As most regular followers of this blog know, I was in the boring ol’ Marine Corps before I decided to join the ELITE RANKS of full-time bloggers. And today, November 10th, marks the 236th birthday of my beloved Corps, the world’s ONLY elite fighting force to be founded in a bar (Tun Tavern, Philadelphia).
I went to Officer Candidates School in the summer of 1999, and when I returned to campus for my senior year — faster and stronger and more confident than I’d ever been — everyone jokingly asked me what it was like to fight the lava monster (“It’s not half as scary as the sergeant instructors, ha ha ha”). Marine Corps ads have always been striking and memorable in their badassery, but my favorite was always the one on the chess board set to Orff’s “Carmina Burana” (below). I saw that as a kid and I was like, “WHOA.” The rousing music, the bass in the announcer’s voice, the war on a giant chess board in a lightning storm — I didn’t even know what the Marines did, but I knew they meant business.
That business, of course, is kicking in the teeth of America’s enemies for the last 236 years. I’ve never been prouder than when I earned the right to wear the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor. Semper Fi and happy birthday, Marines.
