Summary
The Marine Corps Birthday and Veterans Day offer opportunities to reflect on service.
The Marine Corps teaches resilience, integrity, adaptability, and looking out for others.
Americans should practice these virtues rather than merely thanking veterans for their service.
This week marks significant dates for Americans. The first was Nov. 10, the birthday of the United States Marine Corps.
Worldwide, Marines had celebrations. Most were formal galas with beautiful dresses, fancy uniforms, and displayed medals. Others were more subdued as deployed Marines gathered in their combat uniforms in the dirt between fighting positions or in salt spray aboard a ship in harm’s way.
The sequence of events for each was the same, differing only in scale and opulence. Maj. Gen. John A. Lejeune’s message from 1921 was read, reminding Marines that they “have acquitted themselves with the greatest distinction” in every battle. Next, the youngest and oldest Marines were acknowledged and given a piece of cake. That cake came either as a slice from a decorative cake—the size of a 2000-pound bomb and escorted by an honor guard with trumpet peals—or quietly opened from the pound cake menu-option from a “Meal, Ready-to-Eat.”
I have experienced both. The fancy ones are more fun; the simple ones, with dirt and blood on my uniform, mean more. (Unsurprisingly, my wife did not RSVP for those.) Marines then congratulate each other and either “go back to work,” or for the formal celebrants, “let the wild rumpus begin.”
The second important day is Veterans Day, where we honor those who have worn the uniform of America.
Veterans Day was born in 1954, as an evolution of commemorating the end of World War I. The traditions commemorating Veterans Day are less rigorous than those surrounding the Marine Corps Birthday; perhaps some parades in small towns or placing flags on markers in national cemeteries. Frequently, the only notice of its occurrence is an observation that we won’t get our mail today or a well-meaning, but general, “thank you for your service” comment to the old guy at the grocery store.
Former governor of Georgia, Zell Miller, wrote a book in 1997 called “Corps Values: Everything You Need to Know I Learned in the Marine Corps.” It presents lessons every Marine learns, and I believe they are applicable to our country today.
The book’s key claim is that resilience isn’t born from comfort. Resilience, Miller argues, is forged by expecting difficulty and pressing forward anyway.
As we go through life, we are going to have adversity and challenges. Marines go into every fight expecting, well … a fight. Sometimes opponents land blows. That’s life. It’s what you do after you are hit in the face that’s important.
When I was deployed in Iraq for the first time, my fellow Marines and I had to get through one last minefield to reach into Baghdad. It took us three tries. The entire 1st Marine Division was waiting for one platoon to create an opening through the minefield.
You don’t get to quit if the first time you try to breach a minefield it doesn’t work. It doesn’t play well on the news for a reporter to say, “The Marines were doing great, but then they got punched in the mouth, and now they are done.” That philosophy doesn’t work in life, or for countries after elections, either.
Miller says that integrity is crucial to the Marine Corps’ success. He defines integrity simply as, “say what you mean and do what you say.” In an era of political evasion, institutional cynicism, and eroded trust, simple, unbending honesty can become radical and contagious.
Miller also highlights the idea of “adaptability.” No operational plan survives unchanged beyond the opening hours—or sometimes seconds. Marines learn to improvise and adapt by adjusting mid-stride.
A healthy republic requires citizens and leaders capable of pivoting with resolve rather than succumbing to peril or panic. Changed circumstances and environments should be met with expectation and acceptance; not grief and angst. There is a reason Chicken Little isn’t used as the mascot for any competitive sports teams. Marines don’t panic; neither should American citizens.
In the Marine Corps, no one enters danger alone. There is always a Marine on watch, a unit on your flank, or somebody right behind you when you explosively breach a door. We all need people looking out for us, just as we need to look out for others.
In the atmosphere following our recent election, Americans shouldn’t fall into the trap of isolation. We need to discuss our differences, not let them separate us. A nation thrives when its neighbors actively watch each other’s flanks, whether those neighbors are countries or individuals. Let’s get back to thriving.
When observing Veterans Day, don’t merely thank a veteran. Live out some of America’s core civic virtues that Zell Miller and I learned in the Marine Corps: integrity, adaptability, and watching out for each other.
And then, thank that guy in the grocery store for modeling those very virtues.