Marine CorpS baLL


Marines bringing in the traditional cake to the Birthday Ball for the cake- cutting ceremony


uniform, wear the uniform, and will someday wear it, as well as the sacrifices they have made.


“Ultimately we are celebrating the history of the


Marine Corps through this ball. I tell Marines that the legacy you leave behind is the history we inherit,” Wiseman said. “All the Marines who came before us, and did these great things, made us better Marines by doing that because we inherit that legacy.”


Wiseman said for generations,


Marines, no matter where they are deployed, will come together for this time-honored event. Celebrations, he added, range from the very elaborate ball, to a simple shared cake delivered into a combat zone — something he experienced once while deployed to Iraq in 2004 — to just quietly raising glasses in a toast.


“Given the nature of your environment,


Nov. 10 was chosen as the birthday of the Marine Corps was that on that day in 1775 the Continental Congress resolved to raise two battalions of Continental Marines.


The only other known observance of the Marine Corps


you will have to adjust. Obviously we weren’t in our dress blues,” Wiseman said. “But there is always a cake. And there are always Marines cutting it. We may not have swords, there might not be a color guard detail, but we will march out there with rifles if we have to.”


While the cake- cutting ceremony is the focal point of the Marine Corps' birthday celebrations, the highlight is definitely the pageantry of the Birthday Ball, which itself is steeped in military tradition


birthday prior to that occurred in 1923, Wiseman said, when an evening dance was held at Fort Mifflin, Pa. Other observances taking place around the same time included Marines at the Navy Yard in Norfolk, Va., staging a mock battle on the parade ground and Marines at Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, winning a baseball game over a Cuban team by a score of 9-8.


Wiseman said that over the years, the


annual Birthday Ball continued to grow and take on a life of its own, eventually evolving into the polished and professional function it is today. It was in 1952, he said, that then-Commandant, Gen. Lemuel C. Shepherd Jr., formalized the cake- cutting ceremony and other traditional observances, which are still used today.


For example, he said, the Marine Corps Wiseman explained that the tradition of the Birthday


Ball actually began back in 1925, with the first one being held in Philadelphia. He said that the reason


10


policy now mandates that the first piece of cake cut during the birthday celebration must be presented to the oldest U.S. Marine present. The second piece, he said, always goes to the youngest Marine.


“It is symbolic of passing on the legacy on to the junior Marine,” Wiseman explained.


SouthweSt Living - CeLebrationS 2011


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