OCR Text |
Show November 10 Is 161st Birthday of Marine Corps Postmaster R. K. Bohne has been irformed by Major R. Tahradge Taylor, of the U. S. Marine C:rps Recruiting Station, that November 10th marks the 161st anniversary of the United States Marine Corps. Major Taylor stated: "Late in 1775, Benjamin Franklin, standing cn a Phildelphia street corner, watched, a fife and drum corps parade by. Their swallow-taUed swallow-taUed coats were green, piped in led. They wore green shirts, light-colored light-colored cloth breeches, woolen stockings and round white hats. Franklin was most impressed by the device on their drum heads, which he described in a letter to a friend, as a rattlesnake with the motto: "Don't tread on me." It was tlie first United States Marine Corps that Franklin saw that day, for when the first flames of Revolution Revo-lution began to sear their way along the Atlantic Seaboard, the newly convened Continental Congress Con-gress had on November 10, 1775, authorized the organization of two battalions cf marines to assist the struggling colonies in their fight for freedom. "Down through the pages of history, his-tory, from those ornately dressed cons of battle to the present generation, gen-eration, marines have earned gloriously glor-iously the right to their motto, Semper Fidelis, which means "Always "Al-ways faithful." "When the edds have been tremendously tre-mendously against them they have kept the faith of those liberty-loving sons of the Revolution who first inscribed their names cn the pages of national history. "There is little need bo recount the battles in which the leathernecks leather-necks participated; or recall their pursuit cf peace in many hotbeds of revo'ution. It is far easier to remember that there has never been : a fight in which this country has I participated, that the marines did I not f irg the red badge' of courage straight into the face of the ene-I ene-I my." |