THIS IS MY RIFLE.

THERE ARE MANY LIKE IT, BUT THIS ONE IS MINE. MY RIFLE IS MY BEST FRIEND. IT IS MY LIFE. I MUST MASTER IT AS I MASTER MY LIFE.

MY RIFLE, WITHOUT ME IS USELESS. WITHOUT MY RIFLE, I AM USELESS. I MUST FIRE MY RIFLE TRUE. I MUST SHOOT STRAIGHTER THAN MY ENEMY WHO IS TRYING TO KILL ME. I MUST SHOOT HIM BEFORE HE SHOOTS ME. I WILL...

MY RIFLE AND MYSELF KNOW THAT WHAT COUNTS IN THIS WAR IS NOT THE ROUNDS WE FIRE, THE NOISE OF OUR BURST, NOR THE SMOKE WE MAKE. WE KNOW THAT IT IS THE HITS THAT COUNT. WE WILL HIT...

MY RIFLE IS HUMAN, EVEN AS I, BECAUSE IT IS MY LIFE. THUS, I WILL LEARN IT AS A BROTHER. I WILL LEARN ITS WEAKNESS, ITS STRENGTH, ITS PARTS, ITS ACCESSORIES, ITS SIGHTS AND BARREL. I WILL KEEP MY RIFLE CLEAN AND READY, EVEN AS I AM CLEAN AND READY. WE WILL BECOME PART OF EACH OTHER. WE WILL...

BEFORE GOD I SWEAR THIS CREED. MY RIFLE AND MYSELF ARE THE DEFENDERS OF MY COUNTRY. WE ARE THE MASTERS OF OUR ENEMY. WE ARE THE SAVIORS OF MY LIFE.

SO BE IT, UNTIL VICTORY IS AMERICA'S AND THERE IS NO ENEMY, BUT PEACE.

I 2nd that [marines]

Ready fight ready to kill ready to die, but never will

What make the grass grow? Blood and Guts, Blood and Guts

Teufel Hunden[marines]

Why?

Exactly.
If it's not in your heart, it's just so much Hoo Rah!

It would be good for a USMC forum.

The Rifleman's Creed

Recruits used to memorize it in Marine Boot Camp.

Don't know if they still do.

Because every Marine is a rifleman first. [USA]

Apperently, that old windbag of a shell of a person, R.L.E., wrote most of those lines and that song, no wonder why he has a TV show.

R.L.E. didnt write that

This is off topic as hell.  But I mention it because I am so old I understand the depth of the sacrifices our previous generations made in the sacrifice of war to defend this Country's freedom.

In the beginning, we didn't have uniforms, because we weren't an independnt Country from England until we beat them in war.

But high shcool kids do not know that.  They think WWII looked like Blackhawk Down.  It did not.

And they have no conception of why anybody would pledge their lives to their Country to the affect that they could well be ordered to sacrifice it.

Yeah, THAT pisses me off.  

That the reason John Hancock sighed his name so largely on the Declaration of Independence was because the British had a bounty on his head, and he wanted to give them the finger?  Or another signer whose kids were in England and he was threatened by the King that if he signed they would be killed.   And he did and they were.

That pisses me off because they're (not all obviously - see Iraq war on FOX) but lots of them are getting robbed of their patriotiosm, and sense of courage and sacrifice.

So if you've got 'em, teach 'em well so they know their heratige (albiet it that of revolutionalry outlaws - we did O.K.) - they'll know what to do.


 

Maj. Gen. W.H. Rupertus wrote it.

We still do memorize it in Boot Camp.  It is printed inside the front sheet of the Range Data book.