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As the Marine Corps celebrated its 248th birthday on Friday, Marines around the globe gathered for their battalion-mandated birthday balls and ate, drank, and drank some more. At every birthday ball, it is customary to include a cake-cutting ceremony where the youngest and oldest Marines present eat a piece of cake (symbolizing inappropriate fraternization relationships or something, idk).
Age is an interesting phenomenon in the Corps. The youngest Marines always seem to get younger, and the oldest Marines are always way younger than they look.
I attended the birthday ball as the Guest of Honor for 1st Distribution Support Battalion down in San Diego, where the youngest Marine there was born in 2005. It signified to me that we’re well-past the post 9/11 era and are entering something brand new.
With everything going on in the world right now, who knows what we’ll end up calling it a few years from now. I do know that there’s only 4 short years left before Gen-Z is no longer up and coming, and Gen-Alpha will be the youngest Marines present at the ball.
Either way, I had a good time.
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