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thedrifter
11-07-05, 07:44 AM
Anniversary a proud occasion for old and young

Monday, November 07, 2005
By Torsten Ove, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"Cake escort!" one old Marine barked. "Present the cake!"

So began yesterday's Marine Corps Ball at a Bethel Park hotel, where generations of Marines packed a ballroom as the South Hills Detachment of the Marine Corps League celebrated the 230th birthday of the Corps.

Birthdays are big in the U.S. Marine Corps, which got its start in a Philadelphia bar in 1775.

This party featured the spectacle of a Marine major in full dress uniform slicing a ceremonial cake with his sword; a color guard of old-timers; a bagpiper playing the Corps' famed anthem; and a squad of proud Young Marines 8 to 18 years old, performing a silent precision drill on the ballroom floor.

That last event made for quite a spectacle.

"I know some real Marines can't do that stuff," said Sgt. Brian Joseph, a wounded veteran of the war in Iraq who had spent the last six weeks training the group for this night.

Before the youngsters performed, they received a pep talk in the hallway -- Marine-style, of course:

"Don't smile! Thousand-yard stare! Chin up! Be proud!"

Then they marched out in combat fatigues and put on a show of orchestrated maneuvers and twirling rifles. When it was done, Sgt. Joseph beamed. Then he and the group marched right back into the hallway to do celebratory pushups.

The crowd of about 200 appreciated the effort -- especially one elderly veteran in the back of the room.

"Fabulous!" said Bob Knorr, 80, of Bethel Park. "Honest to God, that was good."

Mr. Knorr, a World War II veteran, remembers watching in tears as his comrades raised the flag on Mount Suribachi during the battle for Iwo Jima in 1945.

That image has come to symbolize the Marine Corps slogan of "Semper Fidelis" -- meaning always faithful.

"I was at the bottom of the volcano when the colors went up," he said. "I still remember it. They say Marines don't cry, but there wasn't a dry eye on Iwo when those colors went up."

Seven thousand Marines died on Iwo and 23,000 suffered wounds, many of them terrible. But Mr. Knorr spent 39 days on the island without getting a scratch.

"They missed me," he laughed. "I was lucky."

He summed up his feelings about being a Marine with these words: "Damn proud."

That was a common theme in this group.

"Marines continue to make an incredible commitment to our Corps and our country," said state Auditor General Jack Wagner, keynote speaker and a Vietnam War veteran. "Marines are a very special breed."

The Marine Corps League is an outgrowth of various clubs established by Marines returning from the trenches of World War I in 1918.

Today, the organization has more than 30,000 members with 570 detachments.

The South Hills Detachment began in 1990 with 20 members, including the late Col. Donald Neff of Bethel Park, who won the Silver Star for valor in the Pacific.

The unit now has 96 members and continues to grow as new wars in Afghanistan and Iraq produce a new generation of combat veterans.

Ellie

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