WEBVTT

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- See, bullets don't have no color.

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We used the phrase and the idea

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"to whom it may concern."

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See, you don't know who
you're shooting at.

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Most the time, you don't never
see who you're shooting at.

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(gun firing)

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You were in the South,

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in an outfit that didn't
believe that you could cut it.

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And they did everything in the world

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could make you say that "I'ma quit"

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and "I don't want this Marine Corps."

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But we had made up our minds

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that we wanted the Marine Corps.

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And that's what we did.

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It wasn't no racial issue.

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You had two Marine 
Corps (laughs) at that time.

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You had the Marine Corps that was for

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the African American Marines,

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and you had the regular Marine Corps

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for the regular Marines.

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We were outsiders

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and we was trying to
break the color barrier,

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get into the fight

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with what we felt was the
best fighting force

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that the United States had.

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And we wanted to prove ourselves

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that we was good enough
to be one of them.

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And that which we did.

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(solemn piano music)

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We went out of boot camp,

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we went to an ammunition
demolition school.

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And then we went
right into combat.

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Our first battles were Saipan,
Guam and Tinian.

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It took everybody together to survive.

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(solemn piano music)

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Commanding General of FMF Pike,
Holland M. Smith,

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after our initial baptism of fire,

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Howard came in hollering
man declared that we were Marines.

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We were fighting Marines
as a Marine Corps.

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(solemn piano music)

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In those islands, we proved ourselves

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that we were just as good
a fighter as the Marine Corps had.

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(light piano music)

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There was no black, no white.

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That meant you were a
United States Marine.

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(light piano music)