When we began working with the Marine Corps League in 2006, we didn’t realize that we would begin a tradition here at Hammock Inc. — that of saluting the United States Marine Corps’ birthday every 10 November.

Of course, each November-December issue we produce of Semper Fi, the Magazine of the Marine Corps League, is designated as “The Birthday Issue” – in capital letters! This issue’s cover is a stirring shot of the Marine Corps Memorial whose bronze Leathernecks stand watch over the nearby Nation’s Capitol. Inside is a pictorial of Marine Corps League members celebrating the birthday last year.
USMC tradition holds that the Corps was born on 10 November 1775 at long-vanished Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, where a recruiter began carrying out instructions issued that day by the Continental Congress to create “a Corps of Marines.” Marine recruiters carry on that legend today (though not in taverns), looking for a few good men and women to comprise the next generation of Marines. Ordered to expand the Corps to 202,000 by fiscal 2001, Marine recruiters are—of course!—ahead of schedule, as we report in this issue.
Battlefield medicine has of course come a long way from the crude and often lethal care provided those early Marines. In our feature “Corpsman Up!” author Otto Kreisher examines how brave medics are working ever closer to the fight, and bringing more Marines home alive.
Each issue reports extensively on League programs. This issue marks the 50th anniversary of the League’s Young Marines Program, which helps high school students find discipline, order and purpose in their lives. We also report on the League’s Youth Physical Fitness Program, which encourages boys and girls from kindergarten through high school to get fit and stay fit. It’s offered free to any school. There is also a program that recognizes high school band students’ talent.