10 NOV 07 – Day 76

            Tonight we Marines celebrated our 232^nd birthday.   Gunny Gamache put a lot of work into putting a proper ceremony together with limited time and resources, and he did a great job.  I volunteered long ago to be the Adjutant for the ceremony, as I will always jump at any chance to get out in front of Marines and use my "command voice".   We invited the Army Soldiers on the compound to our celebration, as well as some of the top Iraqi officers who we work with.  To our surprise, the Army showed up in large numbers, no doubt lured by their touching respect for the proud traditions of their Mari ne Corps cousins, and not by the free beer that they were promised afterwards.   As for the Iraqis, not a single one had the decency to show up.  A.C. had been preparing to translate almost the entire ceremony for them, but as it turned out, he never got to say a word, as his services were not required.   Not very polite of them, I must say.

            During the ceremony, I got to call out some drill commands and read General Lejeune's original birthday message from 1921.   It was motivating stuff for me, and my fondness for bellowing ensured that nobody in the room had any trouble hearing me.  At the end, after I had slowly marched the escorts for the birthday cake out of the room, we stood at the position of attention outside while the Marine Corps hymn was playing.   As fate would have it, the nearest mosque was broadcasting their Muslim prayer wails over their loudspeakers at that same time.  So there I was, standing at attention just outside th e door, while our Marine Corps hymn proudly played inside and the incredibly loud prayers of some anonymous Muslim priest were blasting outside.   It was a poignant moment for me.  I thought of the words of the hymn:  "We have fought in every clime and place… You will find us always on the job."   I thought of my fellow Marines standing there with me on this night, in this most foreign of lands.  Old Marines, young Marines, tall Marines, short Marines, smart Marines, and dumb Marines, but all Marines and all my brothers.   I also felt a kinship for the Soldiers and Sailors there with me, for although they are not one of us, they are good Americans who serve bravely by our sides, and I was proud to share our bir thday celebration with them as well.   I thought of how fate had taken all of these different people from all over the United States of America, and thrown us together in this place and on this night because we share a common bond of duty and love for our country.   And, as what I like to consider an act of defiance to those who would seek to do us harm, we held our post-ceremony celebration in the exact spot where the last person on this compound was shot, just a few months earlier.   "In many a strife we've fought for life, and never lost our nerve."