10 November 1775: The "birthday" of the US Maine Corps... In Basic Training, Infantry School, and all during deployments and training evolutions, we ran. We ran in sneakers and shorts for the fitness tests, we ran in "Boots and Utes" (combat boots and camo fatigues, aka battle dress utilities) for motivation, we ran with rifles, we ran with packs, we skied (running on snow) in the White Mountains and in Norway, we ran in the deserts of Kuwait and Iraq. Running formed the basis of our aerobic fitness, and you need to be fit to be an Infantryman.
So today, on my Marine Corps' 235th birthday, I left work early to go run. I walked a warm-up loop, then ran a full mile. It's the farthest I've run all at once since beginning this experiment... I just picked a nice, easy pace, and kept at it. Considering the distances that Marines run every day, a single mile is not all that impressive. But it was my own personal contribution to the birthday celebration; a return to running marks, in a sense, a return to the ideals of the Corps itself: Semper Fidelis, the motto of the US Marines, means "always faithful." We are always faithful to each other, our brother and sister Marines. The Marines are as effective a fighting force as they are because we don't fight for honor or our country or one god or another... we fight to protect the Marine next to us, because he is our brother. We perform as well as we do not for fame or medals, but because we don't want to disappoint our team mates. Running out on my little wooded course today, doing my first mile in a long time, I felt I was being faithful to the spirit of my Marine training, and being faithful to myself for following through and not quitting.
One of the things Marines do, and I'm sure this is done in many other places, is sing Cadences while we run in formation. It's a call and reply kind of song, following the rhythm of the boots striking the ground... some are about the history of the Corps, some are about tactics, others are just plain cool. In the last 100 m of my run today, in memory of all fallen Marines, I sang my favorite cadence...Note: language warning!
Yellow birdie with a yellow bill
(yellow birdie with a yellow bill)
Landed on my window sill
(landed on my window sill)
I coaxed him in with a bit of bread
(I coaxed him in with a bit of bread)
And then I crushed his fucking head!
(and then I crushed his fucking head!)
Semper Fi.
Awesome!
ReplyDeleteOut of curiosity, did you fight in Desert Storm?
Thanks for the continued encouragement, Sarah!
ReplyDeleteYes, I was in the Marine Reserves at the time of the first Gulf War, and we were activated for Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
Interestingly, because the ground war was over so quickly, our mission changed from combat operations to POW handling, and we got to see the treatment that Iraqi conscript soldiers had to endure... Several times we were called out to rescue small groups of Iraqi soldiers who wanted to give themselves up, but were being pursued and killed by Iraq's Black Guard elite forces.
Wow, I can't even imagine. Yeah, I asked because I saw that you are just a few years younger than my dad and he also fought in Desert Storm - he was in the Army, though.
ReplyDelete