How the Few Became the Proud

<P> For more than half its existence the U.S. Marine Corps and its members largely self-identified as soldiers. In the early decades being a Marine did not yet mean something distinct either to Marines or to the public at large. The Corps’ peculiar position resulted in a sort of identity crisis: Being neither a land-based organization like the Army nor an entirely sea-based one like the Navy the Corps’ role overlapped with both institutions. While the Army and Navy easily could define their respective domains Marines inherently shouldered a more varied array of land-and-sea responsibilities.  </P><P> Author Heather Venable argues that since the Marine Corps could not readily rally around a sole defining mission it turned instead to an image to ensure its institutional survival. As Marine officers immersed themselves in the Corps’ historical records they initiated a process by which a maligned group of nineteenth-century naval policemen eventually would come to be regarded as elite warriors. Embracing their storied past fin-de-siècle Marines began to justify their existence by invoking their traditions celebrating their many martial engagements and claiming to be the nation’s oldest and proudest military branch. A new and enduring institutional persona emerged—that of a fighting force ultimately superior to soldiers and sailors. Although there are countless works on the Marine Corps <I>How the Few Became the Proud</I> is the first to explore the origin of the myths behind the mystique.  </P>