But its companion bill, S. 504, still has to pass the Senate.

Some key senators may make this an uphill battle, including John McCain of Arizona and Jim Webb of Virginia. Yesterday, midst this record-setting vote, they publicly voiced their opposition in The Hill, which received coverage in the Washington Post and Huffington Post:

Here’s what you can do:

• Call your U.S Senator—we need support in all 50 states!
• Reach out to McCain and Webb—ask them to allow our bill out of the Armed Services Committee for a vote on the Senate floor.
• Post comments on these stories.

You can find a full Senate contact list on the Marine Corps Identity Cause website.

McCain can be reached at (202) 224-2235. You can also email his press secretary here or send him a letter at 241 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510.

Webb can be called at (202) 224-4024, emailed here, or written to at 248 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510.

Phone calls are most effective. If you write, ask your senators for their support and an e-mail response on their decision.

I want to thank you for your crucial support and Rep. Walter Jones (NC) and Sen. Pat Roberts (KS) for their leadership.

In the meantime, you can rest assured “The Gunny” R. Lee Ermy is still on the case.

Semper Fi,

Michael Blum
Executive Director
Marine Corp League

R. Lee Ermey and the Marine Corps League held a successful press conference and rally Feb. 25 in Washington D.C. Hundreds of attendees came to support the Marine Corps Identity Cause which supports legislation in the Congress to change the name of the Department of the Navy to the Department of the Navy and Marine Corps. Other speakers included Congressman Walter Jones, Senator Pat Roberts, General Anthony Zinni, General Alfred Gray, Sgt. Eddie Wright, Dick Linn, Tracy Della Vecchia, and Michael Blum.

Retired Gunnery Sgt. R. Lee Ermey, widely known for his performance as the sadistic drill instructor in the 1987 film “Full Metal Jacket,” headlined a Thursday news conference in Washington, D.C., calling to rename the Department of the Navy the Department of the Navy and Marine Corps.

The event, at the Longworth House Office Building, was aimed at drumming up support for House Resolution 24, a bill authored by Rep. Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., that formally proposes the name change.

“We’re not asking for a promotion. We’re not asking for more money. We don’t want a uniform change,” Ermey said. “The only thing we want is for future Marine who shed blood for their country to at least get respect and receive honorable mention in the department they fall under.”

Jones has introduced a version of his resolution, which now has 367 co-sponsors, every year since 2001. Despite wide-spread support in the House, it has failed in the Senate each time.

For the eighth year, the language of the resolution was included in the National Defense Authorization Act, unanimously approved by the House Armed Services Committee in June.

Each year since 2001, however, the Senate has stripped Jones’ name change from the legislation. Jones is now waiting to see if it will happen again, but remains hopeful.

“I think we have a chance. We really do,” Jones said when asked if he thought the measure might pass the Senate this year.

Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., introduced a sister bill in the Senate, but it has just two co-sponsors — Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan from North Carolina.

“Why can’t we call it the Department of Navy — and Marine Corps?” Roberts asked. “Why can’t we add three words to right an injustice? Why can’t we add three words to remind the Secretary of the Department of Defense and the world that the Marines are second to none?”

Ermey said he struggles to see logic in those who oppose the name change.

“I can’t imagine anyone looking one of these wounded veterans without arms or legs in the eyes telling them no.” Ermey said. “How do you reason that?”

Other speakers included Gen. Anthony Zinni, former commander of U.S. Central Command; former Commandant Gen. Alfred M. Gray; Bronze Star recipient Sgt. James Eddie Wright, a Marine who lost both hands in combat in Iraq yet went on to become a Marine Corps Martial Arts Program instructor; Michael Blum, the Marine Corps League’s executive director; Tracy Della Vecchia, founder of MarineParents.com; and Dick Linn, whose son was killed in Iraq in 2005.

After the conference, Ermey made his way to Bullfeathers of Capitol Hill, a nearby bar where he planned to hold a rally to drum up additional support and publicity for the departmental name change.

Taken from UPI

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 (UPI) — Actor and Marine Corps veteran R. Lee Ermey says he backs a bill to rename the Department of the Navy the Department of the Navy and Marine Corps.

The Marine Corps League, which is orchestrating the grassroots effort with Ermey, has started a petition-writing campaign to back legislation sponsored by Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., and Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., The Hill reported Saturday.

“Marines have fought and died with their Navy brothers and sisters for more than 200 years,” said Michael Blum, the Marine Corps League executive director. “It’s finally time to give the Marine Corps the recognition the branch has long deserved.”

The Marine Corps League noted families of those who die in combat receive condolence letters on Navy letterhead stationery with no mention of the Marine Corps.

Congress officially created the Marine Corps on June 30, 1834 but placed the corps under the Department of the Navy.

The Marines have their own military command structure and function separately, The Hill said.

The actor who played the drill sergeant in “Full Metal Jacket” is coming to Washington, D.C., next week to lobby Congress to pass a long-stalled bill.

R. Lee Ermey is the national spokesman for a growing grassroots effort behind legislation sponsored by Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) that would rename the Department of the Navy as the Department of the Navy and Marine Corps.

Ermey, who was in the Marine Corps for 11 years, has been in over 100 movies, including “Apocalypse Now,” “Dead Man Walking” and “Leaving Las Vegas,” according to imdb.com.

Over the past decade, Jones has repeatedly pushed his colleagues to pass his bill. Jones’s bill has 367 co-sponsors. Roberts (R-Kan.), a Marine Corps veteran, introduced companion legislation last year.

The Marine Corps League, which is orchestrating the grassroots effort with Ermey, has started a petition-writing campaign and is bringing supporters of Jones’s legislation to Capitol Hill on Thursday.

“Marines have fought and died with their Navy brothers and sisters for more than 200 years,” said Michael Blum, Marine Corps League executive director in a statement. “It’s finally time to give the Marine Corps the recognition the branch has long deserved.”

Although the Marine Corps has been a separate service since the National Security Act of 1947, it does not get equal billing with the Navy, Air Force and Army, each of which has a Pentagon department named after it. Since the Marine Corps’s earliest days, it has operated under the Department of the Navy.

Former Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), a former secretary of the Navy, was Jones’ biggest obstacle in the upper chamber. Year after year, Warner refused to back the change as part of the defense authorization bill.

But even after Warner’s retirement two years ago, Jones’s efforts gained little traction in the Senate.

Jones wants his bill to get a vote on the House floor and in the Senate. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) said he would help Jones bring up the bill as a standalone once he had 350 co-sponsors, Jones’s spokeswoman said. It is unclear when the bill will hit the House floor.

The origins of the Marines date back to Nov. 10, 1775 when the Continental Congress called for the creation of two battalions to serve as landing forces with the fleet during the Revolutionary War. It was not until July 11, 1798 that Congress officially passed an act to establish the Marine Corps. On June 30, 1834, Congress passed another act placing the Marines under the umbrella of the Navy.

The Corps functions in war and peacetime as a separate branch in nearly every way. It has its own military command structure.

The running joke has been that the Marines constitute the “men’s department” of the Navy. Yet the issue of receiving recognition is no laughing matter to many who serve in the Marine Corps. The families of those who die in combat and are awarded service commendations receive letters from the secretary of the Navy, with no mention of the Marine Corps on the letterhead.

Families of those dying in combat also receive the condolence letters on Navy letterhead with no explicit mention of the Marine Corps anywhere in the letter, according to a sample of a letter posted by the Marine Corps League.

Supporters of changing the name are quick to note that the effort does not signal that the Marine Corps wants to break away from the Navy, nor would the change cost more than the immediate change in stationary sent to families. The name change also would not alter the responsibilities of the Navy secretary or how resources between the Navy and Marine Corps are allocated, the supporters argue.

The bill is backed by FedEx founder Fred Smith, a former Marine and former secretary of the Navy Lawrence Garrett.

Washington D.C. – Feb. 2, 2010 – Legislation that would change the name of the Department of the Navy to the “Department of the Navy and Marine Corps” has gained substantial traction in recent months.

The bill (H.R. 24) on Jan. 6 advanced to the Committee on Armed Services and is expected to be heard this spring on the House of Representatives floor—for the first time. To help expedite the legislation, a companion bill (S.504) has been introduced in the Senate—also for the first time.

To help raise public awareness of the legislation, a grassroots campaign, Marine Corps Identity Cause, has been formed.

The effort has attracted well-known supporters, including FedEx founder and CEO Fred Smith and actor R. Lee Ermey—both Marine veterans.

Ermey, star of “Full Metal Jacket”, has signed on to be Marine Corps Identity Cause’s spokesman and has publicly voiced his support for the name change in an online video. On Feb. 11, he will hold a press conference in Washington D.C. to further discuss the campaign.

Other supporters include:

• North Carolina Rep. Walter B. Jones, who introduced H.R. 24
• Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, who introduced S.504
• Marine Corps League, sponsor of Marine Corps Identity Cause
• MarineParents.com Inc.
• Former Secretary of the Navy Lawrence Garrett
• Col. Oliver North
• Veterans of Foreign Wars
• The Fleet Reserve Association
• Many more

Every year since 2001, Rep. Jones has introduced legislation that would give the Marine Corps equal status with the Navy.

“As a former Marine, I applaud Congressman Jones’ effort to recognize the unique contributions of the USMC to our country,” said FedEx’s Smith.

H.R. 24 has received 362 co-sponsors—the second-highest number of signatures for any resolution introduced in the House of Representatives in 2009. Given increased publicity and ramped-up support for the bill, backers are more confident than ever of it finally becoming law.

“We’ve never had this kind of support from both sides of Congress,” said Michael Blum, national executive director of the Marine Corps League. “After years of campaigning, this movement has gained unparalleled traction. Plus, we see an all-time high perception of the public toward our Marines.”

In addition to reflecting the Marine Corps in the department name, the bill would redesignate the Secretary of the Navy to the “Secretary of the Navy and Marine Corps.”

If the bill were passed, costs would be minimal. Further, the use of “Marine Corps” and “Navy” in the same name is not without precedent. The home of Navy football is at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. Other examples include the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society and Navy-Marine Corps Tactical Aviation.

“We’re not asking for a secretary of the Marine Corps or anything complicated or expensive,” Blum said. “We’re just asking for equal billing.”

Rep. Jones said it’s finally time for the Marine Corps, which has fought with the Navy since 1775, to be properly honored.

“This bill is about showing the nation the true meaning of the department and recognizing the overall importance of the Marine Corps to our national security,” Jones said. “It’s also about honoring our Marines who’ve fought and died in battle.”

About Marine Corps Identity Cause

Marine Corps Identity Cause is a grassroots campaign founded in 2009 to give Marines equal status with the Navy. The campaign, sponsored by the Marine Corps League, has one simple—but important—goal: To get Congress to change the name of the Department of the Navy to the “Department of the Navy and Marine Corps.”

For information on how you can be part of this effort, visit www.marinecause.com.

About Marine Corps League

Incorporated by an act of Congress in 1937, the Marine Corps League perpetuates the traditions and spirit of ALL Marines who proudly wear, or who have worn, the eagle, globe and anchor of the Corps.

For more information, go to http://www.mcleague.com.