Marine Corps Birthday Celebrations

Marine Corps Birthday MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Florida 

U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant General Joseph Osterman, deputy commander, U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) cuts a cake at the 241st Marine Corps Birthday Cake Cutting Celebration on MacDill Air Force Base.

Formal commemoration of the birthday of the Marine Corps began on 10 November 1921. That particular date was chosen because on that day the Second Continental Congress resolved in 1775 to raise two battalions of Continental Marines.

Throughout the world on 10 November, U.S. Marines celebrate the birth of their Corps -- the most loyal, most feared, most revered, and most professional fighting force the world has ever known.

(Photos by Tom Gagnier)

  
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Very nice Marine Corps Birthday celebration at MacDill Air Force Base put on by CentCom and SoCom at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa today.  They had a cake cutting ceremony at 10:00 am on Nov 9 for all the Marines. The Commandant's message is read, then they bring out the cake.  

Centcom (US Central Command) centcom.mil is a principle fighting Command of the US. They are in charge of Central Asia - Iraq and Afghanistan and surrounding areas. So the best and the brightest are here. It is commanded by a 4 Star - usually an Army or Marine General.

SoCom Special Operations Command. This is the Command of all the special forces - the Navy Seals, Delta Force, Marines Raiders, etc  socom.mil/default.aspx 

So the two top war fighting commands in the US are in Tampa. All the Marines from the two commands were there. Looking good. The Marines now wear their blue trousers with red stripe and the khaki shirt for formal occasions - short of the full dress blues.

The cake cutting ceremony cuts the cake with a sword, and involves giving the youngest and oldest Marines there a piece of cake. The oldest Marine was a retired guy working for Centcom - he was born in 1957.  Made me feel a bit old.

Semper Fi

Craig Hullinger, Marine

Another Birthday Celebration, this time in Sarasota on Nov 10, 2016.  Above, from right to left: Ron and Linda Wozniak, Craig Hullinger, Byron and Janet Hill.

The crowd was a bit older in Sarasota.  Woz and Craig were among the oldest Marines at CentCom. We were among the younger at Sarasota.

The oldest Marine was on Iwo Jima and was 96 years old. The youngest was 19.

Semper Fi

A father and son team at the Sarastoa Birthday event.