Vermont’s part of Corps history includes hero Guadalcanal hero who founded the Vermont State Police

By Don Keelan

Celebrations commemorating the founding of the United States on July 4, 1776, are happening locally, as well as at the state and national levels. Coinciding with this event will be another celebration on November 10, 2025. 

On that day, the United States Marine Corps, from its most minor outposts, aboard US Navy ships, at all U.S. Embassies, and to recruiting and infantry/air bases, will take time to celebrate the Corps’ founding at a tavern in Philadelphia, on November 10, 1775.

It was on that day that President John Adams and the Continental Congress ordered the creation of a naval force to protect the then-fledgling country’s merchant ships from the Barbary Pirates operating in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of North Africa. 

In the 1770s, Tun Tavern was a popular watering hole for many of whom would become our country’s Founding Fathers. Adams chose innkeeper Samual Nicholas to recruit a force of a couple of hundred hunters, frontiersmen, and sharpshooters, who were referred to as Marines, and station them aboard ships of the newly formed navy. 

250 years later, all Marines recognize November 10^th as the Corps’ birthday and Tun Tavern as its birthplace. Officially, the Corps was established by an Act of Congress some 23 years later. Then, 15 years later, Major Nicholas’s Marines were disbanded following the Signing of the Treaty of Paris.

Space does not allow highlighting what ensued in the Corps since its founding. Most has already been the subject of countless articles, books, documentaries, and movies. However, an event and a personality that are not well known, but with a Vermont connection, was Marine Corps Major General Merritt A. Edson (1897-1955), from Chester and Rutland, Vermont. 

Edson, a five-foot-seven redhead, is credited with being one of the Marines’ most decorated members. He retired as a two-star general in 1947, having been awarded our Nation’s highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor. He is remembered as the officer who led the defense of Henderson Field at Guadalcanal against the determined, repeated attacks of the Japanese.

The General’s leaving the Corps in 1947 was fortuitous for Vermont’s Governor Gibson. The Governor was displeased that in December 1946, the Connecticut parents of missing Bennington College student, Paula Welden, called in multiple neighboring state police to locate their daughter in the Green Mountains of southern Vermont. She was never found. Thus, in 1947, Governor Gibson ordered General Edson to create the Vermont State Police. Any wonder at the resemblance of the trooper’s uniform and colors to those of the Marine Corps? 

Earlier, I mentioned the celebrations that will take place within the Marine Corps on November 10th.  Additionally, numerous anniversary events will be held by Marines who are no longer in uniform. 

One such event will be conducted at 1 PM at Vermont’s Veterans Home in Bennington, Vermont. The 150-year-old historic property, with its 100-plus resident beds, is currently home to six Marines. For these Marine veterans of the Korean and Vietnam wars, the Veterans Home most likely will be their “final duty station.”

In recognition of the six Marines’ service, the Marine Corps League of Brattleboro, Vermont, will be presenting to each a handmade blanket inscribed with the Marine Corps emblem. Former Vermont governor Jim Douglas will be the event’s keynote speaker. He will also witness a long-held Marine tradition at such events; the oldest Marine present will be joined by the youngest Marine, and both will cut the birthday cake. 

If there is a keyword that runs through all that takes place on November 10^th for current Marines and those who once served, it is tradition. The Marine Corps is, by statute and its own design, a small branch of the Armed Forces. Nevertheless, it has, within the past 100 years, earned an out-sized reputation for its ability, readiness, and fearlessness.

As a nation, we seem to have lost some of our long-held traditions: the nightly family dinner, outdoor play for youngsters, weekly church attendance, dress and appearance norms, respect for our teachers, police, public officials, and those in political office. They have been substituted with a lack of connectiveness, socialization, and civility.  

The Marines have a saying, “Once a Marine, always a Marine.” There is something valuable about tradition, and we should not discard so much of it as if it were no longer relevant. Based on current events, tradition is surely wanting.

The author is a U.S. Marine (retired), CPA, and columnist living in Arlington, VT.