Mottoes, Marines and Other Ponderings
I just found out that the motto on our coat of arms – dum spiro spero – means “while I breathe, I hope.” Kind of cool, I think. Pretty accurate, in its own way, for most of us. Hm. Although this other site gives it as fidus et audax, which means “faithful and bold.” Another one says “onward and upward.” And this one says “heb dduw, heb ddim, duw a digon,” meaning “without God, without anything, God and enough” – which I actually remember seeing already.
Darn this prolific Internet. I think it is that last one. It really is in Welsh, which makes the most sense.
Guess I should go to church then, innit?
. . .
This morning on the way to work I passed a tractor-trailer that had an ad for the Marines on it. (At least, I assumed it was an ad. It may in fact been full of actual Marines. I can’t be certain.) But it made me think. The Army is the land force of the military. The Navy is the ocean-going force. The Air Force is, well, the air force. But the Marines? Why are they called the Marines if there is already a marine force – the Navy?
Perhaps this is why I’m just not cut out for the military. I just don’t get it.
. . .
The Boy has discovered the latest new wonderfulness from Sirius. BBC Radio 1. Live. Oh hells yes. You are correct, I will no longer be listening to anything else.
Not true, really. I can’t stay away from Derek and Romaine. And Symphony Hall and The Beat are nice for waking up in the morning in the car – not distracting.
But still. This is goodness. Finally, a radio station I’ll actually leave on outside of my car. I really do love Sirius.
The Marines were born when naval combat was basically, get real close and have a bunch of crazy bastards jump onto the other guy’s ship and take it the f*** over. Those bastards were the original Marines. In time they became a sorta-separte branch, I say sorta since they share many things with the Navy. Naval ships have Marine guards, Marines are transported in Naval amphibious assault ships and graduates of the Naval Academy can be commissioned into the Marine Corps.
I knew you’d be the one who knew!
The pew, the froud, the Marines. Simper Fifi.
Marines are an assault force specializing in amphibious assaults but can basically kick the crap out of anyone, anywhere, air, sea or land. The other branches are much more specialized in their missions, while the Marines remains our quick reaction force basically their specialization is to be pure warriors. You need some country invaded, call in the Marines. To let one of them answer your question: “The Marines operate in a different way than the other forces. We’re expeditionary, so we don’t occupy foreign places for long periods of time. That means we take only who we need on our missions. Complete, we number about 172,000 active Marines. And we’re proud to be the few.”
Semper Fi. Carry on.