The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is an independent branch of the US armed forces. The unit was established in November 1775, and the first branch of this unit was formed a year later. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, US Marines served primarily in the region of South and Central America, guarding American interests in this part of the world. It was also then that the principle was established that it was the USMC that was deployed to the area of operations as the first among other units of the US armed forces. Corps soldiers fought in World War I, but they gained special fame in the course of bloody and heavy fights in the Pacific in 1941-1945, taking part in such battles as Guadalcanal (1942-1943), Tarawa (1943), Iwo-Jima and Okinawa (both from 1945). Often in the face of the enemy, the soldiers of this formation showed a lot of courage, an example of which can be, for example, John Basilone was awarded the Medal of Honor for his accomplishment during the battles on the Gudalcanal. After 1945, the soldiers of the Corps fought, for example, in the Korean War (1950-1953) or especially in the Vietnam War (1964 / 1965-1975), suffering heavy losses in the latter war. After the end of the Cold War, USMC soldiers took part in, for example, both Gulf Wars (1990-1991 and 2003). Currently, there are 182,000 soldiers in the Corps, and about 38,500 in the reserve. The motto of the Corps is the Latin motto Semper Fidelis (Polish always faithful).
War correspondent war correspondent or special correspondent) is a journalist collecting materials for his articles in the area of military operations. It is assumed that the first major armed conflict in which a journalist referred to as the war correspondent was the Crimean War (1853-1856), and that journalist was William Howard Russell, who worked for The Times. Of course, in the second half of the nineteenth century and in the course of both world wars, many correspondents took part in military operations and we often owe them famous photos or articles - just to mention the photo showing the US Marines planting the flag on Mount Suribachi by US Marines taken during the Battle of Iwo -Jima (1945) by Joseph "Joe" Rosenthal a. After the end of World War II, the profession of war correspondent did not disappear, on the contrary, it began to be perceived even more clearly as probably the most elite among the journalistic professions. This profession necessarily involves enormous risks and is highly dangerous. Hence, many war correspondents died in the course of their work. One can mention, for example, the great Polish journalist Waldemar Milewicz, who died in Iraq in 2004. It is worth adding that with the development of social media, the role of amateur war correspondents is played by ordinary people engaged in military operations. Examples include numerous photo- and video-reports of activities in Crimea (2014) and Donbas (from 2014 to the present).