November is a momentous month for me. Important dates include Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, my sons' arrival at home for school break and — most important of all — today's anniversary of the founding of the United States Marine Corps.
The phrase "once a Marine, always a Marine" is a statement of one of life's certainties. The first day at boot camp is the beginning of a process intended to weed out those who, for one reason or another, don't measure up to the Corps' exacting standards. Those of us who survive this trial by fire are justifiably proud of our accomplishment and are conscious of being accepted into a brotherhood dedicated to excellence in which the stakes are always presumed to be life and death. That's a thing that sticks with us — forever.
I don't do a lot of celebrating on Nov. 10; it's more a day of reflection for me, as I look back and remember the places I went, the things I did and the people I grew to love — or hate. I dig out my photo albums and marvel at my progression from 17-year-old private to 19-year-old sergeant to 20-year-old veteran as I traveled from the West Coast to the East Coast, to the Far East and back home. All of it is hard to believe and impossible to forget.
In the past, my wife, my two sons and I marked the occasion with a birthday cake, as Marines all over the world do to recognize another year of Marine Corps history. This was done mostly to humor me because, despite their willingness to share my pride, the depth of feeling I have for the Marine Corps and my lifelong attachment to it are unfathomable to them, as it is to anyone who isn't a Marine.
I tried to enlighten them this summer, on a visit to Camp Lejeune, N.C., the main Marine Corps base on the East Coast. My son had won a scholarship for his junior year at college from the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, which is dedicated to helping the children of Marines, and one of its national award ceremonies was held at Camp Lejeune. I had not set foot on a Marine Corps installation since my discharge at Camp Pendleton, Calif., in 1971, five days after I had left Vietnam. My excitement at doing so once again was, to put it mildly, extreme.
It increased exponentially as we entered the banquet hall and mingled with foundation officials, scholarship winners, parents, and Marines resplendent in their dress blue uniforms, some of whom were with their children while others were there to represent the Corps. All of them were spit 'n polish personified. I felt great regret and envy at no longer being able to live the life even as I knew that I was — and always will be — one of those few good men and, these days, women.
Marines believe that the quickest and most effective way to achieve an objective is the direct approach. So I asked Maj. Gen. Raymond Fox, commanding general of the II Marine Expeditionary Force, who I bumped into at the hors d'oeuvres table, to explain to my wife and son why being a Marine is an honor, a privilege and a responsibility.
He did so without hesitation, telling them that the values taught by the Marine Corps, which honors and reveres its past (here he glanced at me), prepare Marines for a future (addressing my son) of accomplishment and self-reliance and instill in them a pride and a sense of achievement that will last forever.
I could see that my wife and son were favorably impressed by what the general said and by his evident passion, but his words struck me like a clean shot to the heart.
Simply put, the Marine Corps has given me an identity — I am a Marine, I have always been a Marine, and I will be a Marine forever. It's an identity I gladly embrace and jealously guard.
On this Nov. 10, the 237th anniversary of the founding of the United States Marine Corps, I'll be at work, surrounded by co-workers who neither know nor care that it is a special day for me and my comrades.
I don't mind. I'm one of the few and the proud and I'll be with my own kind in spirit, if not in body.
Happy birthday, Marines.
Bill Federman is a Times Union editor and a veteran of the Vietnam War. He served in the United States Marine Corps from 1968 to 1971. His email address is bfederman@timesunion.com.