Know what today is?

Yeah, I know it’s Flag Day, and Pamela does a great job at Atlas Shugs celebrating that particular recognition, but that’s not all it is today.

After my kids’ birthdays and my anniversary, it’s probably the only date I have hammered into my head. It’s the Army’s Birthday – 232-years old today. In fact, it was 32-years ago today, I performed my 10th jump, it was on Fort Benning’s Fryar Drop Zone for President Gerald Ford. Actually, we dropped the 13th for our parade for the President on the 14th – the 200th Birthday of the Army.

Today, the US Embassy in Baghdad thanked the US Army with this cake (photo courtesy of the US Army);

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Sergeant Major of the Army Kenneth O. Preston and some less important guys cut the cake in Washington, DC (courtesy of the US Army, photo by SSG Christina O’Connell)

From the Center for Military History;

The June 14 date is when Congress adopted “the American continental army” after reaching a consensus position in The Committee of the Whole. This procedure and the desire for secrecy account for the sparseness of the official journal entries for the day. The record indicates only that Congress undertook to raise ten companies of riflemen, approved an enlistment form for them, and appointed a committee (including Washington and Schuyler) to draft rules and regulations for the government of the army. The delegates’ correspondence, diaries, and subsequent actions make it clear that they really did much more. They also accepted responsibility for the existing New England troops and forces requested for the defense of the various points in New York. The former were believed to total 10,000 men; the latter, both New Yorkers and Connecticut men, another 5,000.

So, to all of my brothers-in-arms, all of those Dogfaced Soldiers, past, present and future, I send out this ditty;

I Wouldn’t Give A Bean
To Be A Fancy Pants Marine,
I’d rather Be A Dogface Soldier Like I Am.
I Wouldn’t Trade My Old O.D.’s
For All The Navy’s Dungarees
For I’m The Walking Pride Of Uncle Sam;
On All The Posters That I Read It Says
The Army Builds Men
So They’re Tearing Me Down To Build Me Over Again
I’m Just A Dogface Soldier
With A Rifle On My Shoulder
And I Eat Raw Meat For Breakfast Everyday.
So Feed Me Ammunition,
Keep Me In The Third Division,
Your Dogfaced Soldier Boy’s Okay

(edited to rectify grotesque politically correct language-alterations)

Please stand for the Army’s Song;

Intro: March along, sing our song, with the Army of the free
Count the brave, count the true, who have fought to victory
We’re the Army and proud of our name
We’re the Army and proudly proclaim

Verse: First to fight for the right,
And to build the Nation’s might,
And The Army Goes Rolling Along
Proud of all we have done,
Fighting till the battle’s won,
And the Army Goes Rolling Along.

Refrain: Then it’s Hi! Hi! Hey!
The Army’s on its way.
Count off the cadence loud and strong (TWO! THREE!)
For where e’er we go,
You will always know
That The Army Goes Rolling Along.

Verse: Valley Forge, Custer’s ranks,
San Juan Hill and Patton’s tanks,
And the Army went rolling along
Minute men, from the start,
Always fighting from the heart,
And the Army keeps rolling along.
(refrain)

Verse: Men in rags, men who froze,
Still that Army met its foes,
And the Army went rolling along.
Faith in God, then we’re right,
And we’l fight with all our might,
As the Army keeps rolling along.
(refrain)

Unashamedly stolen from the Military Motivator (h/t Blackfive)

Category: Historical, Support the troops