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The year was 1775, and America was not yet a nation. It was just an idea. The 13 colonies rebelled against the most powerful empire on earth- Great Britain. The nation that would later become the United States was tempered by war. At Lexington and Concord, the Americans had already exchanged gunfire with British regular troops. At Bunker Hill they proved they were ready to face one of the best armies in the world. But this revolution could not be won on land alone. The British Empire ruled the seas. And if the colonies wanted to survive, they needed people ready to fight wherever the enemy could be found. On land, at sea and everywhere in between
. So on November 10, 1775, at a meeting in Philadelphia, the Second Continental Congress authorized the creation of two battalions of marines. They did not yet have a country, nor did they have their own navy. And there certainly weren't 251 years of tradition telling them they had to be the strongest sons of [__] on earth. But that came later. For from the shores of Tripoli to the wheat fields of Belleau Wood and the icy hell of Chosin Reservoir, the rank of Marine was won with blood. They are feared by their enemies, respected by their allies, and passed down to every generation that is willing to step on the yellow tracks and accept the challenge of becoming a U.S. Marine. This is the story of 251 Marines who answered the call. The battles
they fought, the brothers and sisters they lost, and the enemies who underestimated them. Legends and heroes who created one of the most formidable fighting formations in world history. Hello, I'm Mike Droberg, a Marine Corps veteran and filmmaker, and we'll try to answer these questions on today's episode of Forgotten History. The beginning of the most difficult 26 days in the history of the Marine Corps With faith in our armed forces. The 36th President of the United States died this afternoon. There are women and children here, cease fire immediately.
The war was only 7 months old. Great Britain had one of the most powerful navies in the world, capable of moving troops, weapons, and supplies almost anywhere. If the American colonies were going to challenge the empire, they had to learn to fight at sea. They needed fighters on ships who could do things that sailors were not originally intended to do. Fight. Board enemy ships and repel enemy attacks. Provide disciplined rifle fire from decks and galleys. And when the opportunity arose, to go ashore and destroy the enemy there too. The man chosen to turn the Congressional resolution into a real fighting force was a 31-year-old Philadelphian named
Samuel Nicholas. Before the Revolution, Nicholas had experience on merchant ships, which gave him exactly the naval experience that Congress was looking for in the officers of its new battalions of marines. On November 28, 1775, Nicholas received his first commission as a Nicholas began recruiting volunteers throughout Philadelphia. The most famous recruiting spot was an establishment called the "Tun Tavern," where men were enrolled in the new corps. This means that the United States Marine Corps originated in a bar in Philadelphia. And frankly, anyone who has ever spent November 10th with a group of Marines will agree that this is entirely appropriate. A few months later, Nicholas set sail with his recruits. And in March 1776, about 250 marines and
sailors approached the island of New Providence in the Bahamas. Their target was military supplies stored around Nassau. This was the first landing in the history of the Marine Corps. The Marines captured Forts Montagu and Nassau and seized much- needed weapons and military equipment for the American war effort. The Marine Corps was barely 4 months old, and it had already invaded another country. This was not the last time. The American Revolution ended in victory. In 1783, with the war over and the new nation desperately trying to cut costs, the Continental Navy was disbanded, and with it the Continental Marines. For 15 years, the U.S. Marine Corps did not exist. But America quickly discovered that getting rid of the Marines was much
easier than getting rid of the problems that needed the Marines. By the 1790s, American merchant ships were sailing further and further around the world, and the young nation increasingly found itself in confrontation with foreign powers at sea. So on July 11, 1798, Congress officially reestablished the United States Marine Corps. This time forever. And it wasn't long before someone on the other side of the world gave them a job. Along the North African coast, the Berber states built a profitable system of piracy. Their warships hunted merchant ships crossing the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Captured sailors were deprived of their freedom, forced to work, and held for ransom. Known as the white slave trade, thousands of Europeans were taken captive to
North Africa over the previous centuries, and Americans were no exception. In 1785, Algerian corsairs captured two American merchant ships and enslaved their crews. More American ships were subsequently damaged. By the mid-1790s, over 100 American sailors were being held captive in Algeria. The young United States did not have a navy capable of saving them. So, America did what numerous European states had already done. She paid tribute for peace and ransom for captives. When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, the United States had already paid nearly $2 million in tribute and ransom to the Barbary states, which is approximately $55 million in
modern purchasing power and equal to about 1/5 of the entire annual revenue of the federal government. Then Tripoli demanded even more. Jefferson refused. The Pasha of Tripoli responded by declaring war on the United States. For the first time, the young republic had to wage war thousands of miles from home. And in 1804, a young Marine lieutenant named Presley O'Bannon was given a task that sounded less like a military operation and more like something concocted after a few drinks at Tom's Tavern.
O'Bannon and a handful of Marines were sent to Alexandria, Egypt. There they joined American diplomat and former army officer William Eaton, Hamet Karamanli, the exiled brother of the ruler of Tripoli, and a detachment of Greek, Arab, and European mercenaries. Their goal was Derna, 500 miles away across the Libyan Desert. So O'Bannon, one sergeant, six private Marines, and this strange little army set off. They covered 100 miles of desert with about 100 camels and a group of mules. The food was running out. Water was becoming scarce. And the mercenaries threatened to leave. More than once, O'Bannon and his Marines reportedly with the help of attached
bayonets. After 45 days, they reached Derna. The American warships Argus, Nautilus, and Hornet, under the command of Master Commander Isaac Hull, were waiting for them near the shore. The Navy had supported Eaton's expedition from the sea, delivering much-needed supplies and now providing the heavy guns that his small army lacked. On April 27, 1805, they attacked. American warships shelled the defenses from the harbor, while O'Bannon and his Marines led the assault on the fortifications. They advanced under enemy musket fire, took an artillery battery, and turned its guns against the defenders. After
approximately 2 hours of close combat, the position was captured. O'Bannon raised the American flag over the captured fortress. For the first time, the Stars and Stripes fluttered over an old- world fortress. The Battle of Derna has forever become a tradition of the Marine Corps. The words "to the shores of Tripoli" later became part of the Marine Corps anthem. In recognition of the victory, Hamet Karamanli presented O'Bannon with a curved Mamluk sword-the prototype of the sword that Marine officers still carry today. And the stiff leather collars worn around their necks helped give the Marines another nickname that accompanied them for generations. " Leathernecks". The Marine Corps had been reestablished only 7 years before. She was already gaining a
reputation for herself. In 1846, war broke out between the United States and Mexico. Marines operated along both coasts of Mexico and helped capture ports and positions in California. But the battle that became immortal in the history of the Marine Corps took place in September 1847. The American army, under the command of General Winfield Scott, was approaching Mexico City. In his path stood Chapultepec-a fortified castle on a hill about 200 feet high, towering over the approaches to the Mexican capital. It was protected by artillery and Mexican soldiers. The main American assault was to come from the more accessible western side. Major General John Kitman's division, which included a battalion of U.S. Marines, was assigned a
different route. The steeper southern slope, of course. On September 13, American artillery opened the way, and the assault began. The Marines advanced uphill under heavy fire from Mexican muskets and artillery. The fighting became brutal. American troops eventually reached the walls, set up assault ladders, and fought their way into the fortress. And the Marine officers and sergeants did exactly what generations of Marines have expected from their commanders. They went first. The price was huge. The history of the Corps indicates that approximately 90% of the Marine officers and noncommissioned officers who participated in combat were casualties. But Chapultepec fell, and the Marines continued their offensive.
They set off for Mexico City. The Marines fought their way through the gates and into the capital itself. When General Winfield Scott eventually entered Mexico's National Palace, U.S. Marines guarded the streets around it. The Marines entered the very heart of the enemy capital. Mexico was defeated. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended the war in 1848. Grande as the border of Texas and ceded over half a million square miles of territory to the United States, including California and New Mexico. In return, the United States paid Mexico $15 million. This victory transformed the United States into a continental
power stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The Marine Corps' role in this war became so deeply ingrained in the Corps' identity that it was eventually immortalized in the opening words of the Marine Corps Hymn. From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli. And according to shed by officers and noncommissioned officers at Chapultepec is still commemorated by a red blood stripe on the officers' and noncommissioned officers' dress blue trousers. For much of the next 70 years, the Marine Corps was America's rapid- response force, long before that term was used to describe them. They fought during the Civil War.
They landed in Korea in 1871. They landed ashore in Egypt in 1882. And wherever there was a threat to American lives, property, or interests abroad there was an incredibly high probability that someone was about to see a U.S. Marine Sometimes there were few of them. It rarely seemed to matter. In 1898, the war with Spain sent marines to Cuba. On June 10, approximately 650 Marines landed at Guantanamo Bay. The number of Spanish forces in the surrounding area reached thousands. The Marines took up positions at Fort McCall. Then the Spaniards surrounded them.
Over the next few days, the Marines fought from open positions under almost continuous sniper fire. They slept right in their fighting positions. They fought at night. They endured heat, insects, and exhaustion. And when the Spanish tried to throw them back into the sea, the marines stayed. In the end, they did what Marines always do when surrounded by the enemy. They went in search of them. Marines and Cuban allies attacked Spanish positions near the Cusco Well, destroying the enemy's main water source and helping to secure the area around Guantanamo Bay. The Marines established America's first permanent base in Cuba. But this period was only the
beginning. During the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, marines fought their way into China as part of an international force attempting to liberate foreign embassies blockaded in Beijing. Then came the Caribbean and Central America. Again and again the Marines landed on the shore. And an entire generation of Marine officers gained combat experience. People with names like John A. Lejeune, Smedley Butler, Dan Daly, and Chesty Puller. Some of them will become legends. Others will help write textbooks on how Marines fought small wars. But in 1917, the United States entered a war unlike anything the Marine Corps had faced
before. Entire armies disappeared into trenches that stretched across Europe. Machine guns, artillery, and poison gas turned battlefields into industrial death zones. And the German army spent almost 4 years learning how to survive in these conditions. Marines-no. They had to learn a lesson, just like the Germans. In 1917, the United States entered World War I. The Marines who arrived in France were caught in a meat grinder that had already swallowed millions of people. The French were exhausted. The British were bloodied. In the spring of 1918, Germany launched a series of massive offensives to win the war before the full power of the United States arrived.
They crushed the Allied positions. The British Fifth Army was defeated. And by June, German troops had advanced about 40 miles towards Paris. The situation was becoming critical. And into this chaos arrived the United States Second Division. And with it was the Fourth Marine Brigade, consisting of the Fifth and Sixth Regiments. They moved to the front while the exhausted French troops retreated. A French officer called on the newly arrived Americans to retreat. Marine Captain Lloyd Williams replied, "Back off, damn it. We just arrived." And the Marines remained. They helped stop the German advance in the wheat fields west of the Bello Forest. But simply stopping the Germans was not enough.
The Germans still held the forest. Bello Forest was a nightmare defensive position. Dense trees and rugged terrain concealed the German troops. The machine guns were positioned to create crossfire. Artillery shot down all the approaches. And between the Marines and many of these positions stretched open wheat fields. To capture the forest, someone had to cross them. On June 6, 1918, the Marines went on the attack. They moved across open terrain under German machine gun fire. People fell by the dozens, then by the hundreds. But the Marines continued to move forward. At some point, Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daly saw his unit pinned to the ground. Daley was already one of the most decorated Marines. He received
the Medal of Honor twice. Apparently, he decided that this was not enough. Daly jumped forward and shouted, "Go ahead, you sons of [__]! Do you want to live forever?" And the Marines followed him. The fighting inside the Bello Forest became fierce. Machine guns, grenades, bayonets, shooting at distances measured in feet, not yards. The positions changed hands repeatedly. The Marines fought day and night, sometimes without sleep, without hot food, and with minimal water. On June 6 alone, the Marine brigade suffered over a thousand casualties, including over 200 dead. More casualties in one day than the Marine Corps had in its entire previous history. And they still continued to attack. The Germans also paid dearly. Almost 900 dead, over 2,600
wounded, and approximately 1,600 captured. Then, on June 26, Major Maurice Shearer sent a report to headquarters. The forest is now completely under the control of the US Marine Corps. The Bello Forest belonged to the Marines. The French later renamed it Marine Brigade Forest. And somewhere around the same period, another name became permanently attached to the Corps. " Devil Dogs". Corps legend says that the Germans themselves began calling the Marines Teufel Hunden because of their fury in battle. The Corps PR machine must have jumped on it, and the Marines did what they always do when they're given a cool nickname. We
kept it to ourselves. The Germans spent four years fighting against the greatest armies in Europe. The Marines have just arrived. And apparently no one explained to them that they should feel fear. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Within hours, American positions in the Pacific Ocean came under attack. Wake Island, Guam, Philippines. The United States was embroiled in the largest war in human history. And the Marine Corps that entered this war was tiny. In 1939, fewer than 20,000 people served in the Corps. Two years later, these Marines suddenly found themselves face to face with an empire that had been fighting for years in China and was now destroying everything in its path in the Pacific. To get to Japan, someone
would have to cross the Pacific Ocean. Island after island, beach after beach. And the marines were to become true masters of capturing the coast. On August 7, 1942, Marines of the 1st Division landed on an island most Americans had never even heard of-Guadalcanal. Their target was a Japanese airfield that was still under construction. The Marines quickly captured it and renamed it Henderson Airfield. And then hell began. Japanese aircraft and warships went on the attack. Japanese troops poured onto the island. After a crushing defeat in the naval battle off Savo Island, American transport ships withdrew earlier than planned. Thousands of Marines remained ashore with
limited supplies while the Japanese controlled the surrounding waters at night. The Japanese expected to destroy them. Near the Tenaru River, Japanese troops launched a frontal attack on the Marine positions. They were destroyed. On Bloody Ridge, the Japanese attacked again. The raiders and Marine paratroopers held their ground. Time and again, Japanese forces attempted to breach the perimeter around Henderson Airfield. And again the Marines refused to retreat. For 6 months, the Americans and Japanese fought for control of Guadalcanal. When it was all over, Japan had lost thousands of soldiers, dozens of ships, and hundreds of planes. For the first time in the Pacific War, the Japanese offensive was stopped
and turned back. November 1943, the next lesson took place on an island that could barely be seen on the map. Betio, Tarawa Atoll. The Japanese spent months turning it into a fortress. Pillboxes, artillery, machine guns and thousands of defenders. According to rumors, the Japanese commander believed that it would take a million men and 100 years to capture the island. The Marines were given 3 days. But the tide failed. Landing craft carrying marines to shore encountered a coral reef and stopped. The beach was still hundreds of meters away. So the marines jumped into the water.
Holding their rifles, ammunition, and equipment above their heads, they waded toward the shore. Japanese machine gunners watched their approach. There was nowhere to hide. The marines were shot in the water. Others drowned. Those who reached the shore found themselves trapped behind the dam under devastating Japanese fire. And then they moved forward. Bunker after bunker. After 76 hours, organized Japanese resistance on Betio effectively ceased. Over a thousand Marines and sailors died. Thousands of others were injured. Of the 4,836 Japanese defenders and auxiliary troops on the island, 4,690 were killed.
Only 146 survived and were captured. 17 Japanese and 129 Korean workers. The Marines captured Tarawa. 3 days. Not 100 years. Then there was Peleliu. The Japanese learned that instead of destroying the Marines on the beaches, they retreated into caves, tunnels, and fortified ridges, forcing the Americans to smoke them out. The battle, which was supposed to last a few days, dragged on for over 2 months. On the Bloody Nose Ridge, the 1st Marine Regiment suffered devastating losses. Entire units were defeated, but the Marines continued their offensive. On February 19, 1945, they landed on Iwo Jima. 8 square miles of volcanic rock defended by 21,000 Japanese soldiers. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi turned the island into a fortress of tunnels.
The Marines fought their way through volcanic sand under mortar, artillery, and machine gun fire. Four days later, the flag was raised over Mount Suribachi, creating one of the most famous images in U.S. history. But the battle lasted for more than a month. Nearly 7,000 Americans were killed and more than 19,000 were wounded. Of the approximately 21,000 Japanese defenders, nearly 20,000 were killed. Medals of Honor were awarded for this battle. 22 of them are Marines. And yet the war is not over. On April 1, Marines and soldiers landed on Okinawa. Only hundreds of miles from the main islands of Japan. For almost 3 months they fought in mud, caves, and
on fortified ridges while kamikazes attacked the fleet. When Okinawa was taken, nearly 90,000 Japanese soldiers had been killed, and over 12,000 Americans were considered dead or missing. By the summer of 1945, the Marine Corps, which had begun the war as a relatively small force, had grown to nearly half a million men and women. The Japanese Empire expanded across the Pacific for decades. It took the Marines less than 4 years to travel this route in the opposite direction. And now there is almost no Pacific Ocean left. Five years after the end of World War II, the Marines entered battle again. On June 25, 1950, North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel.
South Korean and American troops were pushed back south. Within weeks, they were pushed back to a defensive perimeter around the port of Busan, which was steadily narrowing. Then General Douglas MacArthur proposed something crazy. Instead of intensifying the retreat, land an army behind the North Koreans in Incheon. This location was so difficult that planners initially considered it almost inaccessible. The tides could reach over 30 feet. The approaches were narrow. Seawalls protected the landing zones. And the landing force would only have a limited window of time when landing ships could reach the shore. In other words, send in the Marines. On September 15, the 1st Marine Division landed ashore. Marines overcame
sea walls using ladders. They captured Incheon. They moved towards Seoul. Within days, the North Korean army, which had nearly conquered South Korea, began to collapse. UN forces moved north. Pyongyang fell. American troops approached the Chinese border. And then China entered the war. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers crossed the border into Korea. Among the American units deep in North Korea was the 1st Marine Division. Her marines stretched along a narrow mountain road around a place called Chosin Reservoir. Then the temperature dropped sharply. At night it dropped to about 30 degrees below zero.
Weapons and engines of equipment froze. People got frostbite just by touching metal with bare skin. The ground became so hard that explosives might be needed to dig a trench. And then the Chinese went on the attack. On the night of November 27, tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers descended from the mountains. Horns sounded in the darkness. Whistles echoed on the mountain ridges. Marine positions were attacked from different directions. Roadblocks appeared behind them. Supply routes were cut. The 1st Marine Division was surrounded. To anyone looking at the map, the solution was obvious. Retreat.
Major General Oliver P. Smith reportedly saw the situation differently. "What a hell of a retreat. We are not backing down. We are simply advancing in a different direction." There was only one road south, so the Chinese occupied the mountains above it, set up roadblocks, and tried to destroy the column as it moved. The Marines began to break out of the encirclement. The Marines repelled constant Chinese attacks in sub- zero temperatures. Entire Chinese regiments attacked through the darkness, sometimes breaking through to the Marine positions and
turning the battle into a chaos of close combat. Marine aviation pounded the Chinese positions from above, and the perimeter held. The Chinese deployed over 100,000 soldiers in the campaign. Determined to surround and destroy the 1st Marine Division. Instead, the Marines broke through to the south. The division suffered over 4,000 combat casualties, including over 700 killed or mortally wounded. At the same time, over 7,000 more became casualties, mainly due to the cold. But the Chinese paid a huge price. Marines estimated that ground and air forces killed about 25,000 Chinese soldiers and wounded another 12,500. The First Marine Division was beaten but not destroyed. It carried out the wounded, saved
most of its equipment, and remained an organized fighting force. Less than 12 years after Korea, U.S. Marines were fighting another war in Asia. Vietnam. In March 1965, the Marines landed in Da Nang. These were the first regular American ground combat units deployed in South Vietnam. What started with about 3,500 Marines has grown into a massive American commitment. And once again, the Marines found themselves in the worst places.
By January 1968, was located in the mountains in northern South Vietnam, just a few miles from the Laotian border and south of the demilitarized zone. About 6,000 Marines and Allied troops occupied the base and surrounding positions. Then about 20,000 North Vietnamese soldiers began the encirclement. On January 21, Thousands of shells hit the Marine positions. A direct hit blew up the base's main ammunition depot. Explosions tore Kheshan apart. Then the North Vietnamese tightened the noose. For the next 77 days, the Marines lived under siege. They dug deeper. They fought for the surrounding hills. And American aircraft dropped tens of thousands of tons of bombs around the perimeter. But while America's attention was focused on Khe Shan, the enemy
struck throughout South Vietnam. The Tet Offensive has begun. About 100 miles southeast of Kheshan stood the ancient imperial city of Hue. North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces captured most of it. The Marines were ordered to repel it. American forces have spent years training Marines to fight in jungles, rice paddies, and mountains. Now they had to fight in urban conditions. Hue was a city, and inside it were thousands of enemy soldiers who had prepared defensive positions throughout the city. The first Marine units attempting to advance through the city were fired upon by machine guns, rockets, and snipers. So they adapted. If
traffic on the street resulted in the death of Marines, they would stop using the street. They punched holes in the walls, moving from building to building, block by block. Tanks and recoilless guns fired directly at enemy positions. The Marines kicked down the doors, fought from a distance of a few feet, and kept moving. The battle lasted for weeks. Marines and South Vietnamese forces slowly pushed back the enemy until the city was liberated. Hue became one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War.
It also proved what the Marines had been demonstrating for nearly two centuries. You can change the battlefield. You can change the enemy and the terrain. But eventually the Marines will find a way to destroy you there too. By the end of the war, the Marines had killed over 90,000 enemy soldiers. Over 13,000 Marines died. Almost 89,000 were injured. And when the last Marines left Vietnam, they carried with them a new generation of names. In 1983, 241 American servicemen, including 220 Marines, died when a suicide bomber blew up a Marine barracks in Beirut. It was one of the darkest days in the history of the Marine Corps. The Marines were sent to Lebanon as part of an international peacekeeping force during the country's brutal civil war. On the morning of
October 23, a truck packed with explosives breached the perimeter of the Marine base and exploded beneath a four-story barracks. The explosion instantly destroyed the building. The surviving Marines began to sift through the rubble in search of their comrades, sometimes with their bare hands. This terrorist attack remains the most tragic single-day loss for the Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima. Eight years later, the Marines returned to the Middle East. After Saddam Hussein's invasion, Marines were deployed to Saudi Arabia as part of Operation Desert Shield. For months they had been preparing for a war that many feared would be extremely
costly. Iraqi forces built trenches, minefields, bunkers, and defensive positions throughout Kuwait, backed by an army hardened by eight years of war with Iran. Then, in January 1991, the coalition went on the offensive. For weeks, American naval forces maintained the threat of a massive landing on the coast of Kuwait. Thousands of marines waited on shore, forcing Saddam to keep a significant force to defend against an invasion that never came. Instead, when the ground war began, the Marines attacked across the desert. The 1st and 2nd Marine Divisions broke through Iraqi defenses, overcame minefields, and entered Kuwait while Marine aircraft pounded enemy positions ahead. In four days, the Marines
defeated an Iraqi force of 11 divisions and captured more than 20,000 soldiers. Across the battlefield, coalition forces destroyed more than 3,000 Iraqi tanks, 1,400 armored vehicles, and 2,200 artillery systems. Estimates of Iraqi army casualties ranged from 25,000 to 50,000 dead. The Iraqi army occupying Kuwait was defeated. Kuwait City was liberated. The ground campaign lasted 100 hours. Then there were Somalia, the Balkans, embassy evacuations, humanitarian operations, crisis after crisis. The Marines continued to do what they were created to do over two centuries ago. To get there quickly, to get where the country needed them, and to be ready when everything went to hell. Then came September 11, 2001. 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four
passenger planes. Two of them crashed into the World Trade Center. The third hit the Pentagon. Passengers on the fourth plane resisted before it crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. At the end of the day, 2,977 people had died. It was the deadliest foreign attack on American soil, and for millions of Americans the world changed in a matter of hours. The answer came quickly. For weeks, American forces have been striking al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Once again, the Marines were among the first regular forces to enter the battle. On November 25, Marines from the 15th Expeditionary Force flew more than 400 miles from ships in the Arabian Sea to southern Afghanistan, captured a remote airfield and established Camp Rhino, the first major American
forward base in the country. Within a few weeks, the Marines were already operating around Kandahar. But Afghanistan was just the beginning. In March 2003, American forces invaded Iraq. The 1st Marine Division attacked north from Kuwait under the command of Major General James Mattis. The Marines traveled hundreds of miles to Baghdad in a matter of weeks. Then the regular war turned into an insurgency. And in 2004, one Iraqi city became synonymous with battles- Fallujah. In November, American and Iraqi forces launched Operation Phantom Fury to retake the city from the insurgents. The battlefield became homes and thousands of rooms, where an enemy could be waiting behind every door. The Marines fought for every quarter. Fallujah became one of the most intense
urban battles in which American troops have participated since Vietnam. And while Iraq dominated the headlines, the Marines continued to fight in Afghanistan. Places that another generation of Marines will never forget. Thousands of Marines were killed or wounded in two decades of war. The enemy also paid a huge price. During these wars in Iraq, an estimated 40,000 insurgents and other opposition fighters were killed. While more than 50,000 Taliban and opposition fighters have been killed in Afghanistan. And finally, after 20 years of fighting, both wars ended. 251 years: from a tavern in Philadelphia to the shores of Tripoli, from Chapultepec to Belle Wood, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Chosin Reservoir, Kuwait, Fallujah, Afghanistan. Different wars, different enemies,
different generations. But for some reason, it's the same Marines. I had the honor of wearing this uniform for over 22 years. I served in Iraq. And, like every Marine, I had days where I loved or hated the Marine Corps. There were days when I couldn't wait to leave. But eventually you do it. You take off your uniform for the last time. And you realize something. You never left. Because being a Marine It's something that becomes a part of you. I served side by side with the finest men and women I have known. I made a friendship that will last my whole life. I have traveled all over the world. I laughed and cried more sincerely than I ever will. And I was part of something bigger than myself. For over 251 years, Marines have inherited the reputation established by
their predecessors. And each generation carries it on. This was true in 1775. This was true when I was in uniform. And that's true for a young Marine who's on So to those still serving, to those of us who hung up our uniforms, and especially to those Marines who couldn't come home and grow old. Happy birthday, Marines. Serving alongside you has been the greatest honor of my life. And being a U.S. Marine was the best job I ever had. Semper we fight the battles of our country. Forgotten History." Please like, share, and subscribe. If you have any comments or ideas for the show, we 'd love to hear them. Thank you again.
