Our fabulous US Marine Corps was established on November 10, 1775, by a group of minutemen in Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And yes, today’s Marine still likes a good tavern when they see one!

The first Marines were originally recruited as sharpshooters to fight from the tops of men-of-war during the Revolutionary War. And in 1834, the Marine Corps became a department of the Navy. This is why you’ll see Marines standing guard at Naval bases and on Naval vessels, and why Marine medical personnel are Navy corpsemen corpsmen and doctors.

Nicknames. Ever wonder how they got the nickname ‘Leathernecks’? Well, during the Revolutionary War they wore high leather bands around their throats, to protect their necks from deadly saber jabs.

Another nickname for the Marines is ‘Devil Dogs’. They got this one during World War I from German troops, who were seriously afraid to fight with Marines.

But probably, one of their more famous nickname is ‘Jarhead’. Tradition has it that Army guys gave the Marines this one because of the way they felt Marines looked in their dress blues: it reminded them of a mason jar! Others say it comes from the traditional combat Marine’s haircut, the ‘high and tight.’ In my family, we simply call it a ‘meat cut’!

Help Us. There’s just a few days left to donate to Project Valour IT! The competition ends July 14th. By now, you know what the project is and what you need to do to help. Give ’til it hurts.
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Here are some other great Marine Team posts to check out today!

Wolf at Howling at the Moon has a terrific post up on a certain crusty Sergeant Major… It’s awesome!

Stix Blog has a great video up today of the Devil Dogs. Check out his other material on Valour IT too!

Grim has an Valour IT update and a video up.

Nice Deb has a post and video explaining what Project Valour IT does. She also has 2 other incredible super vids up as well.

Soldiers Angels Germany tells us about former Landstuhl patient and Hero SGT James “Hack” Hackemer who died this past week. He savored every moment of life since surviving a bomb blast in 2008 while serving in Iraq.

Whoa! Retriever says “Give and I’ll Match!”. Let’s go!

And….Thor introduces us to Angel Gomez, a Marine that suffered severe injuries from an IED blast and how Angel is now giving back.