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Flag-raising to mark Marines’ b-day
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Posted on Nov 08 2005
The CNMI will be commemorating the founding anniversary of the U.S. Marine Corps tomorrow with a flag raising ceremony at the American Memorial Park Court of Honor.
The ceremony will start at 8am with four U.S. Marine Corps flags to be raised alongside the national colors. Military Veterans Affairs Office executive officer Ruth Coleman said the CNMI would be holding the ceremony to recognize the U.S. Marine Corps’ birthday.
“The flags will be flown for 24 hours starting at 8am tomorrow,” said Coleman. Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3457, Marine Corps member Donald Mendiola and veteran Woody Woodruff will also be attending the ceremony.
The formal commemoration of the birthday of the Marine Corps began on Nov. 10, 1921. The date was chosen because on that day the Second Continental Congress resolved in 1775 to raise two battalions of Continental Marines.
The birthday of the Marine Corps had been celebrated on a different date until 1921. A newspaper clipping from an unidentified newspaper in 1918 referred to the celebration of the 120th birthday of the Marine Corps on July 11 of that year.
According to the U.S. Marine Corps History and Museum Division website, the celebration of its birthday was doubted until further inspection of documents and publications before 1921 that shows no evidence of ceremonies or even parties. The July date was commemorated between 1798 and 1921 as the birthday of the Marine Corps.
During the revolution, the Marines fought on land and sea, but at the close of the revolution the Marine Corps and the Navy were all but disbanded. President John Adams on July 11, 1798, approved a bill that recreated the Marine Corps providing the rationale for this day being commemorated as the birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps.
On Oct. 21, 1921, Major Edwin McClellan, officer-in-charge, Historical Section, Headquarters Marine Corps helped in changing the original birthday to Nov. 10, 1775 and be declared a Marine Corps holiday to be celebrated throughout the Corps.
