It’s a special day today for a lot of my good friends who are members of an elite wing of the United States Armed Forces.  That’s right, leathernecks, it’s time to wish happy birthday to the United States Marine Corps!  Oorah, devildogs!

There is no branch of the service that commands the loyalty and respect that the Marine Corps does, and there’s no branch of the service that has been more romanticized by popular culture.  From the paint-blistering tirades delivered by real-life Gunnery Sergeant R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket to John Wayne’s cinema heroics in The Sands of Iwo Jima, the love affair between Hollywood and the Marines has a long and storied history.

One of the reasons behind this might be the fact that so many Marines have gone on to become huge Hollywood stars, so they give back to the Corps that gave so much to them.  Among some of the famous Marines who made it big in Hollywood are Gene Hackman, Brian Dennehy, Lee Marvin, and Steve McQueen.  If they’re not funny enough, there’s also Drew Carrey, Jonathan Winters, Bea Arthur (one of the first female Marines), Don Adams (Inspector Gadget and Maxwell Smart), Captain Kangaroo Bob Keeshan, and Bozo the Clown Bob Bell.  For those who love music, musicians Freddy Fender, Nate Dogg, Shaggy, CJ Ramone and both of the Everly Brothers are jarheads.  The founders of both Dominos Pizza (Tom Monaghan) and Little Caesar’s Pizza (Mike Illich) are also Marines, and I bet the active enlisted service wishes those two provided the chow.

That’s before you count the artists, authors, boxers, professional wrestlers, Congressmen, governors, astronauts, and other public figures who have worn dress blues.  Truly, the Marines have given a lot for, and a lot to, the United States, and I’m proud to have had many friends and relatives who have gone into the service of the Corps.

Semper Fi from your pal at PopFi!

Tags: usmc, united states marine corps, marine corps birthday, usmc birthday, marine birthday, military, us military, 233rd birthday, 233rd anniversary of the marine corps, famous marines

People ring in the new year in any number of ways.  Some people shoot off fireworks.  Some people get together with their family and watch the ball drop in Times Square.  Some people throw shoes into the expressway.  Well, okay, they might have not been celebrating 2009, but someone dumped a truckload of shoes into […]

Hi there, PopFi readers.  Did you have a good Christmas?  I know I did.  The brief respite from the rigors of scouring the Internet for fun stories was most welcome.  I didn’t take a vacation or go skiing, but I did get an MP3 player (among other gifts).  They’re fun (I bought some songs just […]

PopFi first brought you coverage of the story of Dede Kosawa, the Tree Man of Java, way back in April when he had four pounds of warts removed from his body.  A few months and many more surgeries later, he’d had an additional ten pounds of warts removed and was looking forward to finding a […]

The bloggers in the audience undoubtedly know that whatever you say out there in cyberspace can come back to haunt you in the real world.  That goes double for your actions and activities posted on MySpace, Facebook, and all those other social networking websites that the people use religiously these days.  Not only are these […]

You know, every college movie made since Animal House has chosen to play up all the fun aspects of college:  drinking, partying, doing any number of stupid and reckless things that you later regret.  You know, the stuff you’ve always wanted to do but couldn’t in high school because you still lived at home.  Apparently, […]

The Grinch is real, ladies and gentlemen.  He works for DLA Piper and Dr. Seuss Enterprises, and he took time out of his busy schedule of stealing from Whos and ruining Christmas in Whoville to pay a stop in Louisville, Kentucky.  Mayor Jerry Abramson and the local community had planned on using Dr. Seuss’ iconic […]

Smokers, this article is for you.  Today is the Great American Smokeout.  Since 1977, smokers have been encouraged to put their cigarettes away for just one day, just to prove to themselves that they can do it.  I encourage all you smokers out there to join in today, too.  Allow me to tell you a […]