This is very likely the Marine Corps‘ most famous and popular slogan. The above commercials, narrated by Billy Brown, actually give me goosebumps. I either did all the things in the commercial so they really ring true to me or I was ready, willing, and able to do them. There were things in boot camp that I didn’t think that I was mentally ready for, but my drill instructors and fellow recruits helped me and the others to accomplish the task, so in the end I and the others could proudly earn the title U.S. Marine.

Though I had always wanted to be a Marine for as long as I can remember, I honestly didn’t think that I would ever achieve that goal. I was a skinny kid from Northern Ohio, and I put my money where my mouth was and I achieved my goal and I did it.

And as I grew as a Marine, learning and doing new things, I helped others to do what they once thought was impossible. I never imagined myself handling weapons, riding in heavy equipment, or driving a humvee. I had never flown in a plane before my trip from Ohio to San Diego for boot camp (don’t ask, six of us have no clue how in the hell we went to San Diego when we were east of the Mississippi so we should have went to Parris Island). During my time as an active duty Marine, I flew in a half dozen different fixed-wing aircraft and two different rotary-wing aircraft. I fired the M16A2, M14, M1, the M249 SAW, the M2 .50 Cal, the AT4, M1911, M9, Mossberg 590A1 shotgun and the Remington 870 shotgun. I’m sure that there were others, but I can’t recall. Even though I never served in a combat zone, we trained like we fight and since most of the places I worked at were non-descript buildings located just about anywhere, we had to provide our own security. Which means qualifying or FAM-Firing a ton of different weapons.

I never imagined that my high school wrestling would ever be useful, but here I was in the circle throwing other Marines in hand-to-hand. I had never rappelled before the Corps, and I got to not only rappel down a wall here and there, but from a helicopter, and I missed the fast roping course, which sucked, but it is what it is. I marched in a dozen parades, usually as a rifle bearer in the color guard, and I got to meet some great Marines like General Al Gray and R. Lee Ermey to name a few.

I thought it would be cool to go through some of the Marine Corps more famous slogans and commercials. This post was the first in that series.