Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story was originally published on Feb. 7, 2019.
More than a century after thousands of Marine Corps recruits, drill instructors, and officers formed up to create a “living Eagle, Globe and Anchor,” at Parris Island, South Carolina, another generation has done the same.
But they didn’t seem too happy about it.
https://twitter.com/USMC/status/1093313392922701824
Posted to the Marine Corps’ official Twitter account on Feb. 6, 2019, the photos were meant to commemorate Parris Island’s centennial anniversary by recreating a photo taken in 1919 when 9,100 Marines formed up on the parade deck to create a genuinely badass “living EGA.”
Yet the recreation, while Eagle-Globe-and-Anchor-shaped, was different in one key way: The Marine recruits involved in the recent photo looked fucking miserable, that or mildly amused, fast asleep, and/or really goddamn bored.
Now, just compare that sampler platter of facial expressions to the original, in which Marines lounge about, almost lackadaisically, with a minimum of screaming, and not a single rage-filled drill instructor threatening recruits with endless hours of burpees if they don’t “shut their nasty faces.”