semper fi, bro

Today starts a special two day stretch for me. It’s the 250th birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps, followed by Veterans Day tomorrow. We Leathernecks won’t get a massive military parade to celebrate our birthday like Trump trumped up for the Army’s 250th this June 14th, which, in an amazing coincidence, also happened to be Aging Orange’s birthday.

It’s just as well. He wouldn’t have lasted a day in our boot camp. Leathernecks are all about courage, integrity and sacrifice. We started out humbly at Tun’s Tavern in Philadelphia and have a running joke that, to honour our beginnings, we’re never far from a bar.

So when I hoist one later today, it will be to the Corps and all who have fallen in its service. But more so, it will be to my friend Eddie Weekfall, a tough-as-nails soul brother I met in basic training. He was killed in Vietnam right after he captured a machine gun nest. I built a beach along a stream on our property and named it after him.

Semper fi, bro.