Japan Journal: Marine Ball

Before we moved to Okinawa, I had no idea that the military had balls. Hmmm...let me rephrase that, they have dance balls. But one night last year I saw some of our neighbors going out in long flowing dresses and the guys in their dress blues. It was at that time that I found out that there are oodles of balls that take place in the fall - Navy Ball, Air Force Ball, and the Marines, well they have 42 of them! What girl doesn't want to be Cinderalla for a night? So I made Stevie promise to take me to one. He's managed to weazle his way out of lots of them until I finally nailed him down this fall when our neighbors, Liz and Don, invited us to one of the Marine Corps balls!

Here's us looking pretty spiffy before we left...

With Liz and Don

The balls were all celebrating the Marine Corps 235th birthday so there was a cake...

Only part of the cake is real!

And everyone walked around saying "Happy Birthday"!

I loved all the pomp and circumstance of it, and I kept thinking of my Mom who would have just loved it (especially all the guys in their dress uniforms and the military band!)

I had no idea there were so many uniforms and it was cool to see them all dressed up and shiny. It was exciting to be a part of the traditions and to learn more about the Marines. Like they always have two single tables set at the head of the room for their comrades who have fallen. One table is set with a white cloth to represent the hope of the return of those missing and one is set with a black cloth to represent the grief for those killed. There were lots of other symbolic things like salt on the plate to represent the tears of the families left behind and a slice of lemon for the bitterness.

Another tradition is that they always give the first pieces of cake to the oldest Marine in the room and the youngest Marine. Here's the oldest (born in '53) having his piece. The youngest, next to him, graduated from boot camp in April from Parris Island - he was born in '92!

Our neighbor, Don, on sword detail.

After the ceremony and a really funny speech by the Assistant Wing Commander (he'd be a real hoot around the troops when he was uncensured, I'm sure!) we had dinner and dancing. We had an awesome time dancing the night away. Had to laugh when they played the Village People's "In the Navy"! Steve was one of the few Navy guys there!