As you can probably imagine, I receive hundreds of emails with questions ranging from, Why do I have to wait until I’m 18 to join the Army? to What is your favorite color? or What is your most memorable mission? From time to time I put together a post with answers to several of those questions, but today I thought to answer one in particular. From a young man in the Northeast region of the United States comes this question…
Sgt Hook, I’m graduating High School this year and am considering joining the military and have been talking with a lot of recruiters, but none of them have been able to answer my question: Why do they put Marines on Navy ships?
A great question Tommy. First of all, allow me to congratulate you on your upcoming graduation from High School, well done. I’d also like to thank you for considering service in the U.S. military, regardless of which branch you decide to join, I’m proud that young men (and women) like yourself are answering the call to duty to defend our nation.
I’ve had the staff here at Sgt Hook diligently researching the annals of military history in an effort to find an answer to your intelligent question, and I think we’ve come up with something for you. First of all, we have to go back to our colonial days, in late 1775, when the Marines were first formed.
On November 10, 1775, the Continental Congress passed a resolution stating that “two battalions of Marines be raised” for service as landing forces with the fleet. This established the Continental Marines and marked the birth of the United States Marine Corps. Serving on land and at sea, early Marines distinguished themselves in a number of important operations, including their first amphibious raid on foreign soil in the Bahamas in March 1776, under the command of the Corps’ first commandant, Capt. Samuel Nicholas. The 1783 Treaty of Paris ended the Revolutionary War and as the last of the Navy’s ships were sold, the Continental Navy and Marines disbanded.
Then in the 1790s, the U.S. re-established her Navy as we found ourselves actively involved in diplomacy around the world, and a strong Naval presence was key to our diplomatic successes at that time. As you might imagine, traveling to the far reaches of the world by ship in 1798 took some time and our Sailors were often at sea for months, sometimes years, at a shot. The Navy brass, always mindful of morale, quickly recognized that something had to be done to keep the men’s spirits up during those long voyages, so Saturday night dances were established whereby the Sailors would clear the decks of their vessels each Saturday night and hold a dance. It wasn’t long before the brass realized that there was nobody for the Sailors to dance with. Can you imagine all those guys standing around on deck all dressed up in their best white bell-bottoms, the music playing, a bowl of punch on the foredeck, and no dancing?
So, in 1798 the Navy asked for, and received, authorization to establish the United States Marine Corps to provide a pool of highly trained and skilled dancers for their very popular Seaborne Saturday Night Dances and morale greatly improved among the swabbies at sea. Here’s one of their early recruiting posters…
Today of course the Marines do so much more than just dance. For example, currently Team Marine is leading in the friendly inter-service rivalry competition supporting Project Valour-IT, but they’ve yet to see just how strong Army Strong really is.
I hope that I was able to adequately answer your question Tommy, and best of luck in your future endeavors. I’m sure you’ll make the right decision in picking a branch of service to join. By the way, how’s your dancing?
Sgt Hook out.
Posted by Hook @ 0059 zulu | | Permalink
This post is filed under: Americana & Heroes
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