Took off their shirts to reveal dog-tags and Marine Corps insignia tattoos

This story took place in my hometown at the beginning of the summer. I was home for a couple weeks before summer classes started and while I was there, I got a call from a high school buddy of mine who had joined the Marines after graduation. He invited me to his parents house (they were in Amsterdam at the time). He was throwing a party for all us from his “old crew.”

The house had been the site of many a wild party back in our pre-college (pre-service for him) days. I made it out to his house a bit early and found four Marines already there and half-drunk. Apparently my friend had brought along some of his pals from the Corps. This was cool by me, and the Marines and I got along great. Friends from the “ol’ days” arrived steadily and it was a grand reunion. The Marines, however, complained about the lack of available girls for them to game on, as most of the college women there had boyfriends or simply no interest in Marines.

A few phone calls to some high school seniors yielded about 10 girls who arrived shortly thereafter. I slapped one Marine on the back and said, “This is our gift to you for serving our country!” I was pretty drunk, but the Marines thought it was great. They were all 18 or 19 and had no qualms about hooking up with high-school chicks. Later in the night, three truck-loads of high school guys showed up, too. Now, my college aged friends and I didn’t much like the prospect of having a bunch of high school guys drink up our beer.

So, two of my friends attempted to resolve the issue peacefully. But when they asked the kids to leave, my friends received a less than pleasant response. It looked as if things were going to get messy and one high school punk made a remark about “kicking our asses and taking our beer and girls” or something moronic like that. The kids in the trucks outnumbered us 3 to 1 but we had a secret weapon.

I ran inside the house and found the Marines drinking and basking in the admiration of the high school girls. I yelled at them, “Hey guys, we have a situation that calls for the Corps!” Once I had their attention I explained the situation. The Marines went straight into action. A couple of them took off their shirts to reveal dog-tags and Marine Corps insignia tattoos. Then they raced to the scene while I ran behind yelling, “Go get ‘em, boys. Semper Phi!”

The Marines wasted no words. They gave the kids one warning: to leave or get their asses beat. One kid yelled, “Fuck the Marines,” and the result was one of the more magnificent fights I’ve ever witnessed. The Marines tore into the intruders and had them running for their lives in a matter of minutes. There’s nothing like four motivated Marines to disperse a crowd.

With their alcohol and girls safe again, the Marines went back to drinking and I did the same taking a certain amount of satisfaction over teaching those high-schoolers a lesson.