Local Marines celebrate Corps' birthday with ball

As the James M. Slay Detachment of the Marine Corps League celebrated the Corps' 249th birthday Nov. 2, they also helped to kick off a week of similar celebrations around the world.

Among the ceremonial rites elevating the pageantry at the Marine Corps Ball were the playing of the national anthem and the Marines' Hymn, the honor guard's presentation of colors, and the cutting of the birthday cake.

In keeping with birthday tradition, the first slice of cake was presented to the ball's honored guest, General Anthony Zinni, USMC Ret., followed by presentation of pieces to the oldest and youngest Marines present (Kenneth Varndell and Nicholas Wennberg, respectively).

In remarks that followed the opening ceremonies at Lakewood Retirement Community, Zinni commented that during his service – which took him to more than 70 countries – he has celebrated the Marine Corps birthday "in all kinds of places" and under all sorts of circumstances. But there were a few celebrations that stood out in his memory.

In one, he marked the occasion with only himself and a fellow Marine in a bunker in Vietnam. "We lit up our C-rations" as a substitute for cake, he recalled, noting that it wasn't hard to determine who got the first piece.

"He was the oldest, I was the youngest."

After suffering serious injuries in Vietnam, Zinni observed the birthday with fellow wounded soldiers in a hospital in Da Nang. And while stationed in the Philippines, Zinni said, he once celebrated "in the middle of a typhoon."

For the 200th birthday of the Marine Corps, however, he was able to commemorate the occasion in his homeland, with a crowd in Washington, D.C.

Since his retirement, Zinni has distinguished himself in multiple fields, including business (chairman and CEO of a defense company), academia (professor of military science at Old Dominion University), and as an author of two New York Times best-selling books (Battle Ready, co-authored with Tom Clancy, and Battle for Peace, a book about foreign policy). He has also written books on leadership and on national security policy.

But on Nov. 2, his skill as a speaker was evident as well, both in his humble tone and compelling stories – and in the crowd-pleasing conclusion to his remarks.

For his finale, Zinni read from a poem by General Louis H. Wilson that describes different types of love, including romantic feelings for a man or woman, or the love one has for a child.

"But the greatest of loves, the quintessence of loves, even greater than that of a mother," he read on, "Is the tender, passionate, infinite love of one drunken Marine for another."

Just as chortles of laughter from the crowd threatened to drown out the poem's ending, Zinni raised his voice to add the final line. "Semper Fidelis!” he exclaimed – and the laughter changed to roars of approval.