the river, they had to
see that it didn't come bouncing down atop of their own heads or through
the canoe deck. However, they were getting action. They finished driving
the piles and setting up the stringers.

For their bridge floor they laid down wood shingles, and over that a mat
made out of woven bamboo strips. For a top deck? Well, it was a coral
island and the roads of that country were of pounded coral; they put a
top dressing of pounded coral across the bridge.

And then the young marine commander looked her over and figured on the
dimensions of his struts and stringers, and said: "Some class! She'll
stand a two-ton load." And then along came a steam-roller from off the
transport, and the roller weighed five tons and it was important that
it be passed across. "Go ahead," said the marine commander--"only I
hope you can swim!" And they all camped on the bank to watch. The
steam-roller man was an optimist and a literary person: "You may have
builded better than you know, captain!" The bridge settled down another
foot, but the roller got across, and back and over many more times;
which set the younger marines to standing on the bank and saying:
"That's us--bridge builders!"

The fight in the shack, the capture of Calcano, the sharpshooting at
Vera Cruz, the building of that coral-floored bridge, are not set down
here as wonderful stunts. They are set down because the writer happened
to bump into them during a casual hour's inspection of their records.
Scores of more heroic or ingenious samples could be served up by anybody
who cared to dig deep into the records. These are detailed here, because
they could be briefly told and at the same time show the marine's
characteristic qualities: courage, ingenuity, technic, and industry.

Here we might mention that it is not in itself an act of war to land
marines on foreign soil. It was sending ashore the bluejackets at Vera
Cruz that made it an act of war. To protect American lives and property
in Nicaragua a battalion of marines landed there a few years ago. They
had some sharp fighting, but it was not an act of war. Do you begin to
see him as a diplomatic asset? And perhaps why all this landing action
comes his way? Most of us have probably forgotten the details of that
Nicaraguan landing; but--unless they have been jacked out lately--a
company of those marines are still there, looking out for American
interests. Only a company, but still hanging on.

Courage, ingenuit