ON THE OCCASION OF THE MARINE CORPS BIRTHDAY: ANOTHER LETTER TO GOD No alarm, up at 05. This is my birthday. The lack of alarm, Why? All those years at the rifle range. All those years shouting, “Reveille! Reveille - Get Out of the Rack!” It’s another glorious Marine Corps Day. But then again, The exclamation point Is missing from sentence end, The green in my veins, paler, Vera Cruz, a dim memory, Belleau Wood – a tourist site, Pusan, Inchon, Chosin - New weapons, one old dead friend said, Are the only Peace. 58,195 names on a black wall 600 tiny flags in the lawn, Each no more than 16 inches high, Each representing nine dead in the wars at hand.... No alarm, up at 05. This is my birthday. The lack of alarm, Why? All those years.... All those years.... And then there was one. --Pirate

Photo taken by Major White, 1913, and presented by his daughter, Grace, to George O’Kelley, LtCol USMC Retired. This photograph of the photograph hanging in the LtCol’s office was taken on November 3, 2009, the day Milspeak Foundation, Inc. became an official entity in the state of South Carolina.