Marine corps centennial project prior to that he served prior to canadian archives. From 2005 lets welcome mike miller the buck stops here. We wanted to do a slideshow. All is well. Last but not least, now the marines are the last to fight today. I will do the best i can with that. Marines and harry truman. When i first agreed to come out and talk, i said are you sure you know what you are in for . They most assured me and said yes, come down and say your piece. I would like to begin with this slide. How many people are familiar with this cartoon, the barnaby series . How many are familiar with Crockett Johnson . The moon yet. This was a world war ii era cartoon. It has to do with everything that i am about to say. I would love to get a reference like this in, because it is cool. Part of the barnaby series, he had an imaginary friend, so to speak, his name was mr. Omalley, who got him in trouble. Part of this cartoon is the young mans chatter in the marching society. It doesnt make sense right now, but it will. The chowder society, i will take you to Guantanamo Bay, china, veracruz, mexico, other places. I am going to start in 1900 and finish in 1950. I will accomplish that with a cartoon. I have made some really important decisions about how to talk about truman and the marines. I could have gone one of two ways, one is the atomic bomb. Undoubtedly, thats maybe even the bigger one than this. The unification between the armed forces after world war ii is probably the most Lasting Legacy of his in terms of the army and marine corps, navy, and air force. That needs context. Too often, the historical event just have dealt without context. How does Guantanamo Bay they fit into how does Guantanamo Bay fit into the context . If you look at the newspaper, you will see the picture of the marines landing at Guantanamo Bay in 1898. A battalion of marines takes a camp and establishes the base there today. Look at the marines. Who was there with them to talk about it . Stephen crane, one of the best accountants of military action. You are going to see a pattern develop of battalions and regimens doing things, and famous recorders trailing along with them. This is 1898. Take a look at this. China, there is a detachment of marines that comes off ships and goes to rescue of the consulates in beijing. More marines come and two regimens of army, as well. Look who gets the newspaper. Those marines havent even gone, and there they are. Do you see a pattern . We also noticed, and thats one of the things that the talks have been about today, the impact of world war i on america and the armed forces. We are starting to see marines doing things in places far away from our shores, like in china, because america is becoming an international nation for the first time. What that does is create a problem with missions. There is talk about truman, i am going to talk about Teddy Roosevelt first. He did not like the marine corps. He wanted to get rid of them. He said navy folks can do this just as well as marines, and can be a lot less irritating. They said we can do landing parties of sailors to replace the marines and increase our own strength and funding. The admirals went to Teddy Roosevelt and agreed. He said all the navy stuff, it doesnt include in the marine corp in his vision. Before he left, he had a president ial declaration that they were going to bring marines off of the battleships. Some admirals support the marines, some dont. It is one of the many times that one service or the other tries to eradicate the marines. We have a reason to be paranoid. It almost happened, there may not have been a current marine corps. They would have been guarding our navy ports, yards, basically cops. It was defeated because the American Public rose up and one of the marines fathers was a head in the committee. He basically brought it to americas attention and said we want our marines. A lot of it was based on china and Guantanamo Bay. You can start to see people getting irritated with these marines, so they survive. There is 1914 in veracruz. The marines have almost gone out of business this time again by the navy. They said marines, we challenge you to make a landing, puts up heavy naval weapons, and participate in the 1914 naval exercise. If you cant do it, your funding is gone. Luckily, the greatest marine of them all takes command. Takes the unit down there and succeeds in planting the guns and bringing aviation into the exercises. It is another time the marines could have gone away. An uprising in mexico brought the marines to veracruz in april of 1914. The marines are still there. They go to veracruz, and guess what . Who is theyre doing a report, jack london, a lot of other reporters. You see the trend continue to grow. Marines make headlines again, marines land. One thing that happens is the navy no longer says we can do landing parties, because they go ashore and the navy is wiped. They go into the streets and are shot down from all shot down from all directions. They said they no longer will do that. The marines still have the mission of going ashore from the ships. The point is that the army brigade comes in to replace the navy and marines that are a sure that are ashore. The marines are supposed to go back aboard the ships. The admiral says i want to stay and be a part of this occupation. I want to be alongside the army. The admiral says are you sure . Be careful what you ask for. They let the marines stay a shore. Stay ashore. It was he could work with both army and marines, he was not opposed to them. They remained in veracruz. You start to see what will happen in 1917 and 18, when the marines go over and become part of the army second division. They are already seeing this thing out there. France, 1917, unfortunately, tungsten dies, and it is taken over. One of the things he does not want is any marines in france. Adamantly, no marines in france. Why . What do you have against the marine corps . He said the armys mission is not the marine corps mission. You will get all of the credit, anyway. Just go do your thing, we will do our thing. The marine corps doesnt take that lying down, they go to the secretary of the navy. They take a plater president ial declaration to get to france. The regiment gets on board the transport and the army says we cant transport you, we are full. The navy says we will take you on our ships. The marines get there with the First Division. They are first to fight. The marine corps is looking at an entire division to go in. You had these marines, you start putting them along the supply and guarding things. The things that marines do. These are two different regulations and so forth. Back to wilson, he says the six marines would now go and become part of it. It takes the president twice to send marines to france. The marines got their nose under the tent and want to keep being sent over there. What does he keep doing with them . He says i will use them in their best duty, which is to guard things, but no combat. Wilson goes to baker, who says yes you will. And he says he will. But thats it, no more marines, just one brigade. Here comes the fourth brigade of here comes the fourth brigade of the second army division. That is deeper. He initially, then it goes to omar funding. They are the first to fight, the First Division goes in first, second goes in second. Those pesky marines get good luck because they go to a place on june 1. They were supposed to go and continue, but they decided to stop. This is a place that is hollow ground to all marines. It is where they go every year, memorial day to celebrate this american victory with the french. You should go, because you see it takes place at the american cemetery. You see from all directions the french people walking with their flags, several thousand, walking up to celebrate us fighting with them and making the sacrifice. Those are moving things. This becomes perhaps more than it was in marine lore. It was a brigade against a german army. Many brigades, including a lot of french troops. They are part of the effort that does it. Remember the trend . Floyd givens, somebody mentioned one of his works. Hes is there with the marines, he wants to go where the action is. He goes across the wheat fields with the marines, about 5 00 in the afternoon. Maybe that is not such a great choice on his part, but he is out there when german machine guns start taking down the marines. One of the things i talked to marines about when i talk about this is how many people think charging machine guns is a good tactic . Crickets. They went out there. The Battalion Commander was shot. He is hit in the arm, goes facedown in the weeds. Another bullet hits the ground in front of them, and goes through his head, takes out an eye, exit through his helmet. He is reported dead, they cant get him out until dark. The germans dont care if you are wounded or not, they keep shooting the field. The rule is no unit will be mentioned by the name. The words will not be second division, definitely not marines. It is not supposed to happen. The sensor had been killed, so he said i will not change a word of it. He said he is going to go through as it is. It does. This battle goes on for about one month. All of the allies take the marines and make them superheroes. Why is this happening . A key is the allies need morale. What has happened with them since march with the germans . Germans have pummeled them. They push within 40 miles of harris. Even the of paris. Even though charging across the field with casualties, it was the worst day in marine corps ever for that day. The allies need this. Here is our counter attack, like it or not, they want to be mentioned, but we take it. They didnt take it. Thats the way newspaper guys are. It went across the world. The marines belleau wood, they change that part of the world. This is a victory in itself that the marines take. Imagine when he sees this, he is not happy. Raised during the battle. Up, we had flag went no idea what was going on