The Marine Corps has served a role in every conflict in the history of the United States.
That is because the Marines operate on sea, air, and land — unlike the other services — and can respond to a crisis in under 24 hours with the full force of a modern military.
Earlier this week President Barack Obama nominated Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr. to serve as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the second Marine to ever hold the highest leadership position in the armed services.
Today there are more than 200,000 active-duty and reserve Marines. We have pulled some of the coolest photos from the Marine Corps archives.
Created in 1798, the Marine Corps Band was called "The President’s Own" by President Jefferson during his inaugural ball. Since then, the band has played at every presidential inauguration. Here's the band in 1893.
In the early 1900s, Marine forces were active in China and the Philippines. This photo from 1907 shows Marines posing in front of the Great Sphinx in Egypt.
World War I was characterized by trench warfare and the use of poison gas. Mortars were useful in muddy trenches because a mortar round could be aimed to fall directly into trenches — unlike artillery shells. These Marines are posing with a German trench mortar captured in France in 1918.
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