Happy 240th!

It's difficult for me to comprehend that, seemingly a few eye blinks ago, it was the bicentennial—the 200th anniversary—of the Marine Corps.

And here it is, four decades later! Where did all that time fly? Where did all that strapping youth go?

I propose a toast (echoing the words of Marine Commandant Gen. L. H. Wilson, spoken at the 203rd Birthday Ball in 1978):

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.

Semper Fidelis!

Cheers (with tongue firmly in cheek)...