O'hara's Choice - Leon Uris [54]
“. . . Let’s take a look at the Pacific. The British, Dutch, Germans, and Portuguese are all over the place. Japan is an emerging imperial power, casting her eye toward the Philippines and Hawaii. That means we will need forward bases, coaling stations, dry docks, and friendly treaties all over the planet.”
“Sir, what about our future relationship with England?”
“Yes, England. We’ve had our shakedown cruises with the British in the Revolution and the War of 1812 as well as dealing with much British sympathy with the Confederacy. We have evolved to realize that, in many ways, England is our most natural ally, as much or more so than the French, without whom we could not have won our independence. The bottom line is this: Both England and America will benefit far more from an alliance than from an adversarial relationship. We need them, they need us. You will see close cooperation in the future, and, we believe, we will never go to war with England again.”
“But, Mr. O’Hara, England is by far the greatest colonizer. Won’t we be just like them, sort of picking up some of their droppings?”
“We share a common language, common heritage, and many common bonds, but there is a difference. America is different from any nation created in the history of man.
“More powerful than fourteen-inch naval guns and stronger than any massive army is the unique place America holds in the minds of man. We won our freedom with ideas more powerful than arms. We set a precedent in the eyes of the world by daring to engage in a bloody civil war because of an ideal. We enter the new world not so much to plunder, to crush people, or to rule . . . All mankind whispers our name . . . America . . . with reverence. So long as we maintain our basic human decency, the world will behold us as the keeper of man’s most noble flame.”
When all was said and done, Major Ben Boone gave the final lecture, and it was a rouser.
“. . . There is a national military imperative that separates the Marine Corps from all other services. We will need a unique body of men at the ready on both coasts, aboard our naval vessels and stationed wherever we fly a flag . . . a unique force, small, highly skilled, and enormously dedicated, that will be able to move on a moment’s notice to any trouble spot in the world. Further, this force will continue to develop a hybrid skill, establishing a doctrine for amphibious warfare. The United States Marines has grown into its future role. If we had no Corps today, we’d have to invent one tomorrow.”
All the lessons of the AMP seminar were brought to a delicious boil as the President’s Own Marine Band marched down the barracks parade ground before Captain Maple and the midshipmen.
Formed nearly a century earlier, at the end of the Revolution, from the remnants of the fife-and-drum lads, the band had inducted a group of Italian musicians to fill in its ranks. The commandant assessed every Marine officer ten dollars to buy instruments for the band.
The President’s Own debuted at the inauguration of John Adams, the second president, on the lawn of the new presidential mansion, later to be known as the White House. They played at Gettysburg when Lincoln delivered his famous address.
They played the hell out of it this day. John Philip Sousa and his lion-tamer-red-uniformed men struck up “Semper Fidelis” as they passed the review stand, a moment never to be forgotten.
In their grand lacquered, ebony-furnished home, with its mandarin-red-and-gold drapes, the Storms held an informal