If its possible, one has to respect those first Marines even more than those who came after them
Think about it - your nation is young, and weak. Your President, who before wanted nothing to do with North Africa, now says you should go and attack these nutcase Muslims, whom you probably have never heard of before. Oh, and it will be the first time the US Navy sails abroad - and there won’t be any back-up or rescue if the attack fails.
So true. By the time those guys got to North Africa, they might as well have been on the far side of the moon. And their opponents were literally out of the dark ages.