Marine Corps Ball

[jscusmcvet]

This past weekend my friends Justin and Rachel invited me and Ann to the 241st Marine Corps Birthday Ball for the 8th Comm Bn. Justin is retired and Rachel is an active duty 1st Sgt. (Every bit of it, let me tell you... her Marines and her command structure clearly know who is running things... just sayin)
Even though I stepped on the yellow footprints 31 years ago, I had never been to a ball. Seems that back in my time, infantry units did not do all that... So it was a great honor to attend and remarkable to meet so many young Marines. The ceremony got this old Marine choked up a bit. It was a tremendous night. Lots of great people, lots of good beer (!) and of course two lovely ladies who for some reason hang around with two old bearded Marines... Semper Fi brothers...

 

[bob91yj]

All of you look sharp! Well done.

 

[TangoBlue]

The best Marine Corps Birthday Celebration I participated in was at the Blue Parrot in Pattaya, Thailand back in November 1996. On this occasion our advance party were performing site surveys and liaison in advance to an upcoming Cobra Gold Joint exercise and were at the nearby Sattahip Royal Thai Naval Base and legendary (Viet Nam War) U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield.

A Mexican place in Thailand... go figure. Nothing stupid - no censored stories - but the occasion captured the essence of the Corps to this swabbie. No matter where, no matter what, even in civilian attire, this event will be celebrated IAW all the reverence, pomp, and circumstance an event at Quantico, Lejeune, or Pendleton would have. Oh, and real Cuban cigars thanks to the Colonel.

All the more special in that it was celebrated at a bar - the birthplace of the Corps.

Semper Fidelis mon frer.