In keeping with the navy’s tradition of naming fighting destroyers for fighting men, this
 ship was named in honor of  Major Kenneth Dillon Bailey,
a career officer of the United States Marine Corps.

Marine Major Kenneth D. Bailey was posthumously awarded the
Medal of Honor on 24 March 1943, by the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt
during a special ceremony at the White House, for heroic conduct during action in the Solomon Islands.

The medal was presented to Major Bailey's wife, Mrs. Elizabeth S. Bailey.
The Major lost his life during the action on Guadalcanal for which
 he was cited and awarded the nation's highest military docoration.

Major Bailey, who also won the Silver Star Medal during the initial landing on Tulagi
in the Solomon Islands, was born in Pawnee, Oklahoma, on 21 October 1910.
He later moved to Danville, Illinois, with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus D. Bailey.

He spent three years with the 130th Infantry, Illinois National Guard, prior to receiving his
Second Lieutenant's commission in the Marine Corps on 1 July 1935.  He was ordered to the
Marine Barracks, Philadelphia, where he completed a course of instruction in the Basic School.

Joining the 5th Marines at Quantico, Virginia, he participated in maneuvers in San Diego,
and in the Caribbean.  On 2 June 1938, he joined the Marine Detachment as Detachment and
Battery Officer aboard the USS PENNSYLVANIA (BB-38).  He was advanced to
First Lieutenant on 19 January 1939 while serving aboard PENNSYLVANIA.
He was detached on 14 July 1940.

A short tour of duty at Quantico as Range Officer with the Rifle Range Detachment preceded his
 assignment as Assistant to the Training Officer, Recruit Depot, at Parris Island, South Carolina.
The Major was ordered to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in December 1940 where he joined the
1st Marine Brigade.  He later joined the 7th Marines, then the 1st Marine Regiment,
which returned to Parris Island not long after he reported for duty.
He was promoted to Captain in March 1941.

At Quantico in June 1941, he joined the 5th Marines as a company commander.
In February 1942, his unit was redesignated the 1st Marine Raider Battalion.
The unit was ordered to San Diego, California, in April 1942, and on the last
day of that month it reached Tutuila, Samoa.  He was promoted to
Major on 8 May 1942, prior to the assault on Tulagi.

Landing on Tulagi on 7 August 1942, he later moved with his unit to Guadalcanal,
where he won the Medal of Honor.  He was buried on Guadalcanal and his remains
were reinterred in Spring Hill Cemetery, Danville, Illinois, in June 1948.

In addition to the Medal of Honor and Silver Star Medal, Major Bailey was posthumously
awarded the Purple Heart; Presidential Unit Citation; Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal;
American Defense Service Medal with Fleet Clasp; and the World War II Victory Medal.

GUADALCANAL

The President of the United States takes pleasure in
presenting the CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR posthumously to

MAJOR KENNETH D. BAILEY
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS

for service as set forth in the following CITATION:

For extraordinary courage and heroic conduct above and beyond the call of duty as Commanding
Officer of Company C, First Marine Raider Battalion, during the enemy Japanese attack on
Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, on
 September 12-13, 1942.

Completely reorganized following the severe engagement of the night before, Major Bailey's
 company, within an hour after taking its assigned position as battalion reserve between the
main line and the coveted airport, was threatened on the right flank by the
penetration of the enemy into a gap in the main line.

In addition to repulsing this threat, while steadily improving his own desperately held position,
he used every weapon at his command to cover the forced withdrawal of the main line before
a hammering assault by superior enemy forces. After rendering invaluable service to the
Battalion Commander in stemming the retreat, reorganizing the troops and extending
the reserve position to the left, Major Bailey, despite a severe head wound,
 repeatedly led his troops in fierce hand to hand combat for a period of ten hours.

His great personal valor while exposed to constant and merciless enemy fire, and his indomitable
fighting spirit inspired his troops to heights of heroic endeavor which enabled them to repulse
the enemy and hold Henderson Field.  He gallantly gave up his life in the service of his country.
 

/S/ FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

THE FOLLOWING ARE EXCEPTS FROM THE BOOK

EDSON'S RAIDERS

The 1st Marine Raider Battalion in World War II

by

Col. Joseph H. Alexander, USMC (Ret.)

pertaining to Major Bailey

The hectic shake-up produced in time a solid group of company commanders, anchored
around the experienced Ken BAILEY, Charlie Company.  BAILEY, 31, a native of Pawnee, OK,
initially served three years with the 130th Infantry, Illinois National Guard,
then accepted a Marine Corps commission in 1935.  He was a true "Plank-Owner,"
having already served many years in the 5th Marines, plus a tour on board the
battleship Pennsylvania.  Of BAILEY, John Sweeney would later recall:
"He was the Hollywood version of a Marine officer:  tall, six-foot-three or so,
handsome, with...broad shoulders and lean of hip.  His men loved him,
and every junior officer in the outfit wanted to be just like Captain BAILEY.

Edson gave thought to his communications and announced a series of code names for the
key officers should it become necessary to quickly establish authenticity.  He, of course
was Red Mike, Sam Griffith was easy:  Sam Griff.  Ken BAILEY became Ken Dill, Lew Walt
became Silent Lew, Joe Chambers became Joe Pots (for Chamber Pot);
Lieutenant John Sweeney became John Wolf.  The simple system would twice prove
invaluable:  on Tulagi, and again during the second night at Edson's Ridge.

By D-Day afternoon Chambers' Dog Company had secured a piece of high ground from
  which they could observe Major Ken BAILEY's Charlie Company battling for a hilltop off
to their right.  "I spotted some Japs firing down on BAILEY's people."  Chambers stated,
"So I got my 60mm mortars set up and was calling the fire.  I thought that it was a premature
burst of one of my own mortars, but all of a sudden there was this great flash of fire
right in front of me, or maybe 10 or 15 feet up in the air.  It smashed my left wrist, broke my
right wrist and took a hunk out of my right leg."

Brave as they were, Boyd and Ryder could not outdo their company commander.
When a built-up emplacement thwarted Charlie Company, "Ken Dill" BAILEY ran forward,
leapt on top of the bunker, kicked open the peep holes and firing ports so other Raiders
could stuff grenades inside, then shot down the survivors with his Reising gun as they fled.
The exchange was not entirely one-sided.  A departing rikusentai turned and shot BAILEY
through the fleshy part of his thigh. BAILEY shook it off, moved forward, signaling
Platoon Sergeant Robert Jernigan and Lt Ryder to join him to plot the next advance.
Black Jack Salmon had rejoined the main body and saw that BAILEY and Jernigan were
dangerously exposed.  In Jernigan's account, "Major BAILEY had gone forward to
reconnoiter with me at his heels.  I was hit by a sniper's bullet coming from the top of a
coconut palm tree, the bullet no doubt intended for BAILEY who was on my left.
It entered my left upper chest,  went through a lung, and exited out the center
of my back, near my spine."  Salmon was there.  "Bang! and Jernigan went down.
There were only a few trees, and I saw this round hit in one of them and opened fire,
and much to my surprise I got him.  The firing became heavier.  BAILEY divided his
company, ordering Boyd to reinforce Lt Sullivan, while he and Ryder led a
bayonet charge against the next bunker.  Here BAILEY's luck ran out.  Both he and Ryder
went down hard, along with a number of Ryder's men.  Both officers were evacuated,
along with Jernigan.  BAILEY never lost his presence of mind.   "You know Black Jack,"
he said to Salmon as he was being carried to the aid station, "That Jap Arisaka isn't
a bad rifle at all."  Captain Robert Thomas, BAILEY's exec, took command of Charlie
Company, although Edson would eventually ask Sam Griffith to provide a direct
oversight.  The near-simultaneous loss of such popular company commanders
as BAILEY and Chambers stunned the Raiders.

Raider Clifford J. Fitzpatrick credited victory at Tulagi to Goss and Major Ken BAILEY.
"I never saw any Marines braver or more dedicated.  It was inevitable that they
were to be killed in action later.  They had nothing but scorn for the enemy
and for their own personal safety."

If pleased by the performance of his highly trained battalion in this first crucible,
Edson must also have worried about the loss of such proven leaders as BAILEY,
Chambers, and Walt -- three top-notch company commanders.

The morning of the 12th brought the unexpected and most welcome return of Major BAILEY
from the hospital in New Caledonia. BAILEY and Lt "Spike" Ryder had simply walked out --
a flagrant case of unauthorized absence -- and hitched a series of rides to get back to
Guadalcanal.  The two wounded officers, seeking ways to make themselves useful during
the long recuperative process, had volunteered to speak to groups of the Army's
Guadalcanal-bound 164th Infantry about Japanese weapons and tactics.
BAILEY was exuberant but still pale and weak.  Edson decided to keep him on a tether as
an operational assistant -- some would describe him as a "roving linebacker" -- instead
of returning him to full duty as Charlie Company's commander.  The decision proved
expensive for C Company but inspirational for the battalion.  Ken Dill BAILEY, bearing the
invisible angel of death on his broad shoulders, had barely two more weeks to
give to his country and his Corps.  BAILEY further endeared himself to the Raiders by
bringing with him hundreds of sacks of mail, the first "Mail Call" the battalion had
enjoyed since the campaign began.  It was a touch of grace.  Many men due to die in the
next two nights' fighting received at least one final connection with home and family.

Charlie Company was shattered.  Many of the men, "exfiltrated" in good order back
towards Hill 120 where Edson, Brown, and BAILEY calmly reorganized them into a
fighting reserve.  But many others were surrounded and cut down.  Platoon Sergeant
Stanley Kops, 32, from Hollywood, died.  Sergeant Tony "Big Stoop" Palonis,
another of Easy Company's intrepid machine gunners, fell wounded.
The jungle swarmed with Japanese.

Captain William A. Stiles' Dog Company of the 1st Engineer Battalion, 115 men strong,
advanced up the Ridge as provisional riflemen.  Major Ken BAILEY met the engineers at
the Raiders CP.  BAILEY wore tennis shoes, Stiles noted, unaware that the major was
still AWOL from a distant hospital.  Yet Stiles found BAILEY to be all business as he
"personally placed my bunch in the defensive position where we spent the night
under orders not to move or fall back under any conditions."

Sweeney, Maddox, and McKennan struggled to re-establish a new line, but Edson and
 BAILEY were the giants in this crisis. BAILEY was big enough to collar retreating
Marines and shake some sense into them.  "It was hard to stop the stampede,"
admitted Pete Pettus, but BAILEY "waved his pistol menacingly
and the men stopped and went back."

Captain McKennan in his essay paid national tribute to Ken Dill BAILEY, calling him
"one of the finest Marine Corps officers in the Solomons -- or anywhere else."
Private Ed Shepard, his nightmarish crawl from the lagoon finally ended, now lay
in his stretcher outside the bustling aid station, awaiting further evacuation to
the airfield and watching BAILEY manhandling replacements into the lines just
forward of the command post.  "BAILEY was one of the most courageous men I
ever knew," said Shepard.  "He walked the crest of that Ridge, directing and encouraging
every Marine as if it was a training exercise."  Tiger Erskine likened BAILEY's actions
"to those of a linebacker."  At the climax of the battle BAILEY came by Erskine's
position, looking for more volunteers to carry grenades forward.  Their eyes locked.
Erskine hesitated.  He was one of only three surviving Japanese language officers
on Guadalcanal.  BAILEY, recalled Erskine, "did not press me.  I rationalized holding back
[but] have felt survival guilt ever since."  [He need not have -- Tiger Erskine's
translational skills represented an irreplaceable asset for the Raiders.

BARman John P. Ingalls of Charlie Company, whose depleted unit's reserve mission
abruptly changed to front-line defense, scrambled up the slope looking for ammo,
found some, then got "appropriated" by BAILEY to guard himself and Edson as another
Japanese attack spilled towards them.  Ingalls lay at their feet, firing away, numbly aware that
both men were standing erect behind him, calmly talking on their field phones.

Both officers presented attactive upright targets as the attacking Japanese closed the range.
One Imperial marksman took aim at BAILEY and "rang his chimes," putting a 25-caliber
bullet through his helmet, just above his scull.  A second rifleman clipped BAILEY's
cheek with another near miss.  Blood smears made BAILEY's intense
expression appear the more fierce.

Whaling's reinforcements arrived literally in the nick of time.  To that point Edson's men
resembled the Texan defenders of the Alamo, grossly outnumbered, back-to-back,
nearly out of ammo.  Edson and BAILEY could count less than three-hundred men
defending Hill 120, the intermingled remnants of Raiders' B, C, D, and E Companies,
plus two small companies of Parachutists. BAILEY, Burak, Childs, and Pettus
somehow kept the cases of hand grenades coming, but the Japanese had plenty of
their own to lob into the closely-packed defenders.

General Vandegrift nominated Colonel Edson and Major BAILEY for the Medal of
Honor.  Edson's citation took note of his "cool leadership and personal courage."
BAILEY's described his "great personal valor while exposed to constant
and merciless enemy fire and his indomitable fighting spirit."

As in most battles, the individual rifleman rarely garnered the official recognition he
deserved.  Yet in this case each man who survived the battle came away with a
certain sacrosanct glory for fighting on that grisly hogback with Edson and BAILEY,
a dramatic encounter that immediately became one of the great legends of
the Marine Corps.  The battle would acquire several nicknames -- "Raiders' Ridge,"
"Bloody Ridge," "The Ridge" -- but the name that endures most today is simply
 "Edson's Ridge."

Behind the point platoon, but still well forward for a battalion executive officer, came
Major Ken BAILEY, in fine fettle.  He had regained more of his stamina and had
shrugged off the flesh wound to his face sustained during the second night at
The Ridge.  As was his frequent custom on a march, BAILEY offered to carry a
BAR or machine gun for any Raider having difficulty maintaining the pace.  This was
no act -- the man genuinely cared for his troops.  Three days earlier, correspondent
Richard Tregaskis asked BAILEYabout the men in the ranks.  BAILEY replied that he
held the enlisted Raiders in such high esteem "that when it comes to a job that's
pretty rugged, you'd rather go yourself than send them."  From anyone else these words
may have sounded phony, but BAILEY was remarkably unselfish.  No one would forget
his thoughtfulness in delivering five weeks of lost mail to the battalion
just before their biggest battle.

Sniper fire stopped Lt Sullivan's cautious advance just as his point squad reached the
eastern tributary of the Matanikau.  "Across the creek was a more or less open field,"
said Sullivan, "and a ridge beyond the field angling towards the river."
Major BAILEY came forward to assess the holdup, accompanied by his runner and
a radio operator.  Sullivan joined the small circle, probably standing along the trail at
the top of the bank before it dropped down to cross the creek.  The men scanned the
steep ridge beyond.  Sullivan suddenly spotted troops running in the open.  Just as he
turned to point them out to BAILEY, Sullivan recounted:  "A machine gun opened up.
We all hit the deck, Ken went down in front of me, his head on his hands, and he was
propped up on one knee.  The machine gun was going like mad.  I hollered for him to get
down -- when he didn't I grabbed his ankle and pulled it from under him.  He was dead."
The machine-gun fire killed BAILEY instantly.  "Never knew what hit him,"
said Sullivan.  "Hit right between the eyes, and no one else in that circle was touched."
Sullivan was bereft.  "He was my idol," he said, and "having seen him in action so much
and then [for him to] go out with his hands in his pockets, so to speak, hurt."
Sullivan then expressed a widely-felt epitaph:  "No finer Marine ever lived or died for
his country."  BAILEY died three weeks shy of his thirty-second birthday.

BAILEY's sudden death stunned the Raiders, but the Japanese ambush left them no
time to mourn.  Now enemy mortars opened up on the head of the column.  The men
scrambled for cover, searching for broken terrain for an artfully hidden enemy.  In
Griffith's subsequent analysis, the well-concealed Japanese "put a stopper in the
jungle bottleneck, which measured about 20 yards from river to ridge."
Griffith came to the forefront, shocked to find BAILEY dead -- he had lost both
a good friend and a highly competent assistant, the last of his field grade officers.

The melancholy duty of evacuating Major BAILEY's body back to the aid station fell
to two headquarters NCOs, Sergeant Horse Collar Smith and Corporal Tom Driscoll.
"It was quite a shock to both of us to see a man we thought impregnable so very, very dead,"
said Smith in 1956.  The two Raiders carried BAILEY back down the riverside trail in a
poncho.  The trip was nightmarish.  "He was a lot of man and it was quite a load to haul;
the poncho kept slipping out of our hands and we kept tripping over roots."  Horse Collar
Smith, still grieving over the death of his friend Ikey Arnold at the Ridge two weeks
earlier, experienced an almost overwhelming sense of sadness.  Smith and Driscoll eventually
delivered BAILEY's body to Doctor Bob Skinner at the battalion aid station.

The deteriorating condition of the Raiders came to the attention of the division commander.
General Vandegrift wrote to Admiral Kelly Turner in early October, expressing regret
that "Major BAILEY of the Raiders was killed and that Lieutenant Colonel Griffith...
was wounded in the shoulder."  Vandegrift said he had discussed the situation with Edson
and concluded that "with the losses sustained in both officers and men of this battalion,
and the strenuous work they have done, that they should be returned to Noumea -- for rebuilding."

The camp of the First MarineRaider Battalion in the Saint Louis area is herely named
CAMP BAILEY in honor of Major Kenneth D. BAILEY, USMC, who lost his
life in the service of his country while engaged in action against
the enemy at Guadalcanal, British Solomon Islands.

LtCol Samuel B. Griffith, USMC, Commanding Officer
January 1943, New Caledonia

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in a White House ceremony on 24 March 1943
presented the posthumous award of the Medal of Honor to Major BAILEY's widow, Elizabeth.
The President singled out BAILEY's "extraordinary courage and heroic conduct" in
defending TheRidge during 12-13 September 1942.  The citation ended, as posthumous
ones always do, with the words "he gallantly gave up his life in the service of his country."
At the same time a letter to the eidtor at Time magazine appeared in praise of BAILEY.

Army Staff Sergeant Vasco Walters was one of the members of the 164th Infantry whom
BAILEY voluntarily trained while recuperating from his first wounds in New Caledonia.
Walters described BAILEY as "a tall, well-built, blue-eyed man, the perfect picture of a
fighting Marine."  Walters and his soldiers expressed shock to learn of BAILEY's
death just before the 164th arrived on Guadalcanal.  "As long as America continues
to produce men like him," said Walters, "we'll lose very few battles and never a war."
Here was testimony more valid than the citation itself.

NOTES

  On 6 August 1997 (7 August in the Solomon Islands), former Raider
Robert Youngdeer unveiled a granite memorial in the back yard of his
Cherokee, North Carolina home inscribed to "Red Mike and his Gallant Men,
Edson's Raiders, South Pacific, WWII, Semper Fidelis."  Youngdeer had survived
being shot in the face as he tried to rescue a wounded Marine at first light on
13 September during the Battle for Edson's Ridge.  Youngdeer, who named his firstborn
son Merritt Edson, served as Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokees in the
mid-1980's.  Nearly 100 people attended the private dedication, including many
Raiders or their widows who traveled a great distance to stand
in honor of their comrades one more time.

BAILEY's generosity along the march was exemplified by John Carson to Frank Guidone, 26Jul91:
"Moving from the coconut grove towards the Ridge, hot as hell, carrying a bag of 60mm
mortar shells, and who should appear but Major BAILEY. 'Tired, son?  Let me help
you with your load,' and took the bag off my shoulder."

In a 25Oct56 letter to Pete Pettus, Clifford J. Fitzgerald, a member of Corporal Ben Howland's
Baker Company rifle squad at 1st Matanikau, recalls carrying BAILEY's body back to the
beach on a stretcher.  Given Baker Company's position as the rear  guard of the battalion,
and thus arrayed along the northern end of the column, closest to the aid station, it is
 quite likely that Howland's squad got tagged to relay BAILEY's body from the aid
station (hence the stretcher) to the beach, vice from the vicinity of the Nippon
Bridge.  Fitzgerald's description of Edson's grief at the news of
BAILEY's death is compelling.

 SHIPS NAMED FOR 1ST MARINE RAIDERS

DE-575 - PFC EDWARD H. AHRENS (KIA, 7 August 1942, Tulagi)

DD-713 -  Maj KENNETH D. BAILEY (KIA,  27 September 1942, Mantanikau I)

APD-39 -  PFC WOODROW W. BARR (KIA, 7 August 1942, Tulagi)

APD-136 - PFC LOUIS J. CARPELLOTTI (KIA, 7 August 1942, Tulagi)

DE-450 - CPL JOSEPH E. CONNOLLY (KIA, 9 October 1942, Mantanikau II)

APD-130  -  SGT DALLAS H. COOK (KIA, 18 August 1942, Makin)

DD-946  -  MGen MERRITT A. EDSON (MOH, 12-13 September 1942, The Ridge)

DD-829  -  1stLt MYLES C. FOX (KIA, 8 August 1942, Tulagi)

DE-367  -  CPL NELSON T. FRENCH (KIA, 9 October 1942, Mantanikau II)

DE-508  -  PVT JOHN J. GILLIGAN (KIA, 8 August 1942, Tulagi)

DE-444  -  Marine Gunner ANGUS R. GOSS (KIA, 20 July 1943, Bairoko)

DD-712  -  PVT EDWARD E. GYATT (KIA, 7 August 1942, Tulagi)

DE-449  -  PVT WILLIAM T. HANNA (KIA, 9 October 1942, Mantanikau II)

DE-510  -  PFC GEORGE HEYLIGER (KIA, 9 October 1942, Matanikau II)

DE-583  - PVT GEORGE A. JOHNSON (KIA, 10 August 1942, Tulagi)

DE-348  - 1stLt EUGENE M. KEY (KIA, 7 August 1942, Tulagi)

DE-577  - Platoon Sergeant ALEXANDER J. LUKE (KIA, 7 August 1942, Tulagi)

DE-183  -  LT(jg) SAMUEL S. MILES, MC, USN (KIA, 7 August 1942, Tulagi)

DE-587  -  PVT THOMAS F. NICKEL (KIA, 7 August 1942, Tulagi)

DE-578  -  PVT ROBERT I. PAINE (KIA, 7 August 1942, Tulagi)

DE-369  -  PhM 2/C THADDEUS PARKER, USN (KIA, 20 July 1943, Bairoko)

DD-863  -  PFC DONALD B. STEINAKER (KIA, 9 October 1942, Matanikau II)

DD-721  -  SGT WOODROW R. THOMPSON (KIA, 9 October 1942, Matanikau II)
Ship construction was cancelled.

APD-129  - SGT DONALD W. WOLF (KIA, 9 October 1942, Mantanikau II)

WHY I LIKE MARINES

by

RADM JAMES R. STARK, USN
55TH President, U.S. Naval War College
(6-95 to 7-98)

Remarks made in Newport, RI on 10 November 1995
on the 220th birthday of the Corps.

"The first reason I like Marines:  They set high standards for themselves
and those around them and will accept nothing less.  I like the way
Marines march.  I like the way Marines do their basic training whether
it's Quantico, Parris Island, or San Diego.  I like the idea [that] Marines
cultivate an ethos conducive of producing hard people in a soft age.
I like the fact that Marines stay in shape.  I like the fact that the
Marines only have one boss----------the Commandant.  And I like the
directness of the Commandant.  I like the fact that Marines are
stubborn.  I like the way Marines obey orders.  I like the way the
Marines make the most of the press.  I like the wholehearted
professionalism of the Marines.

It occurred to me that the services could be characterized by different
breeds of dogs...The Air Force reminds me of a French Poodle.  The
poodle always looks perfect, sometimes seems a bit pampered...
always travels first class.  But don't ever forget that the poodle was
bred as a hunting dog and in a fight it's very dangerous.  The Army is
kind of like a St. Bernard.  It's big and heavy and sometimes seems
a bit clumsy.  But it's very powerful and has lots of stamina.  So you
want it for the long haul.  The Navy, God bless us, is a Golden
Retriever.  They're good natured and great around the house.  The kids
love 'em.  Sometimes their hair is a bit log...they go wandering off for
long periods of time, and they love water.  Marines I see as two breeds,
Rottweilers or Dobermans, because Marines come in two varieties,
big and mean, or skinny and mean...They're aggressive on the attack
and tenacious on defense.  They've got really short hair
and they always go for the throat.

That sounds like a Marine to me!  So what I really like about Marines is
that 'first to fight' isn't just a motto, it's a way of life.  From the
day they were formed at Tun Tavern 221 years ago, Marines have
distinguished themselves on battlefields around the world.  From the
fighting tops of the Bonhomme Richard, to the sands of the Barbary
coast, from the swamps of New Orleans to the halls of Montezuma, from
Belleau Wood, to the Argonne Forest, to Guadalcanal, and Iwo Jima, and
Okinawa and Inchon, and Chosin Resevoir and Hue City and Quang Tri and
Dong Ha, and Beirut, and Grenada, and Panama, and Somalia and Bosnia
and a thousand unnamed battlefields in godforsaken corners of the globe,
Marines have distinguished themselves by their bravery, and stubbornness
and aggresive spirit, and sacrifice, and love of country, and loyalty
to one another.  They've done it for you and me, and this Country we all
love so dearly.  And they asked for nothing more than the honor of being
a United States Marine.  And that's why I like Marines."