines, they blamed the United States. But then, they always blame America first. ... The American people know better."

"Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Today, you people are no longer maggots. Today, you are Marines. You're part of a brotherhood. From now, until the day you die, wherever you go, every Marine is your brother. And always remember this: Marines die, that's what we're here for. But the Marine Corps lives forever, and that means you live forever."

"I have just returned from visiting the Marines at the front, and there is not a finer fighting organization in the world."

"Good afternoon, Marines. Thank you for your attention so late on a Friday. I know the women of Southern California are waiting for you, so I won't waste your time."

"For decades, Saddam Hussein has tortured, imprisoned, raped and murdered the Iraqi people; invaded neighboring countries without provocation; and threatened the world with weapons of mass destruction. The time has come to end his reign of terror. On your young shoulders rest the hopes of mankind. When I give you the word, together we will cross the Line of Departure, close with those forces that choose to fight, and destroy them. Our fight is not with the Iraqi people, nor is it with members of the Iraqi army who choose to surrender. While we will move swiftly and aggressively against those who resist, we will treat all others with decency, demonstrating chivalry and soldierly compassion for people who have endured a lifetime under Saddam’s oppression. Chemical attack, treachery, and use of the innocent as human shields can be expected, as can other unethical tactics. Take it all in stride. Be the hunter, not the hunted: never allow your unit to be caught with its guard down. Use good judgment and act in best interests of our Nation. You are part of the world’s most feared and trusted force. Engage your brain before you engage your weapon. Share your courage with each other as we enter the uncertain terrain north of the Line of Departure. Keep faith in your comrades on your left and right and Marine Air overhead. Fight with a happy heart and strong spirit. For the mission’s sake, our country’s sake, and the sake of the men who carried the Division’s colors in the past battles-who fought for life and never lost their nerve-carry out your mission and keep your honor clean. Demonstrate to the world there is "No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy" than a U.S. Marine."

"You are part of the world's most feared and trusted force."

"Marines are the best because the Marines is a service that focuses on values. If you look at Marine Corps commercials and compare them to every other service, you know, the Army talks about all the different jobs you can do and what it will help set you up afterwards. You know, you can be an Army of one with all the different skills you learn. The Navy talks about all the cool technology that you get to use. And they always have pictures of people with big, big computer screens, things like this, right? The Navy ships, you can picture in your head, right? And the Air Force always has guys, like, working on aircraft. And it's like: "You can get a great job working in the civilian sector when you're done." The Marine Corps never does that. The Marine Corps says: "honor, courage and commitment. If you believe in leadership, if you believe in — if you want a really tough time, then come and serve with us.""

"The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle!"

"Some people work an entire lifetime and wonder if they ever made a difference to the world. But the Marines don't have that problem."

"I walked into this recruiting office, and the Navy had these bell-bottoms on, and the Army had these shitty-looking blouses, like a little girl’s blouse, and the Marines had this real mean-looking, hot uniform, and I'm like, "Yo, if I can't get chicks in this uniform, forget it, dude." Little did I know it was the smallest branch out of all of them, and it was the elite branch, and it was the hardest. But I was never a model Marine, you know? I used to drive from New York to North Carolina every weekend, just to do records – eighteen hours’ drive all around. They took my stripe away because I was late."

"It was the fate of our Marines to be at the front at a moment when the destiny of the modern world hung in the balance, and to have played a part that will be gratefully remembered here in America, as well as in western Europe, through generations to come."

"In the Marine Corps, there's a simple rule every enlisted man learns. And that is, officers eat last and that any officer worries first about feeding his or her privates and lieutenants before he even picks up a knife or a fork."

"Lady, there was a killing war. The Marine Corps taught me how to kill Japs and try to survive. Now, if that don't fit into any academic course, I'm sorry. But some of us had to do the killing — and most of my buddies got killed or wounded."

"They have a propaganda machine that is almost equal to Stalin's."

"The Navy's police force."

"This is only the first loss which the Nation would suffer in the destruction or eclipse of its Marine Corps—and it is a loss which cannot be compensated by the part-time assignment of Army troops to naval purposes, for it is not the genius of a national Army to act as a highly mobile fighting force in instant readiness. Armies are ponderous. They organize and prepare for operations with care and deliberation and they have great staying power. While those are unquestionably admirable virtues, they still are not the characteristics which go to make up an effective mobile, amphibious fighting force, in peace or war—a force ready to act as a part of the fleet at any time. This, indeed, is the fundamental difference between the Marines and the Army and the effect of this difference has been manifest many times. There is a continuous record of instances in our national history where the Army could not move at all, or could not move soon enough to satisfy the needs of the situation—Cuba in 1906, Vera Cruz in 1914, Iceland in 1941, and Guadalcanal in 1942, are only a few typical examples which demonstrate the point I make. In each case, the Army arrived on the scene only after the objective sought by the United States had been accomplished by Marines. This is not offered in criticism of our Army, but as a factual statement of the effect of basic functional differences. These may be summarized in a simple statement—that no matter how hard it tries, a great national Army cannot be a specialist Marine Corps and still be an Army."

"It is a Marine’s duty to be ready any time, and I am pleased to be able to report to you that the condition of readiness prevails within the Marine Corps today. Our field forces are fully prepared to take the field at a moment’s notice. They are well trained and are prepared to carry out their functions with their customary efficiency, spirit and morale at a time when the responsible heads of other services are complaining of disintegration of fighting power accompanied by problems of low morale and deterioration of discipline. I can assure you that these conditions are not existent in the Marine Corps. The Marines are ready, and if it came to a fight today, I do not know who could replace them."

"I, for one, fail to perceive any possible compensation, however small, either in economy, increased efficiency, or in elimination or duplication. As regards economy, the Marine Corps has throughout its existence maintained a reputation for utmost frugality, sometimes bordering on penury. In the days of peace preceding the recent war, the United States was possessed of the world’s top ranking Marine Corps. In 1938, that investment in security cost the Nation about $1,500 per Marine. At the same time, the United States possessed the world’s eighteenth place army at an annual cost of over $2,000 per soldier. This is surely no indication of possible economies to be expected in compensation for the sacrifices of a proven professional fighting force."

"The Marine Corps, then, 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."