Compass Points - Spirit of Marines

Marines are the key

Compass Points - Spirit of Marines

Marines are the key

October 25, 2024

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What does Samuel Whittemore have to say to the Marine Corps today? Everything.

The US is facing a variety of challenges and threats around the world from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and more. To deter and defeat all foes, the US needs a comprehensive national security strategy. A big part of the national security strategy is the national military strategy. To be strong, the US needs all branches of the armed forces performing at the highest level. That means the US needs a Marine Corps performing at its best. The Nation has traditionally depended on the Marines to be 'most ready when the nation is least ready.' Marines in the past have always been organized, trained, and equipped to provide global crisis response.

When a crisis erupts anywhere around the world, senior US decision makers should know they only need to dial Marines 9-1-1. The Marines arrive fast and first with a small, combined arms force ready to deter, assist, or fight. That small initial force can be quickly augmented with more supplies and equipment and with more Marines. In the event of major conflict, Marines hold the line until the arrival of even more assets from the other services. Down through the decades, this approach of a 'first to fight' Marine Corps has served the Nation well.

Today the Marine Corps needs to refocus on worldwide crisis response. The Marine Corps needs more amphibious ships, more combined arms units and equipment, and more Marines. The bad news is the Marine Corps cannot make its own amphibious ships. It cannot make its own armor, air, or artillery. The good news is the Marine Corps can get the necessary ships and equipment with the help of Congress.

In addition, the Marine Corps can still make Marines. What is the key ingredient in the Marine Corps' worldwide crisis response force? Yes ships, equipment, supplies, and technology are all important, but the key ingredient, the crucial ingredient, is Marines.

The Marine Corps Recruiting Command is led by three senior leaders:

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-- Commanding General, Major General William J. Bowers

-- Executive Deputy, Mr. Jeff Morgan

-- Sergeant Major Allen B. Goodyear

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They make sure that Marines being made today still have the fighting spirit Marines have always had. In a difficult recruiting environment, Marine recruiters are still finding quality recruits. Those recruits are still put through a rigorous boot camp culminating in the Crucible, a final test of the recruits' grit and determination. It is only at the end of the Crucible that the recruits earn their Eagle, Globe, and Anchor. As always, the Marine EGA is earned, never given.

It is the spirit of a Marine that makes the Marine Corps. What is that special Marine fighting spirit?

Perhaps Samuel Whittemore can provide the answer.

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Capt. Whittemore was a 78-year-old farmer living on the outskirts of Concord, Massachusetts when on April 19, 1775, he awoke to the sound of marching British troops and the “shot heard round the world.”

According to an 1864 account by Minister Samuel Abbot Smith, Whittemore’s wife, Esther, began packing up their home so she and her husband could wait out the imminent violence at her stepson’s home.

She assumed her aging husband, a former member of the British Royal dragoons, would accompany her. Instead, according to Smith, Whittemore was found “oiling his musket and pistols, and sharpening his sword.”

. . . As the British retreated to Boston through the Whittemores’ town of Menotomy on April 19, the aging dragoon was determined to eke out his pound of flesh on the British. Crouching behind a wall near his home, the farmer shot two soldiers to death and possibly killed one more, according to the Journal of the American Revolution.

British soldiers quickly tracked down the less-than-mobile guerilla soldier and enacted a savage revenge.

Whittemore was shot in the face at point-blank range, bayoneted no less than six times and clubbed in the head with the butts of the British soldiers’ muskets.

-- Claire Barrett, Historynet

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Samuel Whittemore exhibited the qualities of a Marine and the qualities of Marine maneuver warfare before either existed.

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-- Once the fight was on, Whittemore did not wait for orders.

-- Whittemore looked for opportunity and took it.

-- Whittemore did not sit on defense, he went on the offense.

-- Whittemore used skills he had honed through constant training.

-- Whittemore did not think of himself but of the mission.

-- Whittemore was physically, mentally, and spiritually strong.

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What happened to Samuel Whittemore? Left for dead by the British, Whittemore's neighbors dragged him to a doctor who sewed up his wounds but offered little hope for Whittemore's survival. Samuel Whittemore, however, had his own ideas. He refused to die. The 78-year-old lived another 18 years. Compass Points salutes Samuel Whittemore for his fighting spirit. He might not have been officially a Marine, but Samuel Whittemore had the fighting spirit of a Marine.

It is the spirit of a Marine that makes the Marine Corps. Throughout its history, Marines working together have accomplished extraordinary things. No matter the struggles the Marine Corps has today, the Marine Corps Recruiting Command is still making Marines. And the Marines being made today have that same Marine Corps spirit: never give up and never give in. Samuel Whittemore would be proud.

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Marine Corps Recruiting Command

https://www.mcrc.marines.mil/

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Historynet - 01/19/2023

 He Was Shot in the Face and Bayoneted by the British. But This 78-Year-Old Patriot Refused to Die.

By Claire Barrett

https://www.historynet.com/samuel-whittemore-revolutionary-war/