On some level of course, America’s Marines don't really need an introduction. They've been protecting our shores for more than 232 years. But because they are, famously, "The Few …" there's a lot about becoming and being a Marine that most Americans never see. To correct that, the United States Marine Corps has launched a broad-based community and public relations campaign designed to give the rest of the world more insight into what it takes to be a Marine. A centerpiece of the campaign is a new TV spot that was taped at locations across the country, featuring the Corps' legendary Silent Drill Team. A companion Web site, OurMarines.com, documents the video shoot and collects stories about Marines and their families. The site also contains an extended version of the TV spot.

One of the photos from the making of the commercial, taken in Columbia, TN, a few miles from Hammock Inc.'s Nashville offices, graces the cover of the March-April 2008 issue of Semper Fi, the Magazine of the Marine Corps League, which we publish for the League.

Elsewhere in the issue, we encounter a different "kind" of Marine - one made of plastic and aluminum and electronics. The Marines and other services increasingly use robots to perform highly dangerous tasks such as reconnaissance, investigating potential explosive devices, even retrieving wounded comrades under fire. While there is not now and never will be a true substitute for boots on the ground, 'bots will take on new and more complex tasks as another weapon in the Marines' arsenal.

Speaking of that arsenal, the Marine Corps League co-hosts three trade shows a year that bring active-duty Marines together with military suppliers. The Marines are not shy about giving the vendors (many of them veterans) a quick and incisive analysis of their products. And the vendors hustle to fix, upgrade and adapt their products and services to meet the warfighters' needs. Semper Fi reports on the Marine West Expo in January aboard Camp Pendleton, CA; we'll be at the next one, Marine South at Camp Lejeune, NC, in early April.