Etiquette-Marine Corps Birthday Ball

“The wonderful love of a beautiful maid,
The love of a staunch true man,
The love of a baby, unafraid,
Have existed since time began.
But the greatest of loves, the quintessence of loves,
even greater than that of a mother,
Is the tender, passionate, infinite love,
of one drunken Marine for another.”

General Louis H. Wilson, USMC (CMC)

Toast given at 203rd Marine Corps Birthday Ball, Camp Lejeune, N.C. 1978

“I might get so drunk I have to crawl, but by God I will crawl like a Marine.”

Unknown author