Training and Education Command

Officially, my name is "Monument to U.S. Marines." But you can call me Iron Mike.

I was first cast in 1923 by a reknowned artist, named Robert Ingersoll Aitken, a World War I veteran of the Machine Gun Company, 306th Infantry. I was unveiled to the world on July 25, 1924 in a ceremony reviewed by Maj. Gen. Commandant John A. Lejeune. I am the first war memorial for the Parris Island-trained Marines who made the ultimate sacrifice during World War I, the"war to end all wars."

I have relentlessly stood my post on this concrete platform, silently holding this heavy machine gun over my right shoulder and gripping a .45 pistol in the air with my left hand, for more than 83 years, watching the tides and times change many, many times over on this Depot.

There are so many stories I keep locked inside that are worth listening to, if just you stop to listen.

I have seen more than a million young men and women pound the pavement bare with drilling and physical training. I have watched as hundreds of thousands of Parris Island Marines go off to war and return home as heroes to an ever-watchful nation. I watched many go off to war and never come back. But I will always keep them alive, frozen in time, in my memory.

I remember the Christmas in 1929 when Maj. Gen. Joseph Henry Pendleton drove the first car over the new causeway to the Depot.

I watched quietly as buildings and roads were constructed, reconstructed, and finally torn down and replaced with new buildings and roads. I watched as the cycle started over, time and time again. In place of the wooden recruit barracks that stood proud when I was first dedicated, there are now modern brick buildings. The Peatross Parade Deck has since been expanded, too.

I stood here while everything changed in the name of progress. Uniforms have come and gone. Weapons are now more advanced. Training battalions appeared, moved and disappeared. Women have since trained here and made a mark for themselves as well.

Even I have changed. When I was first dedicated, I stood outside the original Hostess House, which was near where the cobbler and dry cleaner shop is today. Now I stand outside Headquarters and Service Battalion, welcoming everyone who drives or walks by.

So much time goes by, and still some things will never change, though. They are our beloved Eagle, Globe and Anchor, which still stands for everything we still fight for around the world, and the recruits I watch turn into Marines, bit by bit every day.

The recruits still look the same. The drill instructors haven't changed much either. They are still instilling the same discipline and values into their recruits, still teaching them the skills they need to survive combat.

I stand my post week after week. I watch as new Marines and their families pass by and there, in my gaze at long lives of our nation's finest, you can see my pride.