Eighteen years ago today the Berlin Wall became irrelevant. I was in Berlin when it happened. About one million people from east block nations, starving for freedom, flooded into West Berlin in a matter of hours. The whole city was “standing room only” as people exercised the kind of freedom that […]

Cam pointed me to an article about how the Marines will train to help put out wildfires in the wake of latest outbreak of fires in California. You can read the full article here:
Marines to Train for Calif. Wildfires
I think this is a good idea, but nothing new. I talked to Marines from […]

Today I learned that six Eagle Scouts have earned the medal of honor. One such Eagle Scout was a man named Mitchell Paige who, according to usscouts.org, “walked 200 miles to enlist in Marines on his 18th birthday in 1936 . . . Presented his eagle award in 2003 after it was verified […]

Comic book artist, Mike Wieringo, passed away last weekend from a heart attack at 44. If you don’t follow comic books, you may not know who Mike was; however, if you are surrounded by good people, you may know someone like him. Mike was the kind of person who would take the time […]

Unlike the Powell Doctrine - which calls for overwhelming force - during the American Revolution, the colonies had exactly what they needed for victory and no more. It is well known that our country was gifted with founding fathers who forged America on the Enlightenment principles of freedom and self-governance. Take away any one […]

The Marine Corps not only maintains its standard of excellence from one generation to the next, it magnifies it. The Marine Corps improves, because continuous improvement is a cornerstone of its ethos, and because Marines do not believe that perfection can be achieved. There is always room for improvement.
Every Marine has opinions on […]

I did the following analysis for an organizational psychology class a few years back. I have not written much about the character discipline in the blog yet because much of what I believe is contained in the following articles. I am updating and republishing the paper here as a frame of reference for […]

We’re doing a design for the Naval Academy Preparatory School. The barracks for the Marines there are named after Col John W. Ripley who is the subject of the T-shirt design. What struck me was the awe of Col Ripley that was clearly in evidence in the voice of LCpl Vick as he […]

As Seth Godin points out in his blog, many kids think they need to get into a good school and form their whole lives around this quest. Many apply but few get in.
Ironically, Semper Fi House’s foundingest founder, Capt Michael Hallinan found out that he was not offered admission to Harvard, Columbia, or MIT for […]