CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE BASRA, Iraq – United States Marines, past and present celebrate the 234th Birthday of the United States Marine Corps November 10.
The Marine Corps is a branch of the United States armed forces responsible for providing force projection from the sea using the mobility of the United States Navy. It includes just over 203,000 (as of October 2009) active duty Marines and just under 40,000 reserve Marines. It is the smallest of the United States' armed forces in the Department of Defense.
The Marine Corps is actually larger than the entire armed forces of many military powers. It is larger than the active duty Israel Defense Forces or the whole of the British Army.
The United States Marine Corps traces its roots to the Continental Marines of the American Revolutionary War. The Continental Congress formed the Continental Marines on 10 November 1775.
Captain Samuel Nicholas was commissioned as the Continental Marines' first officer November 28, 1775. Though legend places its first recruiting post at Tun Tavern, Marine historian Edwin Simmons surmised it was more likely the Conestoga Waggon, a tavern owned by the Nicholas family. Robert Mullen, whose mother owned Tun Tavern, later received a commission in June 1776 and likely used it as his recruiting rendezvous.
Since then, the mission of Marine Corps has evolved. The Marine Corps served in every American armed conflict and attained prominence in the 20th century. The Corps’ theories and practices of amphibious warfare ultimately formed the cornerstone of the Pacific campaign of World War II. By the mid-20th century, the Marine Corps had become the dominant theorist and practitioner of amphibious warfare.
