“Semper Fidelis”
The “Continental Marines” was created on November 10, 1775, just seven months after the battles of Lexington and Concord. The Continental Marines disbanded at the end of the Revolutionary War. However, they were reformed on July 11, 1798 with a new title, the United States Marine Corps (USMC). Today Marines worldwide celebrate November 10th as the Marine Corps birthday.
The U.S. Marine Corps played a central role in World War II by liberating the Pacific Islands in order to reach their final destination of Japan. Leapfrogging, the technique used by the Marine Corps, was done in order to capture an island and move or “leap” to the next. The first of the fifteen landings for the USMC was on the island of Guadalcanal. This six month battle was the longest for the Marines in the war and 1,152 Marines lives were taken. My grandfather, John Walsh, traveled overseas for eighteen months with a Marine Corps transport squadron, where he flew men, supplies, and equipment to various islands where it was needed. As a navigator aboard a R4D5, a two engine cargo plane, he had flown to Guadalcanal and provided supplies and equipment. Life on the Pacific Islands was not pleasant or sanitary. He recalls,
“The food was fair, usually not very good, depending on the cook. We didn’t have any fresh water, we had a Listerine bag and that was the kind of water you would drink, and it was terrible. The biggest thing over there was malaria, so we would take a pill daily and eventually we would turn yellow. I turned yellow. There were some men who caught malaria because they did not take the pill.”
As the Marines advanced north towards Japan, victories occurred on the islands of Bougainville, Tarawa, Makin, New Georgia, Choiseul, Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Tinian, Saipan, and Peleliu. In January of 1944, my grandfather went overseas to the Pacific islands of New Caledenia, New Heberides, Bougainville, Makin, and Guadalcanal.
The Marines described the Japanese as fanatical fighters, sacrificing their lives in combat as kamikazes, or suicide pilots, who flew their planes into American warships. The Japanese soldiers fought for every piece of ground. “They had to be blasted and burned from tunnels and concrete pill boxes with hand grenades. The Japanese Commander of Betio, an island targeted in the Tarawa operation, boasted that Betio’s air base could not be taken by one million men in one hundred years.” (Halasz, Robert) However, the Marines were more powerful in fighting for the Pacific Islands. A single division of Marines, about 20,000 men, seized the island in 76 hours!
One of the most well-known and bloodiest battles in Marine Corps history was the battle of Iwo Jima, an island which lies 660 miles south of Tokyo. Three divisions of Marines (3rd, 4th, 5th) arrived on the morning of February 19, 1945 to fight against 23,000 Japanese defenders, most of them hidden in tunnels and caves. On the fifth day of the battle at Iwo Jima, the Marines of Company E, 2nd Battalion, began the tortuous climb up the rough terrain of Mount Suribachi, the highest point on Iwo Jima. This small island lies 660 miles south of Tokyo. Mount Suribachi is an extinct 550 foot volcano that forms the southern tip of the island and is Iwo Jima’s most amazing physical feature. That afternoon, the American flag was raised by five Marines and one Navy hospital corpsman; this sight was seen from all over the island and even from the American ships offshore. News photographer, Joe Rosenthal, captured the flag raising on Iwo Jima in an inspiring Pulitzer Prize winning photograph that remains to be one of the most 
famous photos in history. This renowned photo was eventually made into a bronze statue made by the sculptor Felix W. de Weldon. Weldon was on duty with the U.S. Navy and was so moved by the scene that he constructed a life size model of it. Gagnon, Bradley, and Hayes, the three survivors of the flag raising, posed for Weldon who modeled their faces in clay. The other three men were killed on Iwo Jima in a later period. Pictures of these three men who had died were gathered and then used for the modeling of their faces. The statue weighs over twenty tons and today is in Washington D.C. and displays the courageous efforts of the Marines. The USMC continued fighting for 25 more days on Iwo Jima until the Marines affirmed the island secure. Almost 6,000 Marines died, 17,000 wounded, and almost all 23,000 Japanese died.
The final victorious battle on the leapfrogging campaign was the battle of Okinawa. There were four Army divisions and three Marine divisions fighting in a battle that would last 82 days. Here the Marines were helped by Navajo “code talkers.” These were Native American Marines who operated radios between the front lines and command posts in the rear. Every single message was sent in the Navajo language which the Japanese were unable to decipher. The Americans suffered 19,231 casualties of whom 3, 277 died. The battle at Okinawa was the last one before the treacherous atom bombs were dropped.
The atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in August of 1945 ultimately ending World War II. At this time, 458,053 Marines were in uniform. Marine airmen, numbering 100,000, cut enemy supply lines and bombed enemy bases. My grandfather said, “I was delighted when I heard the atom bombs were dropped, and I remember the exact spot that I stood when I heard the good news. I was in a marine air station at Cherry Point, North Carolina. We were preparing B25 bombs to be dropped on Japan if the war had not ended. My job was to fly to different states for navigational purposes, preparing to go back overseas.”
The pride in their accomplishments is represented in their flag. The colors of United States Marine Corps are scarlet and gold. Also illustrated on the flag is the Marine Corps emblem: the eagle, globe, and anchor. Each of these emblems represents something significant to our country. The eagle embodies service to the country, the globe represents worldwide service, and the anchor symbolizes naval traditions. This insignia was implemented in its present form in 1868 when it was worn by the Continental Marines as ornaments; and was usually topped with a ribbon reading “Semper Fidelis.”
“Semper Fidelis,” the marine motto meaning “Always Faithful” in Latin, is the name of the official march of the Corps. The Marines never gave up and continued fighting for every piece of land in the Pacific. During World War II, 87,000 Marines died and were wounded, with 82 Marines awarded Medals of Honor. Today the USMC is the second smallest of the five branches of the U.S. military (180,000 active and 40,000 reserves). “The Marine Corps War Memorial stands as a symbol of this grateful nation’s esteem for the honored dead of the U.S. Marine Corps. While the statue depicts one of the most famous incidents of World War II, the memorial is dedicated to all Marines who have given their lives in the defense of the United States since 1775.” War II had a major impact on the entire world, especially those fighting in the war. The war, including its victories and disappointments, deeply affected every individual who experienced it. My grandfather said the top three events in his life include, “VJ Day (Victory Japan), graduating from Notre Dame, and his marriage.”
Work Cited
Canes, Mark C. Garraty, John A. “The American Nation, A History of the United States.” New York: Longman, 2003.
Cook, Diane. “USMC War Memorial.” 9 Oct. 2001. National Park Service. 18 Apr. 2006 <http://www.nps.gov/gwmp/usmc.htm>.
Halasz, Robert. “The U.S. Marines.” Brookfield: Millbrook Press, 1993.
Warner, J.F. “The U.S. Marine Corps.” Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Company, 1991.
“United States Marine Corps.” 17 Apr. 2006. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 17 Apr. 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Marine_Corps>.
Walsh, John. Personal interview, May 2006
By: Kelly O’Hara