Military Swords Of Yore And Marines Of Today
Michalis "BIG Mike" Kotzakolios
Kotzakoliou, SSA

Anyone who has seen a group of Marines in full service dress is usually impressed by the determination and discipline sharply revealed in the look in their eyes, in their walk, and manner of speaking. Yet another impressive aspect is all of their military swords. Swords have never failed to impress, in any period of time or in any country.

Maybe it is the fact that swords are so uncommon in everyday life, that when we do see them – particularly military swords (as opposed to those merely for decorative reasons), that we are awed. While the advent of guns has relegated military swords to only ceremonial uses, they do continue to fascinate us, which is probably why we still see these weapons of yore in movies, photographs, and described in books.

The truth is that military swords were one of the most important weapons in the history of mankind, prior to World War II. Even in the first big war with Germany, bayonets, a logical extension of swords, were a common feature on the ends of most guns, on both sides of the conflict.

Even the basic characteristics of military swords show a shrewd cunning on the part of their makers. Most swords of a martial nature carry similar features. First, they all have three basic parts: the handle & hilt (usually considered a singular part), the blade, and the scabbard.

The handles of swords above all, had to be comfortably graspable. This meant that they should be able to “stay with the hand” in all eventualities. The handle could not be slippery, lest the weapon let fly. To add to this, the hilt, a brilliant invention, had to be sturdy enough that it would not break should it be repeatedly pounded by another weapon.

The blade itself is what most people think of when speaking of a sword. It is the offence, the attack, the essence of the instrument that does the great damage. Even dull, a blade could act as an excellent bludgeon.

Finally, the scabbard. This is not truly a part of the sword per se, yet soldiers of the past would have gone nowhere without their scabbard, for this allowed them to move the weight of the sword from their arms to their bodies. As well, the scabbard protects the sword, which metaphorically holds many connotations of strength backed by further strength.

In the world’s “first modern war,” the American Civil War, military swords were actively used, though obviously not as much as guns, and usually were only worn by officers. For this reason – or maybe in spite of it, swords were a symbol to the common soldier that the wearer was not only an officer, but a man of action, of importance, and of warfare at its highest strata.

This symbolism mixed with reality was also common in feudal Japan, in which the samurai carried not only one, but two such military weapons. Even when not at war, these often itinerant men were soldiers at heart, as was well known to all. If a person were to disrespect a samurai in fact, the latter had full rights, granted by his vassal lord, to do with the disrespectful person as he pleased. This generally involved showing the imprudent person the sharp end of one of the samurai’s swords.

Nowadays, thankfully, marines do not have such rights. Yet the military swords that they carry still add to the respect that the average marine commands, as well as embodying a constant reminder to the marine of who he or she is.