We Go Wednesday – 235th Marine Corps Birthday Ball

Today is the 235th birthday for the United States Marine Corps. Every year, starting with the first “formal” Birthday Ball Philadelphia in 1925, it’s one of the biggest celebration in the Corps. Different units celebrate at different weekends around this time, ours was this past weekend.

Normally, I don’t blog about the Ball, as I go almost every year. But this time it was a major milestone.

We took the boys with us this year.Don’t you love the little one’s smile? It has Forced Fun written all over it. Or “I will bite you if you come too close”. He smiles/grimaces like that in all his pictures!

There were alot of questioning from friends because the Ball is the equivalent of Prom Night when it comes to inappropriateness. Men and alcohol. Let’s just say that last year, a certain someone had a hard time getting up the next morning, and it wasn’t me, because I didn’t go.

This year, the Ball was in a nice hotel so we could stay there and I could whisk the boys off at any sign of crazy.
Sorry for the blur, I couldn’t get the settings right, but you get the point.

I didn’t get many pictures, the guest speaker talked for an hour (!!!) and it was already late, and the natives were restless and well, let’s just say I didn’t get many pictures.


The evening’s highlights included cutting the birthday cake with a saber and the oldest Marine of the unit giving the piece to the youngest Marine in the unit (who I might add was born in 1992! I graduated high school that year!) and the guest speaker who was a first wave Marine at Iwo Jima.

This post is not only to celebrate Marines around the globe, but also to those who have fallen. Every Ball has an empty table set in full service for one, draped in black to symbolize those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Photo from The Bulldog Newsletter.

My family and I wish Marines all around the world a Happy Birthday!