Happy Birthday, Green Machine!

This morning I am live-blogging from the Marine Corps birthday ceremony at the NROTC facility at Oregon State University. The crowd is still gathering for a 1200 kickoff.

Yeah, I'm a squid, but I've spent many years in the company of Marines and have fond feelings for them. As you can tell from my bannerhead, I used to "deliver" Leathernecks for a living.

Waiting for things to begin

Later..... It was a good event and helped to remind me why I chose to serve all those years. There were Marines in attendance from WW II through to OIF. Thats a little over twenty five percent of the entire history of the Corps sitting in one room!

This is also a day to think about the two most important Marines in my life. My brother Randy (Recon, all the way) and my dearly departed mother-in-law Norma (one of the original WMs) who is undoubtedly keeping things squared away in Fiddler's Green until the rest of us arrive.


The cake went fast
(This was the second sheet. The first one with the fancy decorations went too fast for me to grab a picture.)


[Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.normsoft.com/hblogger/]