Happy 241st birthday to the Few and the Proud!

By Liv Stecker


In 1775, the Continental Congress directed in a resolution that “two battalions of marines” should be raised to serve as protective landing forces and shipboard security for the foundling US Navy. The United States Marine Corp was formally established on November 10th, 1775, and newly commissioned captains, Samuel Nicholas and Robert Mullen, recruited the early marines directly from the pubs of Philadelphia, enticing them with promises of adventure at the high seas over tankards of beer.


The first battle fought by these “sea soldiers” happened on March 3, 1776, when a force of 220 Marines under the direction of Captain Nicholas staged an amphibious assault on the beaches of Nassau in the Bahamas, capturing the two British Forts on the Island and a sizeable collection of heavy artillery.


After the revolution, the marines were briefly disbanded, until a scourge upon American merchants and traders emerged in the form of Barbary Pirates. In the first ever battle won by American Forces on foreign soil, the marines joined mercenary soldiers under the command of a naval officer and marched for 50 days across the desert in what is now Libya to overthrow the Barbary ruler in Tripoli, a successful campaign immortalized in the Marine’s Hymn with a nod to the “shores of Tripoli.”


Trained specifically for land invasions from the sea, the Marines were conspicuously absent from one of the most historic amphibious assaults in history, on D-Day when the Allied Troops invaded the beaches of Normandy. The assault, directed by Army Commanders, was executed by the army and navy, branches of the military that could provide the sheer numbers that the Marines couldn’t, especially considering the bulk of US Marines were already fighting in the Pacific. In reference to a unit of Marines aboard the USS Tennessee during the Normandy invasion, a journalist jokingly commented that they weren’t sent ashore lest headlines later read “Army Rangers saved by Marine”, a jab at the long running rivalry between the Army and the Marine Corps. There was, however, at the time, a contingency of Marines behind enemy lines in France working as observers for the OSS (pre-runner to the CIA and Secret Service) to assist with the allied paratrooper landings.


The Marine Corps have served the United States under the banner of fearless devotion and relentless conviction, maintaining the reputation of a fierce battle force on land and sea in all of our foreign wars. From Guadalcanal to Beruit, Iwo Jima to Fallujah, US Marines have paid a high price for their passionate pursuit of victory in conflicts throughout history as the few and the proud.