{"id":311778,"date":"2025-10-17T21:59:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T21:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/311778\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T21:59:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T21:59:11","slug":"turbulent-times-accompany-marines-250th-anniversary-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/311778\/","title":{"rendered":"Turbulent times accompany Marines’ 250th anniversary celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Two<\/a>U.S. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Michael R. Nakonieczny, the deputy commanding general of I Marine Expeditionary Force, shakes hands with Vice President JD Vance, after Vance arrived at Camp Pendleton on July 11, 2025. Vance returns to the base Saturday for a celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Marines. (Photo by Cpl. Noah Martinez\/USMC)<\/p>\n

A patriotic celebration attended by top U.S. officials and nationwide protest marches.<\/p>\n

For some, the combination may strike a discordant note, but not Gregory Daddis, an Army veteran and military historian. For the former director of the Center for War and Society at San Diego State University, the events, both happening Saturday, have a certain harmony.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn one sense, you can make a strong argument that the former protects the latter,\u201d said Daddis<\/a>, who is now at Texas A&M University. \u201dCelebrating 250 years of Marine Corps<\/a> service to the nation guarantees the freedom of speech that you\u2019re seeing in the protests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three branches of the military are celebrating their semiquincentennials this year \u2013 the Marines, U.S. Navy and U.S. Army \u2013 but Saturday\u2019s event for the Marines at Camp Pendleton<\/a> falls on the same day as another round of \u201cNo Kings\u201d marches<\/a> in San Diego County and throughout the country.<\/p>\n

The event at the North County base, \u201cSea to Shore \u2013 A Review of Amphibious Strength,\u201d is expected to draw thousands, just like the multiple local editions of the \u201cNo Kings\u201d protests.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Vice President JD Vance is set to be part of the salute to the Marines, as is Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and early reports about the ceremony suggested that a show of live fire<\/a> could take place over Interstate 5, potentially forcing a closure of the busy freeway.<\/p>\n

Marine representatives denied that speculation hours after it surfaced Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll training events will occur on approved training ranges and comport with established safety protocols,\u201d the officials said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the noise surrounding the event \u2013 both live-fire demonstrations and debate over the Trump administration, from ICE access to bases to the government shutdown to Hegseth\u2019s recent \u201cwarrior ethos\u201d speech before military brass \u2013 threatens to overshadow its ostensible purpose, observing Marine Corps history.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are moments when we can reflect upon the deep relationships between America and its armed forces,\u201d Daddis said. \u201cBoth vets and current serving Marines deserve that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Marine Corps was founded on Nov. 10, 1775<\/a> and conducted its first raid four months later. But there was a 15-year break in service following the Revolutionary War before the Marines were re-established in 1798 and over the next several years saw action in multiple conflicts, with France, Britain, Mexico and more.<\/p>\n

The label \u201cdevil dogs\u201d came about in World War I, coined for the 4th Marine Brigade for its valor in France at Belleau Wood, among other battles.<\/p>\n

Famous WW II battlegrounds for the Marines included Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Guam, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. By the end of the war, the branch had grown to include six divisions and five air wings. <\/p>\n

One more note from that era: Camp Pendleton opened its doors. Dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942, the base was named in honor of the late WW I Major General Joseph H. Pendleton who had died earlier that year.<\/p>\n

That was more than 20 years after the Marine Corps Recruit Depot opened and 55 years before MCAS Miramar became a Marine base<\/a> after decades of Navy stewardship.<\/p>\n

The region\u2019s relationship with the Marines runs deep, whether in Oceanside near Camp Pendleton or in San Diego, home to the depot and air station.<\/p>\n

\u201cSan Diego supporting the Marines is highly important,\u201d said Mark Carlson, a military historian and author from San Marcos. \u201cIt\u2019s a city that always had a strong military ethos, a strong understanding of what the military is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of the politics, Carlson said, the 250th anniversary is a reminder that Americans owe a debt to their service members because \u201cthey\u2019re the ones risking everything to get a job done.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo show respect for somebody in the military, that person in a Marine uniform, a Navy uniform, an Army uniform, they\u2019re not doing anything political, just following the orders of the commander in chief, God help us,\u201d he said, \u201cWe need to respect them and show that respect. That means everything to the military.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Michael R. Nakonieczny, the deputy commanding general of I Marine Expeditionary Force, shakes…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":311779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,69394,2066,157308,6986,3549,2247,48789,7264,10760,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-311778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-camp-pendleton","12":"tag-jd-vance","13":"tag-marine-corps-recruit-depot","14":"tag-pete-hegseth","15":"tag-san-diego","16":"tag-san-diego-state-university","17":"tag-san-marcos","18":"tag-sandiego","19":"tag-u-s-marine-corps","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115391756260334640","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}