Category Archives: Oaths

Hymn/Song

Title: Hymn/Song

Informant info: Michael Rodriguez. Informant attends Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH as a United States Army Veteran. Informant enlisted in the Army in 2003 and was a member of the 1st Battalion 8th Marines Bravo Company, which is an infantry military unit. He was stationed out of camp Lejeune North Carolina. Informant served in Iraq from June 2004 to December 2004. He was awarded a Purple Heart. He was from a military family, as well. Informant is 31 years old.

Type of lore: Verbal Lore, Oaths, Traditions

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social / Cultural Context: Informant was asked if there were any traditions that he remembered and reported that these two were very traditional oaths to learn. The Marine Corps Hymn and the Rifleman’s Creed.

Associated file:

Traditional Songs/Oaths

Transcript:

“When you’re like in the marine corps like. I don’t know, I cant, I cant recall any songs that were passed around, but there is the marine corps hymn. Which is like the marine corps song. Um, we call it the marine corps hymn. It’s like you know it starts out like ‘The halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli’ like these great things that the marine corps has done over the years. It sort of glorifies it. Um, there’s that, and there’s also this thing called the rifleman’s creed, which might be interesting to look up. Its sort of a, ah, like an oath that you say to yourself. You learn in bootcamp but you kind of carries on into infantry cause were just you do a lot more obviously with, uh, rifles and stuff. But uh sort like this, uh, creed to emphasize like the bond between a person and their weaponry.”

Collector’s comments: They are separate oaths. The rifleman’s creed is for more specific positions.

Informant’s comments: He claimed that the rifleman’s creed got more prevalent in infantry.

Tags/Keywords: Creed, Hymn, Song, Verbal Lore