THE BIRTHDAY PARTY

[Music] I'm giving a party and I don't know how many people are gonna show up I'll call you when they get here and you send the mail and okay [Music] hello main guess this is why our penis in the banquet room has anybody said anything about the notice I put up in the lobby about the birthday party oh okay [Music] excuse me that's okay hey is this the right place depends on what you're looking for the notice in the lobby the birthday party this is the place I want Peters and Walter Crawford pleased to meet you we get well so far there's twice as many guys in this room as there was a minute ago the clerk said over 100 people checked in if we're lucky maybe we'll grab another guy these motel chains are pretty smart putting up a place like this right in the middle of nowhere where two highways cross you telling me I work for them I'm in cement contracting I'm just up here to do a little huntin well I've been retired for a few years party huh birthday party I'm water Crawford and this is Warren Peters Joshua Jackson the roast beef will be ready in a jiffy if that's okay with everybody 475 okay or whatever sure well you'll have to take your chances on it same as me oh this is what Peter's in the banquet room yeah we're gonna have the roast beef medium okay what everybody medium yeah well having medium make it three make it four oh wait I just this is a private party buddy right the birthday party y'all looking for the birthday party I don't believe this hey name is Marlon McCreevy and like the rest of you gentlemen I am a former United States Marine happy birthday thank you very good son birthday [Music] I guess something had to remind me about what today was so just as I was leaving the house the smaller the man man turned up at the book all the way down even a plane that flipped joy I mean it it's got things in there I didn't know and he got me to thinking about the time I was in the court and when I got stuck here on tonight of all night I figured there'd be some other guys just like me so I put the novus up yeah read the way it starts it's got kind of funny language but it hits it right on the head you know for 200 years the United States Marines have been protectors of the American dream their spirit their flamboyance and courage and grace their capacity for fury their humanity our qualities which reflect what we Americans are their discipline their self-confidence their respect for rules and standards their readiness to sacrifice their pursuit of excellence are qualities which we Americans must now redo that's a mouthful huh yeah it's heavy but it gives us something to think about you know it's getting tougher every day to be a good anything good American good human being a good marine you know I think maybe an awful lot has changed over the last 200 years but not the recruiting pitch listen to this poster great encouragement American Revolution what a brilliant prospect does this event hold out to every lad of spirit who is inclined to try his fortune in the highly renowned Corps the Continental Marine the Continental Marines who with far superior advantages to these have the additional benefit of liberal pay and the best provisions with a good and well-appointed ship the pride and glory of the Continental Navy surely every man of spirit must flush to remain at home in inactivity and indolence when his country needs his assistance you will receive a 17 dollar bounty a single young man on his return to port finds himself able to cut a swath onshore with a girl in a glass that might be envied by a nobleman take courage then seize the opportunity that awaits you prepare at once to the marine rendezvous there the bringer of the recruit will receive $3 most people don't know the eight months before this nation was born the Marine Corps was authorized by the Continental Congress so they became the first to resist as Americans not as New Yorkers or Virginians and when the revolution was over in one the Congress set the pattern that we've always followed they practically wiped out the army the Navy and the Marines but not for long the Barbary pirates were beginning to act up about that time demanding tribute from any nation that dared to sail into the Mediterranean yeah us Americans wouldn't pay off ladies for defense but not one cent for tribute that was the answer of the fledging United States the Pirates of Tripoli Marine Force lieutenant presley o'bannon would a sergeant and six privates better foster mercenaries 63 hard-drinking Greeks 60 but Dawn's better wins whatever on horseback 400 hour of infantry who didn't want to fight and 107 camels across six hundred miles of desert and the night before they were attacked of balance force faced overwhelming odds it's going to be a rough go tomorrow you know that doesn't seem to bother the lieutenant none no but it bothers me well with the Arabs mutant Eden took off half the Greeks drunk and the better ones getting restive I figure we'll have about 36 sober Greeks we can use tomorrow yes but there are seven of us Marines and maybe two or three hundred of the enemy that ought to even things up a bit and things did even out the next day they attacked took Turner and for the first time raise the American flag over a fortress of the old world I gotta admit that's the kind of thing that makes me think of the good old days time was when somebody tried pushing you around your club and we didn't worry about no public opinion polls either we served notice on the world that we were no patchi's that we were a nation now we wasn't gonna take you wait a minute a lot of people don't accept that and certainly didn't in those days both the British and the French captured our ships and imprison our sailors and the British they did it within sight of our own Shores so by 1812 President Madison had headed right up to here and we declared war I saw something an old flick on TV at two o'clock in the morning something about the USS Constitution taken on a British man-of-war it was one of the great naval battles of all history the Constitution's four hundred and fifty men and fifty-four guns worked a minor miracle of course they had 59 Marines in the hundred barrels of booze aboard that's a combination that makes miracles [Music] [Applause] [Music] hardly most ants eat up and walk oh I see it's the liquor waiting down in the hole now we swill most light up already did you hate the British take them we're leaving but don't be telling me you're trying to keep the ship of blood because you're a patriot you betcha hatred okay swim the marine sport with Andrew Jackson at New Orleans but he seemed to forget all about when we became president because he did his best to abolish the core history like they say repeats itself not just with the core all the services were cut to the bone as usual the few Marines who stayed in uniform for called on whenever a muscle or brawn were needed like in the Seminole Wars not just muscle and brawn about the time when the Russians and the British were I in California and plotting to take it away from the Mexicans President Polk had a job to do that call for brains and cunning and he sent for a marine to do it yeah yeah I heard about that guy I was flipping through the book before you Scott here and it's all there a tough customer named Mac Gillespie Archibald Gillespie well you start life with a name like Archibald and you better be a tough customer huh yeah he wasn't just tough he was sharp he traveled all through Mexico disguises the whiskey salesman it's a heck of a story it'd make a great movie Gillespie finally contacted the Americans in California and by the way he got the California through Hawaii got the Americans in California all excited about being part of the Union and so the inevitable happened the Mexicans pushed us we pushed them they pushed us we pushed back and before it was all over we had pushed our way right to the halls of Montezuma with the Battle of Chapultepec well we did something important out there don't hurt so much but if I find out we wasting their time you bet your sweet bottom dollar who's wasting our time we just captured half of Mexico that gives the United States California so so now we go all the way to the Pacific Ocean he already got the Atlantic the hell we want with another one think of all that land we can't even work what we got now I bet you we find out it's been a waste what they did fine three weeks later was gold and more important the Mexican War frustrated Russian and British attempts to grab parts of American soil and so the American dream of one nation from coast to coast speaking the same language with the same customs the same laws and finally become a reality I think it's part of what makes us special it's not like Europe with all its borders and tariffs in its ancient beasts you're right kid we are special and something special happened to all those foreigners that came over here to be Americans they got to be a new breed made up of a mixture of all the old breeds and before long they were all march it to the same comer and US Marines we were marching right out there in front it's all here in the fall we showed the flag in China Fiji Islands Nicaragua and in Japan what I don't know Perry one nation indivisible well you really do get yourself turned a dungeon I mean the truth of it is that one nation wasn't always indivisible but then I'm not gonna do what I'm arranged oh yes it did they were there the day it began in a little town called Harpers Ferry the Marines mission was to assist the local militia in capturing John Brown and his men but the militia unwilling to risk their lives for cause refused to take part Army lieutenant colonel robert e lee conferred with his aide jeb stuart and marine lieutenant ezreal green and the 86 Leathernecks were moved into position why are we holding up ah I don't know I supposed to sit around and wait for orders to attack that uncool abolitionist Brad lots of free all this thing no I'm for that and a free country everybody ought to be free who are you talking about my people have always had played well always don't mean it's right bill when it comes right down to that party but I gotta side with Brian this would be a lot better country without any slavery that's why I part company with UN Brown I'm ready to go in they an attack right now how about you as long as I'm wearing this uniform I'll do whatever they order me to but I can't go against my beliefs much longer [Music] [Applause] in three minutes the Battle of Harpers Ferry was over but not the agony that wasn't over the Corps and the country were ripped apart Lee jeb stuart and israel green officers of the united states Harpers Ferry later became officers of the Confederacy along with Nilla half the Corps yeah there's a thing in here in the book I saw that really hit me I never thought of it before the idea is that what all the hell of the Civil War era saw between the states okay rebel anyway with that war tearing us up it took another war to really set us back on the road of getting together the spanish-american war came along and North and South are fighting side-by-side again for the first time till newspapers dueling for circulation had more to do what the war was feigned in all the presidents and kings and ambassadors William Randolph rice and Joseph Pulitzer that's peanuts all right already well we're inventing atrocity stories about the Spanish treatment of Cuba when a Hearst eyes told harsh conditions Romans so bad in Cuba all bill told him you furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war and he did all he needed was an incident and one night as an American battleship stood at anchor in Havana Harbor he had his insolence and his slogan remember the Maine [Music] you sleep til hot and the bugs are biting yeah me too hey dude what are we doing down here anything what we're showing Cuban the rest of the world that we care what goes on around us oh you mean us laying down here sweatin and scratches actually showing somebody something and make you bet then I bet you nobody knows and nobody cares you're on and we get back we'll take it up with Teddy Roosevelt antenna Roosevelt in those days the newspapers had found a colorful hero and were constantly writing about him and they had also found a colorful fighting force in the US Marines the three most efficient military Constabulary forces in the world are the French Foreign Legion the Canadian Northwest Mounted Police and the United States Marine Corps and that's what Teddy said he was a great man I remember when we were about to get into the Great War that's World War one too you and Teddy said you remember World War one remember it I was in it ever hear of a place called belleau wood we Marines were all that stood between Paris and the Germans in those 20 days of brutal fighting we got ourselves into the history books we get into this I haven't done anything wrong since I volunteered I don't know but did you hear that French officer invite us to retreat now but I heard that big-mouthed sergeant of us signed off with retreat hell we just got here and I bet she had an officer report around in here of to that retrieval kind of talks would get the guy [Music] yeah I know a little something about music besides I'm busy reading here about your war 1941 19 23 hey I'm no kid but I'm not that old say any of you guys know who Earl Ellis was you're talking about Lieutenant Colonel Pete Ellis right yeah yeah well this is heavy stuff I mean even as far back as 1923 before Billy Mitchell Barela was predicted that that Japan would attack us and that we have to fight an island hopping campaign all the way across the Pacific to win the war that prophecy gave us 18 years to prepare yeah but probably nobody believed him huh the Corps believed him and use those eighteen years to develop the tactics and the hardware to fight that war and that let me tell you was my war and it was the big one [Music] the last rounds coming up Japan's only a few hundred miles away then we're gonna have a big big big deal how do you spell celebration pa rt why why do you want to know well I was just writing my folks how we're gonna celebrate when this thing's over I mean with both Germany and Japan licked it means peace peace my boy just a resting period between bored that's the way it's always been always will be no no not this time this time no more War no more war nobody prays for that any more than a man in uniform that's true first I fought the war to end war then you fought the war to end war then I took over you was in the Corps 1950 that was a lean tough 74,000 Marine Corps regulars left at that time I wasn't one of them you know I was a reservist working in a shoe store in Sacramento until one Saturday my orders came and I was on a ship heading for the assault on Inchon career the Minutemen in 1950 the marine reserves the same guys who lived down the block who clerk in the supermarket fix your plumbing working the bank the same man who sponsored Toys for Tots and sent devil pups to summer camp they answered the call joining the first Brigade and other Marines summoned from embassies and ships and posts and stations all around the world regulars and reserves veterans and boots they were America's force in readiness sharing the common bond of Semper Fi two weeks after we landed we had the enemy on the run yeah and tell those Chinese commies joined in then it was another story that was a little after Thanksgiving and they kept telling us we're gonna be home for Christmas but then we found ourselves alone and surrounded by eight Chinese divisions and it was cold I mean 25 degrees below zero cold and we had to break through and fight our way back every inch of those 60 miles back to the sea where the Navy was waiting and water is frozen stiff no we got a thought a rations to eat them I know wasn't photos chyrons up there the bad guys would be all over us no we're pairing the dead on wounded for 12 days now who knows how much further there is to go [Applause] hey man what do you think of this crazy war anyhow scale of 1 to 10 no more no 6 already the legend was written in their faces and in the annals of history I wonder what history's final verdict would be now look I don't want to get into another argument about Vietnam I'm ok but in our system the military men follow civilian orders now you buy that and we don't have to talk about the how why and hips of Vietnam oh yes we do now that was my war and when I look back on that I don't have to argue about politics or battles or policy or who was right around go talk I didn't want to get into another I got about I don't okay I just got one thing that won't hurt you to remember in the middle of that bloody business there was 30,000 guys who volunteered to stay they volunteered to stay when he could have come home they volunteered to live with the Vietnamese in their villages and help him start rebuilding I didn't know who told you that I was one of them and we raised millions of dollars for scholarships and we help them build schools and we open with their livestock and their crops and we treated their sick and their wounded 30,000 men who could have come home and didn't what do you find guys like that same place we've always found them where do you find them a day after tomorrow the same place we found them the day before yesterday guys like guys I'd like nothing better we're from everywhere from Houston from Tampa Duluth Nashville where are you from Buffalo I've been riding the bus all night couple more hours would be Paris island well it's putting a lot more on your back just that very uniform eater marine you never know what they're gonna ask you do next afraid you're gonna be able to cut it oh I'll cut it all right there have been a time when a marine couldn't do what needed to be done and I'm gonna be a marine little fella you like your teeth the way they are buddy don't worry about it as long as the country needs Marines they'll be there they'll always be a few good men and women I'm John Henderson formerly United States Marine Corps presently manager of this hotel how much the dinner just you sure yes oh I'm glad to hear that down Joey thank you very much mr. Crawford no no please be comfortable well here we are isn't that just like a woman she's been in the room only three seconds and already we know what she does we've been here all night I don't know what you guys do me I'm a cement contracting oh holidays retired well I was retired but I've just started teaching a history course at Oberlin College a plop no one be out of Hamlin Oh like history stuff yeah I bet I know what you're do mom his social worker right wrong oh yeah sing a little line pick a little guitar Marlon aren't you Marlon McCreevy some little guitar he had two gold records last year three three who's coming must pay better than being a social worker huh well that leaves you Josh I'm a marine well we're all Marines what do you do now I'm still a Marine well I'm a couple or three years you must be a sergeant by now lieutenant colonel lieutenant colonel gee ain't that something ain't this whole night something even if it was my idea it was a good idea war and all of us getting together on the cores birthday you know maybe we are sort of special people because the very qualities that brought this country through 200 years are the same qualities the Marine Corps has always had like humanity and pursuit of excellence self-confidence discipline a willingness to sacrifice and respect for rules and standards I might even write a song and get another goal record I miss most about good evening but I think I can join you for dessert I'm picking up the rest of the no no it's already been down oh you should have done that oh I did but it was taken care of by someone in this room mr. Crawford took the chicken oh oh no no I insist by rights of seniority besides I'm gonna pay for it with the US Marines the first 200 years by Walter Crawford happy birthday boys and girl thank you thank you hate this been some party this has been the best party of my whole life don't gotta do it again nature yeah why don't we just cut the cake and wish the Marine Corps happy birthday and be glad that we had this night together mr. Crawford why don't you cut the cake cut the cake Audrey [Applause] [Music]