Fighting spirit and effectiveness is widely known, but few are aware the cause, Humble Beginnings and its achievements during the early years of the revolution through successes and failures and down the eastern seaboard, the opening years of the war saw the American Military develop. The continental marinin service support, naval vessels and amphibious operations, and in support the army in land warfare. Washinons marines is the First Complete study to entwined together the men strategy perform myths and personalities of the marines formative years into a single study. Todays knows the marine corps inside majorgeneral jason cub 0 years of service. An infantry man by trade. He is commanded at every level from commander to commanding general. Jason has also served in several key staff positions, including as a strategic planner with the joint chiefs of staff, the director of the marine calls Expeditionary Warfare School marine corps is office of legislative affairs and chief of staff of the us naval lstrikingr naito. He holds masters degrees in military studies and in National Security studies and has wri mae gazette and won several awards from the marine corps association. He is the author of from cold war to iso one marines journey and marines the origins, the corps and the American Revolution,h is the subject of todays talk. H so please join me in welcoming maso cuba. All ladies and gentlemen. Our afternoon now. And let me just say what an absolute lou honor it is for me to be here today. And i want to thank dr. Brooks and mr. Dozer for the very kind invitation and allow me to come here today and for the personal time and attention they give me is very gracious. Host this morning. If you were one of my marine corps units right now, id be telling all of you in the back to get up and get front and center here and forces. But since youre a little more senior crowd, i think well allow you to stay right where you are. But i am really encouraged by e of you that have joined us today that tells me that your lovers American History and thats near and dear to my heart. Political statement thats more important than ever. And as we get ready to approach the 250th anniversary of the birth of, our great nation, i cant think of a bteime reconnect with our history and to be able to understand it, to put it into context and what were dealing with. So thank you. Thank you for. Being here today. Before i, i must say that anything i speak about today is my own personal based off of my own research, and it does not represent the official position of the u. S. Government. The department of defense, department of the navy, or the United States marine corps. Fair enough. All right. This is bowens take on the world. Okay, so again, thank you for being here. Were going to take a bit of a journey here to tell you about the birth of our great nation and then how the marine corps came into existence. In the context of those times. L journey that we have both went on during this time. And as you heard dr. Brooks talk about, you know, moy familiar, e service and the selfless sacrifice and war fight and proudest of United States marines and familiar with this iconic image of the flag raising it, where you, iwo jima, melchior, baji, and that great quote by our former president , ronald reagan. But lot of people really dont know about our Humble Beginnings and what resulted in the need for a marine corps men and future who could fight on land and sea. And then in todays environment, theres actually five domains of war. Back then, land and. Sea. Then we added air. Now we hav space cyber and we just added information. And you think about how inrmation is useas a tool of war. Today, just watch whats going on with hamas and Israeli Forces in israel. Okay, so lets jump right so the roots of the American Revolution can be traced back to the french and indian war from 1756 to 1763. In which england, france and spain vied for control of the north American Continent. You know, the british and americans prevaid. Victory and r the defense of the american colonies came at a very high cost. The mother country thought it only that the colonies bear their fair share of cost, particularly americans were only paying about 1 20 of the■; taxes being paid by those back in england. But the independently minded americans pushed back on several taxes, particular equally when levied without proper representation in the government. And although neither country saw the war, conflict was inevitable. And as you see in the image here on the left hand side, that is a british Tax Collector being tarred and feathered by sons of liberty. That conflict began on april 19, 1775, in upper right hand corner, when captain john parker formed a company of minutemen on the Lexington Green to face off against 700 british soldiers and marines before the day was done, the americans had placed the british in boston under siege. But this victory on land was half the equation. Is a maritime nation with an extensive coastline and, countless lakes, rivers and, canals that can be used to and s america will need. Men who could fight and win on land and if it hoped to defeat one of the worlds most powerful forces. This became evident in midjune 1775, during an eventhat author James Fenimore cooper referred to as the lexington of the sea. At the time, principal travel. 3000 miles across the atlantic ocean. This proved to be timely. It was expensive and it was dangerous. So british leadership sought closer local solutions and they used the west indies, which is southern colonies in the area between, boston and nova scotia, which would beuture become the future state of maine. British admiral graves at the time sent two merchant vessels loaded with f guarded the armed schooner margherita to the town. And beatrice, massachusetts. Future picture. You see depicted in the middle. Local patriots captured the two merchant vessels, but the margherita escaped and the americans grabbed pitchforks and muskets, boarded the merchant and gave chase the were lucky. The resultant battle of margherita, also known the battle of machias became, the First American naval victory and the first naval fight of the American Revolution. Four days later, colonel William Prescott led approximately 1600 americans up breeds hill, not bunker hill, but breeds hill on e resulting in a british victory but at a very high cost. Three days later, George Washington assum cnental. Outside of boston. The immediacy of the at boston. The Continental Congress efforts on first establishing the army. But it would soon need to address the need for a possess n either. At the Time Congress leveraged a temporary stopgap in the use of q pirates in which private merchant men were converted into warships and manned by civilian crews. Capture british shipping on the high seas. Privateers had some positive impact in capturing british e in business for gain. Their actions rarely coordinated with ground forces, and in fact, they became a draw on the manpower and resources that would later be needed by the continental army. Navy, marines. Washington quickly realized that the privateers alone were far urgent to blockade the british in boston being resupplied and reinforced from overseas, so added necessity. He created his own■7 navy using soldiers to fill role of sailors and marines. Colonel john glover, marblehead, tts, provided washington with his first ship that you see depicted here and named it the honda in recognition of glovers wife. Washingtons navy soon grew to six ships, and although they had early success, the challenge is associated with building a pickup team like this soon came to forefront. One of washington agents described the situation this way and i quote the people on board the brigantine washington are in general discontent and, have agreed to do no duty on said ships and say they enlisted to serve in the army and not as marines. Benedict arnold and you see arnolds navy in the lower left hand corner depicting or excuse me, right hand side depicted there. He had a similar experience a year later when he was assigned in soldiers to man a fresh water fleet that he built on Lake Champlain in upstate new york to e the battle of bell corps to block british advances coming south from canada and arnold describes folks this way we have a wretched crew. The marines, the refuse of every regiment and the sea■smen, few f them ever wet with salt water, recognized in these challenges, congress was forced to act when it received an Intelligence Report on. The 5th of october 1775. The report said that there were two unprotected vessels moving from england, filled with reinforcements and resupply guys going to quebec. So congress assign a committee of three consisting of john adams from new york, john langan from new hampshire, and silas connecticut, to devise a plan to have washington captured these two vessels. They deloped alan in which they tasked washington with purchasing two merchant ships, converting them into warships, and capturing these t of three d the full congress on the 13th of october, making this official birthday of the and future United States navy. Sog the ships in england. But thanks to the lucrative privateer business, there were no ships available up north. Soe recommended that the Congress Look a little further south. So five merchant ships were eventually purchased and converted into warships in philadelphia, pennsylvania. The navy now had its first fleet. Five converted merchant ships that were loadednd mand with cannons. But now it needed an admiral to command it and they selected this gentleman, Isaac Hopkins, 57 year old from providence, rhode island, who served as a privateer captain during the french and indian war. Of the five merchant vessels that alfred as his flagship that you see depicted in this painting. And he identified a jones to bee First Lieutenant for the navys first flagship. And gentlemen, were asking about the flags earlier as the first fleet prepared to sail january of 1776. It raised flags on the■f alfred. Congress had approved the grand flag that you see in the lower left here as the official flag of the united colonies. On the 3rd of december 1775, in advance of the declaration of independence and congressman Christopher Gadsden of South Carolina and a member of the newly now expanded Marine Committee presented paul jones with the flag. You see in the lower right hand side. The slide famously known as the gadsden flag, which was approved on the 20th the december 1775. So although congress had established a navy, it failed establish the marines to serve beside it until another fateful event occurred on november 2nd, 1775. The citizens of passamaquoddy, nova scotia fueled american hopes of canada joined in the struggle against mother country as a 14th colony. The committee of safety from passamaquoddy petitioned congress to allow it to mission. I quote the association of the north americans for the preservation, their rights and liberties. Congress responded by commissioning the first continental marine officer three days later. This gentleman, Samuel Nicholasn november 5th, Samuel Nicholas became first and therefore the senior marine officer when president of the Continental Congress at the time. John hancock signed his commission. Many mistakenly to this as designate nicholas as the first commandant of the marine corps. But thats not because congress did not bestow that title on the commandant until 1798, during a quasi war against france, after the American Revolution. Nicholas was a 31 year old philadelphia native. He was born a quaker and his father died when he was seven years old. He attended the academy of philadelphia. Became the future university of pennsylvania. And graduated at the age of 16, after which■ he became a and owner of contest omega wagon tavern in downtown philadelphia. Starting a trend of marines being affiliated with alcohol that remained strong this day. And any of you marines out there know what im talking about. All right. But nicholas, would honorably serve as a senior marine. The war from 1775 through 1783 being the first marine nicholas became the first marine recruiter. Following the note from pastor mccarty, congress energized the Marine Committee. Now increase to five members by ed in john from new york and Stephen Hopkin from rhode island. Recognize last name, nepotism was alive and well. The first fleet, admiral hopkins, was a brother of the congressman. Th m■et on second story room of this building you see depicted on the slide that is ton tavern, accepted the birthplace of the United States marines today. In fact i was sharing with dr. Brooks how that building no longer in philadelphia. Theres just a Historical Marker on the site where it but there are gentlemen that have purchased land in verylocation n an exact replica of ton tavern and. Hope to have that complete by the 250th anniversary on passamaquoddy advice, congress developed the plan from to conduct a Naval Campaign the bl naval base located in halifax, nova scotia. The committee presented its recommendation to the full congress on the 9th of november, and the following day congress resolved. I quote that two battions of marines be raised, that they be distinguished by the names of the first and second battalion of american mares making the 10th in november. The official of the United States marines, which is celebrated by marines, regardless of where they are in the world, regardless of what their circumstances are, they still celebrate the birth of our core today and again, i shared with dr. Brooks earlier how i distinctly recall being in a combat situation. We didnt the opportunity to have a full ball, a large birthday cake. I took one of my my what we call meals ready to eat field rations had pound cake in it, took that put a match in it and lit it. And we sang happy birthday to the marine corps. Thats what marines. So congress directed washington order to form these two battalions of marines to cherry pick soldiers out of his battalions holding the british under siege in boston. And those sailors, soldiers that may have had any type of maritime experience like john glovers folks, he used to create his own navy outside of boston. But washington was his own challenges at the time, so he balked at the idea. He also balked at the idea, leading an expedition up to ca hands full and challenges galore outside of boston. So john hancock acquiesced, but he was still determined to form body of marines for service with the fleet. So congress directed nicholas and othere officers to recruit their own men. This picture depicts, those first recruits. Congress to organize the marines differently than the two battalions they originally envisioned. In order to have them be able to easily transition from fighting at sea to fighting ashore. So they organized first marines into Ten Companies of 50 mes cos could be assigned to an individual ship as marine required. T on board do limited operations ashore, they could task, organize those 50 Man Companies intot ashore. And thats, in fact, what would happen in support of George Washington during ten crucial days, which well talk about nicholas led the effort recruit five companies to man the fleets first five ships and he tooksonal command of the marine detachment on board the alfred the flagship. A snapshot of lieutenant isaac 3ckriegsmarine detachment on the ship, Andrew Duryea provides a good of a continental marine company. In 1775. Craigs consisted of 40 marines, few of which were born in america. They were mostly immigrants from Great Holland and germany. All but one of the marines was recruited from philadelphia. Their a half years old, with the youngest being 18 and the oldest being 40. Their average height was five foot six, with the shortest marine five three and a half inches and the tallest being six foot. And the marines brought a wealth of background and experience to their unit. They included carpenters, masons, barbers, bakers, cabinet makers, coopers jewelers, brass founders, tailors, butchers, painters, wool climbers, millers, servants, and a single doctor. Sail on its inaugural cruise on january. Fourth 1776. In all the fleet at th time consisted of seven ships armed with 110 cannons manned by 680 sailors and 234 marines. Now, hopkins, the admiral, had two sets of orders when he set sail. He opened up the first set of orders, and it basically told him what the congress has expectations of the good order and discipline of the fleet would be and how they were to perform their duties. And one of the principal duties of the marines with the fleet is to maintain good order and discipline. The second set of orders identified several ambitious and unrealistic tasks. Hopkins was to immediately set course for the chesapeake bay, where he was to locate capture or destroy the fleet located there. Now, think about this. This is the most powerful navy in the world. Men in ships of war with nearly 100 cannons in their top line vessels. We had seven converted merchant ships. If that was not enough once he was complete and destroying the british fleet off of the virginia coast, he was then to proceed down the carolinas where he was to do the same thing, l