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Detachment Officers
Links Section
Commandant:
George Morris
Sr. Vice Commandant:
Richard McClain
Jr. Vice Commandant:
Rodney Dowdy
Judge Advocate:
Beth Parsons
Adjutant:
Charles Moore
Paymaster:
Beth Parsons
Chaplain:
Victor Tubbs
Web Sergeant:
Robert Force
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Welcome to the Townsend Detachment Web Site
The Marine's Hymn
This is the web site of the Marine Corps League Detachment 920 - Townsend. It is a part of the Department of Alabama and is based in Montgomery, Alabama.
If you have any comments or suggestions, there are two options for contacting someone:
(1) The link on the left side of this page to contact either the Commandant or the Web Sergeant.
(2) The "Contact Us" box at the bottom of this page.
President Ronald Wilson Reagan
Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem.
President Reagan, 1985
There are only two kinds of people that understand Marines: Marines and those who have met them in battle. Everyone else has a second-hand opinion.
Unknown
This is the Orientation Theater Film being shown at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia. It gives the non-Marine an idea of what it means to be Marine.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3f3i1_nmmc-orientation-theater-film
Selected USMC Slogans: (excerpt from Warrior Culture of the U.S. Marines, copyright 2001 Marion F. Sturkey)
First to Fight: The media in the United States began using this term to describe U.S. Marines during World War I. And, for once the media was right. Marines have served in the vanguard of every American war since the founding of the Corps in 1775. They have carried out over 300 assaults on foreign shores, from the arctic to the tropics. Historically, U.S. Marines are indeed the first to fight.
Once a Marine, Always a Marine: This truism is now the official motto of the Marine Corps League. The origin of the statement is credited to a gung-ho Marine Corps Master Sergeant, Paul Woyshner. During a barroom argument he shouted, "Once a Marine, always a Marine!" MSgt. Woyshner was right. Once the title "U.S. Marine" has been earned, it is retained. There are no ex-Marines or former-Marines. There are
- Active duty Marines,
- Retired Marines,
- Reserve Marines, and
- Marine veterans.
Nonetheless, once one has earned the title, they remain a Marine for life.
Gung-Ho: The Chinese used this term to describe Marines in China around 1900. In the Chinese language, gung-ho means working together. That's what the "American Marines" were always doing, "working together," the Chinese explained. The term stuck to Marines like glue. Today it conveys willingness to tackle any task, or total commitment to the Corps.
A Few Good Men: On 20 March 1779 in Boston, Capt. William Jones, USMC, advertised for "a few good men" to enlist in the Corps for naval duty. The term seemed ideally suited for Marines, mainly because of the implication that "a few" good men would be enough. This term has survived for over 200 years and has been synonymous with U.S. Marines ever since.
Marines are about the most peculiar breed of human beings I have ever witnessed. They treat their service as if it were some kind of cult, plastering their emblem on almost everything they own, making themselves up to look like insane fanatics with haircuts to ungentlemanly lengths, worshipping their Commandant almost as if he were a god, and making weird animal noises like a band of savages. They'll fight like rabid dogs at the drop of a hat just for the sake of a little action, and are the cockiest sons of bitches I have ever known. Most have the foulest mouths and drink well beyond man's normal limits, but their high spirits and sense of brotherhood set them apart and, generally speaking, the United States Marines I've come in contact with are the most professional soldiers and the finest men I have ever had the pleasure to meet.
An Anonymous Canadian Citizen
You cannot exaggerate about the Marines. They are convinced to the point of arrogance, that they are the most ferocious fighters on earth - and the amusing thing about it is that they are.
Father Kevin Keaney / 1st Marine Division Chaplain / Korean War
The safest place in Korea was right behind a platoon of MARINES. Lord, how they could fight!
US Army Major General Frank Lowe
Col. Edward Leo Peter "Ed" McMahon, Jr
(6 March 1923 – 23 June 2009)
was a decorated war veteran, an American comedian, game show host, announcer, and television personality. Most famous for his work on television as Johnny Carson's announcer and sidekick on The Tonight Show from 1962-1992, he was also host of the original version of the talent show Star Search from 1983-95 where he "discovered" budding artists such as Rosie, Sinbad, Drew Carey, Dennis Miller, Lee Ann Rimes, Lara Flyn Boyle, Jenny Jones and others, co-host with Dick Clark of TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes from 1982-86, and became well-known as the presenter of the now-defunct American Family Publishers sweepstakes (not, as is commonly believed, its main rival Publishers Clearing House).
McMahon annually co-hosted the The Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon. He performed in numerous television commercials, most notably for Budweiser. In the 1970s and 1980s, he anchored the team of NBC personalities conducting the network's coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. McMahon appeared in several films, including The Incident (1967), Fun With Dick and Jane (1977), Full Moon High (1981), and Butterfly (1982), as well as briefly in the film version of Bewitched (2005). According to Entertainment Weekly he is considered one of the greatest sidekicks".
He wanted to be a Marine fighter pilot. The US was building up their military force, but they were not at war yet and the Navy required all its potential Navy and Marine pilots to have two years of college. So Ed started classes at Boston College.
When Pearl Harbor was attacked the Army and the Navy both dropped the college requirement and Ed applied to the Marines. His primary flight training was in Dallas and then he went to Pensacola, Florida. He was carrier qualified, which means he knew how to perform a controlled crash of his single engine fighter, onto the rolling deck of a Navy floating runway.
It took Ed almost two years to get through all the Navy flight training. His problem was he was a very good pilot and the Marines needed flight instructors. He had a great command presence and public speaking ability, which landed him in the classroom, training new baby Marine pilots.
His orders to the Pacific fleet and the chance to fly combat missions off a carrier came in the spring of 1945, on the same day the Atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Of course his orders where changed. He never went to sea and he was out of the Marines in 1946.
Ed stayed in the USMC as a reserve officer. He became a successful personality in the new TV medium, after the war. His Marine command presence helped. He was recalled to active duty during the Korean War. He never got to fly his fighter aircraft, but he saw his share of raw combat. He flew the Cessna O-1E Bird Dog, which is a single engine slow-moving unarmed plane. He functioned as an artillery spotter for the Marine batteries on the ground and as a forward controller for the Navy & Marine fighter / bombers who flew in on fast moving jet engines, bombed the area and were gone in seconds. Captain Ed was still circling the enemy looking for more targets, all the time taking North Korean and Chinese ground fire. He stayed with the Marines as a reserve officer and retired in 1966 as a Colonel.
The world knows Ed as Ed McMahon of the Johnny Carson, Tonight Show. One night I was watching the show when the subject of Colonel McMahon earning a number of Navy Air Medals came up. Carson, a former Navy officer, understood the significance of these medals, but McMahon shrugged it off, saying that if you flew enough combat missions they just sort of gave them to you. McMahon flew 85 combat missions over North Korea; he earned every one of those Air Medals. The casualty rate, for flying forward air controllers in Korea sometimes exceeded 50% of a squadron’s manpower. McMahon was lucky to have gotten home from that war.
Once a Marine, always a Marine.
When the public was spitting (taking their personal safety into their own hands) at Marines on the streets of Southern California during Vietnam, Colonel McMahon was taking Marines off the streets and into his posh Beverley Hills home. I spoke to a retired Marine aircrew member the day Colonel McMahon died and he personally remembered seeing McMahon at numerous Marine Air Bases in California in the 1960s. He was known for going to the Navy hospitals and visiting the wounded Marines and Sailors from this country’s conflicts, even in the last years of his life.
Colonel McMahon presented awards and decorations to fellow Marines and attended many a Marine ceremony and the annual Marine Corps Birthday Ball. He stayed true to his Corps as a board member of the Marine Corps Scholarship Fund and as the honorary chairman of the National Marine Corps Aviation Museum. After retiring from the Marine Reserve, one night on the Johnny Carson show, members of the California Air National Guard came on stage.
Colonel McMahon was commissioned a Brigadier General in the Air Guard in front of millions of Americans who watched it happen live. You will not see anything like that on TV anymore.
The three core values of a United States Marine are; honor, courage and commitment. This is what a Marine is taught from the first day of training and this is what that Marine believes. That was Colonel Edward P. McMahon Jr. USMCR Retired. Before he was a national figure he was a true combat hero and a patriot the nation needed then and this country needs now.
Your war is over. Thank you, Colonel McMahon. Semper Fi, sir.
23 June 2009/ Major Van Harl USAF Ret.
Members of the Marine Corps League join together in camaraderie and fellowship for the purpose of preserving the traditions and promoting the interests of the United States Marine Corps, banding together those who are now serving in the United States Marine Corps and those who have been honorably discharged from that service that they may effectively promote the ideals of American freedom and democracy, voluntarily aiding and rendering assistance to all Marines and former Marines and to their widows and orphans; and to perpetuate the history of the United States Marine Corps and by fitting acts to observe the anniversaries of historical occasions of particular interest to Marines.
If you are a United States Marine or Navy Fleet Marine Force (FMF) Corpsmen who proudly wears or who has proudly worn the eagle, globe and anchor of the Corps, plase consdider becoming a Marine Corps League (MCL) member.
Access the link on the left of this page in the "Links" section to download a copy of the MCL membership application, fill it out and contact the Detachment Commandant using either the link on the left of this page or the contact box at the bottom of this page.
Semper Fidelis - John Phillip Sousa
The music files available on this web site are from the USMC Band Ceremonial CD. This CD features music performed by “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band and “The Commandant’s Own” U.S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps. It is available for download at
http://www.marineband.usmc.mil/audio_resources/index.htm
This website is a "living document" that will be kept current by updating it as changes to the information posted occur or as new items of interest are found.
