To: Perseverando
A bit of Marine Corps lore - Origin of the Nickname Leathernecks
It is questionable whether the origin of the term Leatherneck can be accepted as a legitimate member of the family of legends. More like a tradition, it is. For there can be no doubt of the origin, considering that U. S. Marines of three generations wore leather collars. It is as obvious as the nickname Red for a recruit with carrot-colored hair and freckles.
Now accepted by Webster as a synonym for Marine, the term Leatherneck was derived from a leather stock once worn around the neck by both American and British Marinesand soldiers also. Beginning in 1798, one stock of black leather and clasp was issued to each U. S. Marine annually.
This stiff leather collar, fastened by two buckles at the back, measured nearly three and a half inches high, and it prevented the neck movement necessary for sighting along a barrel. It supposedly improved military bearing, by forcing the chin high, although General George F. Elliott, recalling its use after the Civil War, said it made the wearers appear like geese looking for rain.
The stock was dropped as an article of Marine uniform in 1872, after surviving through the uniform changes of 1833, 1839, and 1859. But by then it was a part of American vocabulary, a word preserved, like so many words, beyond its original meaning.
From - www.grunt.com
15 posted on
11/08/2003 10:06:50 AM PST by
sergeantdave
(You will be judged by 12 people who were too stupid to get out of jury duty)
To: sergeantdave
24 posted on
11/08/2003 10:41:44 AM PST by
gunnyg
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