Leatherneck Magazine

LtGen Lejeune’s Birthday Message
(Marine Corps Order No. 47 (Series 1921),
Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, Washington, 1 Nov. 1921)

759. The following will be read to the command on the 10th of November, 1921, and hereafter on the 10th of November of every year. Should the order not be received by the 10th of November, 1921, it will be read upon receipt.

( 1) On November 10, 1775, a Corps of Marines was created by a resolution of Continental Congress. Since that date many thousand men have borne the name “Marine.” In memory of them it is fitting that we who are Marines should commemorate the birthday of our corps by calling to mind the glories of its long and illustrious history.

( 2) The record of our corps is one which will bear comparison with that of the most famous military organizations in the world’s history. During 90 of the 146 years of its existence[,] the Marine Corps has been in action against the Nation’s foes. From the Battle of Trenton to the Argonne, Marines have won foremost honors in war, and [in] the long eras of tranquility at home, generation after generation of Marines have grown gray in war in both hemispheres and in every corner of the seven seas, that our country and its citizens might enjoy peace and security.

( 3) In every battle and skirmish since the birth of our corps, Marines have acquitted themselves with the greatest distinction, winning new honors on each occasion until the term “Marine” has come to signify all that is highest in military efficiency and soldierly virtue.

( 4) This high name of distinction and soldierly repute we who are Marines today have received from those who preceded us in the corps. With it we have also received from them the eternal spirit which has animated our corps from generation to generation and has been the distinguishing mark of the Marines in every age. So long as that spirit continues to flourish[,] Marines will be found equal to every emergency in the future as they have been in the past, and the men of our Nation will regard us as worthy successors to the long line of illustrious men who have served as “Soldiers of the Sea” since the founding of the corps.

JOHN A. LEJEUNE Major General Commandant

Above: On Nov . 10, 2007, 2dLt Learlin Lejeune III, Weapons Platoon leader, Company B, 1st Battalion, Ninth Marine Regiment, Second Marine Division, reads the traditional Marine Corps Birthday message as directed by his great-great uncle, John A. Lejeune.

PFC CASE Y JONES

Below: Second Lt Lejeune, an Acadia Parish, La., native (left), continues a family tradition of Marine service.

PFC CASE Y JONES

his junior DI demonstrated little interest in bonding with the new recruit by correctly calling him LeJERN. Later, when his brother Shane Lejeune enlisted—he is now serving in Fallujah—he experienced the same communication challenge. Perhaps educating your senior NCOs upon arrival in the Marine Corps is not the wisest way to strike up a close and intimate rapport with them.

Etymology, the study of the word origins and their usage, offers some interesting comparisons. In English, there are 18 LEATHERNECK APRIL 2008

invisible “Rs,” i.e., when General Lejeune was Colonel Lejeune, there was an “R” sound in both names—Kernel LeJERN. Dr. Thomas Klingler, associate professor and chair of the French and Italian Department, Tulane University, New Orleans, did research for his doctoral dissertation at Pointe Coupee where he worked on a Creole-French dictionary.

On the pronunciation of the Lejeune name, Professor Klingler believes one hypothesis may be that many non-French speaking people had trouble with the

“Luh Zhun” sound and over time inserted into common usage the “R” sound, i.e., “Je” has been used as “JER” in southern Louisiana. The Pointe Coupee accents are a mélange of French vocabulary and African grammar.