Born to Fight: Happy 250th Birthday U.S. Marine Corps (Photo Gallery)
"That two battalions of Marines be raised … particular care be taken that no person be appointed to office or enlisted into said battalions, but such as are good seamen, or so acquainted with maritime affairs as to be able to serve to advantage by sea."
-Resolution of the Continental Congress, Nov. 10, 1775
The United States Marine Corps turned 250 years young today, and America’s globe-trotting anchor droppers have spent the last two and a half centuries answering the nation’s clarion call to fight and win in every corner of the world.
They’ve gone by many names over the decades: Leathernecks, Devil Dogs, Jarheads, and Gyrenes. They’ve even been called Uncle Sam’s misguided children, and they’ve embraced it all with untarnished pride.
Today, we celebrate all those who have raised their hands – past and present – to claim the title United States Marine. Semper Fidelis. May America never know a day without the watchful eyes of a Marine on duty.
So, here's health to you and to our Corps, Marines.
Let’s take a quick look at the ongoing service and storied sacrifices that have defined the Marine Corps for the last 250 years.
"Retreat Hell! We've just got here!"
-Captain Lloyd Williams, USMC
Battle of Belleau Wood, June 1918
Marines with 2d Marine Division prepare to perform freefall jumps off a C-130 Hercules at Twentynine Palms, California, on July 17, 2025. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Judith Ann Lazaro)
Left, Marines at the Chosin Reservoir, Korea, attack a Chinese position just hit by a U.S. Navy F4U-5 Corsair fighter-bomber. (U.S. Marine Corps History Division)
Right, Marines with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, open fire on enemy insurgents taking cover in an abandoned compound during a firefight in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, Jan. 18, 2010. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. James W. Clark)
Right, U.S. Marines from 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment stand next to a captured German trench mortar at Belleau Wood. (Image: United States Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections)
Left, Marines with the 3rd Marine Division fire a mortar during the Korean Marine Exercise Program, Pocheon, South Korea, July 28, 2025. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Van Hoang)
"Casualties many; Percentage of dead not known;
Combat efficiency; We are winning."
-Col. David M. Shoup, USMC, Tarawa, November 1943
Left, Lt. Baldomero Lopez leads his platoon from 1st Battalion, 5th Marines over the seawall during the second assault wave at Inchon, Korea. Lopez was killed a few minutes later while assaulting a North Korean bunker. Right, Marines with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit operate an enhanced rigid-hull inflatable boat during maritime interdiction operations in the Atlantic Ocean, June 26, 2025. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Emily Hazelbaker)
Left, a Marine assigned to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit calms an infant during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 20, 2021. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Isaiah Campbell)
Right, a Marine hands a child a piece of candy in the town of Al Nasr Wal Salam, Iraq. (Photo by Cpl. Trevor Gift)
Left, Marines move up the beach on Iwo Jima, 1945. Right, Marines with 3rd Marine Division run to shore during exercise Tiger Triumph on Kakinada Beach, India. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Christian Ayers)
"The bended knee is not a tradition of our Corps."
-Gen. Alexander A. Vandergrift, USMC, 1946
Right, Marines hammer enemy positions with a machine gun at the foot of Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima, 1945. Left, a Marine machine gunner with 1st Battalion, 9th Marines rushes to a new position during a firefight in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, 2013. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Paul Peterson)
Right, Marine artillerymen fire a 155mm howitzer on Iwo Jima, 1945. Left, Marines set up their 155mm M198 howitzer for a fire mission against Iraqi positions during Operation Desert Storm, Jan. 20, 1991. (U.S. military photographer Staff Sgt. Vance)
Left, early Marine Corps aviators fly in formation with their Curtiss F8C-5 aircraft. (Marine Corps Archives and Special Collections)
Right, a Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey helicopter with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit prepares to land aboard the U.S. Navy Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima, Aug. 19, 2025. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Emily Hazelbaker)
"Old breed? New breed? There's not a damn bit of difference
so long as it's the Marine breed."
-Lt. Gen. “Chesty” Puller, USMC
A Marine UH-34D helicopter from HMM-361 transports a 107mm Howitzer from 3rd Battalion, 12th Marines, to a position in Vietnam. (U.S. Marine Corps photograph)
Marines with Heavy Helicopter Squadron 361 take part in an external lift as part of Service Level Training Exercise (STLE) 4-25 at MAGTF Training Command/Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at 29 Palms, California, Aug. 18, 2025 (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Richard PerezGarcia).
“The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies,
the filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals
of any group of animals I have ever seen.
Thank God for the United States Marine Corps!”
—Eleanor Roosevelt, 1945
Marines with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit take part in amphibious landing rehearsals in Puerto Rico. (U.S. Marine Corps photos by Staff Sgt. Brett Norman, Sgt. Tanner Bernat, and Lance Cpl. Kyle Baskin)
Marine Corps veteran Cpl. Leighton Willhite, who fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima, poses for a photo in front of a Sherman tank at the Museum Support Facility in Dumfries, Virginia, Aug. 31, 2025. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Memphis Pitts)
"Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?"
-Gunnery Sgt. Daniel Daly, USMC
Battle of Belleau Wood, June 1918
Top, Marines stand behind their sandbagged position on Guadalcanal, 1942. Bottom, a Marine watches over the town of Kajaki on the Helmand River, Afghanistan, on Thanksgiving Day, 2013. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Paul Peterson)
Left, Marines hit Saipan beach before driving inland during the first wave of attacks on the island in June 1944. Right, a painted scene by Frank Schoonover depicting the Marines during the Battle of Belleau Wood, 1918.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company.
We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are
swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us.
I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold."
-1st Lt. Clifton B. Cates, USMC, Soissons, France, July 1918
Marines with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 offload disaster relief supplies to isolated areas of Jamaica during foreign assistance following Hurricane Melissa, Nov. 4, 2025. (U.S. Marine Corps photo)
Left, a Marine with 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment hangs the identification tag of a Marine killed in action during a ceremony to honor the regiment's fallen Marines and sailors while serving in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. James Sauter)
Right, Marine Staff Sgt. Dustin Hanson, a section leader with Charlie Company, 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, observes a moment of silence in respect of Lance Cpl. Ramon T. Kaipat, during a memorial service in Afghanistan, April 16, 2012. (Alfred V. Lopez/U.S. Marine Corps)
Happy birthday again, Marines! Good night, Chesty, wherever you are. Yut, out.
(Cover Photo: U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Paul Peterson)
