Marines celebrate 250 years with big bashes in Philadelphia, New Orleans and California By ALEXANDER BANERJEE STARS AND STRIPES • November 9, 2025 Marines with I Marine Expeditionary Force honor the service’s 250th birthday with a ceremonial cake at Harrah’s Resort Southern California in Valley Center, Calif, on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. (Nan Yang/U.S. Marine Corps) The U.S. Marine Corps celebrates 250 years of service on Monday with a flagship celebration in its birthplace, Philadelphia, amid a wave of festivities across the country and around the world despite a government shutdown that has become the longest in U.S. history. The Homecoming 250 celebration in Philadelphia began Friday and continues through Tuesday. The celebration features multiple events, including tours, a veterans parade on Sunday, and a ball and block party for the official birthday on Monday. The festivities will be capped off by a Veterans Day ceremony on the Battleship New Jersey on Tuesday. Monday’s events are set to include a cake cutting ceremony that will be matched by ceremonies in all 50 states as part of a Marine Corps Heritage Foundation initiative. Accordingly, other celebrations of varying sizes have been or are being held elsewhere, despite a federal shutdown that has affected some celebrations. A cake-cutting at the Pentagon on Wednesday was attended by the Corps’ commandant, Gen. Eric M. Smith, as well as Navy Secretary John Phelan and veterans of the Battle of Iwo Jima. Delmar Beard, a Navy veteran who fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima, eats a slice of cake at a Marine Corps birthday ceremony at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., Nov. 5, 2025. (Abigail Hutcheson/U.S. Marine Corps) Not too far away, a motivational run was held at Marine Corps Base Quantico on Thursday. In New Orleans, thousands of Marines and their guests packed Caesar’s Superdome on Nov. 1. The service said the ball is the largest in the Corps, drawing in over 3,500 attendees this year. A month earlier, on the other side of the country, Hegseth, Smith and Vice President JD Vance attended a high-profile arms demonstration and “Beach Bash” at Camp Pendleton, Calif. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth walks to the podium during the arms demonstration and Beach Bash celebrating the Marine Corps’ 250th birthday at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., Oct. 18, 2025. (Joshua Bustamante/U.S. Marine Corps) And even farther west, Marines with the Wounded Warrior battalion took part in a birthday run at Marine Corps Base Hawaii. Not all events were spared. A wave of events in San Diego, which has one of the country’s largest military communities, was canceled because of the shutdown, although some reduced festivities took place. Some events were simply modified. The National Museum of the Marine Corps, for example, has closed its galleries but is still holding two cake-cutting celebrations on Monday. In the event anyone is stuck at home on the big day, they can at least enjoy a new show on Netflix — which on Monday debuts a four-part documentary about the Corps’ rapid-response task force on Okinawa. Why Philadelphia Philadelphia birthed the Marines when the Second Continental Congress in 1775 passed a resolution that ordered “two Battalions of Marines be raised” as a landing force for the colonies’ nascent naval fleet. Like the Navy, the Marine Corps disbanded in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War. The Corps was reestablished in 1798, deploying soon after its creation, and has remained in service ever since. That is why Philadelphia’s celebration of the Navy last month included a good deal of recognition of the Marine Corps, and why the city has been emphasizing its historicity for both services — as well as for the looming 250th celebration of the United States itself next year. Personnel with the U.S. Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon perform in Philadelphia, Oct. 14, 2025. (Christopher Prelle/U.S. Marine Corps) ALEXANDER BANERJEE Alexander Banerjee is a digital editor for Stars and Stripes. Before joining Stripes, he spent four years as the editorial lead of The Factual, a nonpartisan and policy-oriented news startup. He graduated from Soka University of America with a B.A. in 2018, and is currently based in Washington, D.C.
Read more at: https://www.stripes.com/branches/marine_corps/2025-11-09/marine-corps-250th-birthday-celebrations-philadelphia-19698838.html
Source – Stars and Stripes