I’m not sure what the recruiter thought when two gangly 17-year-old high school students walked in the door in April 1965. My twin brother Ron and I were drawn in by our favorite recruiting poster: a Marine in a Dress Blue uniform with the slogan, “The Marines Are Looking For A Few Good Men!”
He was a shrewd negotiator. I asked what lengths of enlistment they had. He said they offered three-, four-, and six-year enlistment opportunities. I responded, “Let’s do six.” He wisely replied, “Try four years and see how you like it.” He was a closer for sure.
As it turns out, both Ron and I ended up reenlisting, but Vietnam ended my career when I was medically discharged. Ron’s career took off. A citation recommending him for a Congressional Medal of Honor, but resulting in a Navy Cross, made his career promising.
After leaving the Marines, I became curious about the different military services that were changing their recruiting slogans. I’m guessing they used ad agencies and focus groups to see what worked. In my opinion, the ad agencies didn’t earn their pay.
Think about the Army choosing “Army of One!” Whoever came up with that was NEVER in combat! Then came “Army Strong.” I liked that one. Then they tried “Be All You Can Be,” left it, and came back to it. All good.
The Air Force struggled, in my view (nothing personal to my Air Force friends). “Aim High” was followed by “A Great Way of Life” and then “We Do the Impossible Every Day.” Today, it’s “Aim High…Fly, Fight, Win.”
The Navy had slogans like “Be Someone Special” (lame) and “A Global Force for Good” (better). Now, they’ve settled on “America’s Navy — Forged by the Sea” (great).
But the Marine Corps never changed its slogan. I began to wonder when the Corps came up with it. Was it after World War I or II? Maybe during the Korean War? After doing a little digging into the Marine Corps’s history and the founding of our nation, I was amazed by what I found.
On November 10, 1776, Congress approved the founding of the Continental Marines, serving as infantry aboard Navy vessels. What amazed me was the recruiting slogan: “The Marines are Looking for a Few Good Men!” I dug deeper.
Enlistees were told the Marines were not just looking for anyone. They were looking for men modeled after a man in the Bible named Gideon. His story begins in the Book of Judges, Chapter 6, where we find that the Israelites had sinned — again — and were occupied by the nation of Midian. They were treated cruelly and lived under constant oppression.
Gideon was hiding, making a batch of biscuits and gravy (I’m Southern) with the little grain he’d managed to hide. An Angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and said that God was going to use him to defeat the Midianite army (135,000 men). Gideon sent out an enlistment call that netted 30,000 men. He pumped them up: Guys, we’re going to fight the Midianites, and some of you may die! Now he was down to 10,000 men.
Gideon was thinking, Okay, I can work with this; it’s only 13 ½ to one. But then the Lord told Gideon, You have too many! His heart dropped to his stomach. The Lord whittled the army down to just 300 men. God said, Now you have enough men. If you’ve read the story, the God of Israel, using Gideon, defeated an army of 135,000 soldiers with only 300 men.
The Marine Corps said it wasn’t looking for just anybody. It was looking for men of Godly character and integrity like Gideon. I love sharing that with Marines.
Today is the Marine Corps’s 250th birthday (I don’t feel a day over 78). Tomorrow is Veterans Day. This week is a twofer for me! It was an honor to serve my country.
Happy birthday, Marines. And happy Veterans Day to all our veterans.
Semper Fidelis
