Rifleman's Creed

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The Rifleman's Creed continues to stand as a pillar concerning the ethos of the Marine Corps. In recruit training for enlisted Marines and Officer Candidates School for commissioned officers the Rifleman's Creed is inescapable. Whilst its continued recitation varies from company to company, platoon to platoon, its presence is assured during the period of recruit training. The Rifleman's Creed is one of the keystones of the United States Marine Corps doctrine and helps designate that every Marine is, first and foremost, a Rifleman regardless of Military Occupational Specialty (or MOS) designation. Even now, in the United States Marine Corps rifle training data book, given to recruits when undertaking Table 1 of rifle qualification, the Rifleman's Creed is printed within the data book to ensure that prior to picking up a weapon a Marine understands what their rifle means to them and their Corps. The last page of the data book reinforces this ideology with the quote from General Alfred M. Gray Jr., the 29th Commandant of the Marine Corps: "Every Marine is, first and foremost, a rifleman. All other conditions are secondary."{{Cite web|date=February 2012|title=ART NAVMC 11660 REV 02-12|url=https://www.trngcmd.marines.mil/Portals/207/Docs/wtbn/ART%20NAVMC%2011660%20REV%2002-12.pdf|access-date=28 November 2021|website=Lejeune Marines}} The Creed itself utilizes a sense of anthropomorphism in order to coerce Marines into seeing their rifle as more than a simple tool of war. This sense of almost familial attachment that a Marine feels towards their rifle is paramount, as a Marine would never leave a man behind, they would also not leave their rifle.{{Cite journal|last=Howard|first=Mick|date=2013|title=A Military Tradition Institutionalized: Rhetorical Personification and Anthropomorphism in "The Rifleman's Creed"|url=https://encompass.eku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1186&context=jme|journal=The Journal of Military Experience|pages=101}}{{Cite web|title=Marine Corps University > Research > Marine Corps History Division > Frequently Requested Topics > Marines' Rifle Creed|url=https://www.usmcu.edu/Research/Marine-Corps-History-Division/Frequently-Requested-Topics/Marines-Rifle-Creed/|access-date=2021-11-26|website=www.usmcu.edu}}

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| title = Rifleman's Creed{{cite web

|url=http://www.lejeune.usmc.mil/2dmardiv/aabn/Rifleman.htm

|title= My Rifle: The Creed of a U.S. Marine

|author=Major General William H. Rupertus

|publisher=United States Marine Corps

|archive-date=2007-03-10

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310183121/http://www.lejeune.usmc.mil/2dmardiv/aabn/Rifleman.htm

}}{{cite book |title=100 years of making marines at Marine Corps Recruit Depot : Parris Island, South Carolina (PCN 10600010000) |date=2015 |publisher=Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island |page=66 (PDF p. 5) |edition=First |oclc=926058315 |url=https://www.mcrdpi.marines.mil/Portals/76/Docs/CentennialCelebrationBook/MCRDPI-history-book-4.pdf |access-date=31 January 2021 |chapter=Chapter Four{{Snd}} Training for Victory |quote=... even as I, because it is my life.}}{{cite book |last1=Sturkey |first1=Marion F. |title=Warrior Culture of the U.S. Marines |date=2002 |publisher=Heritage Press International |location=Plum Branch, SC |isbn=9780965081450 |edition=1st |oclc=50611498 }} via {{cite web |title=Rifleman's Creed |url=http://www.usmcpress.com/heritage/marine_corps_rifleman's_creed.htm |website=Heritage Press International |access-date=31 January 2021 |quote=... even as I am human, because it is my life.}}{{cite book |title=Standards |date=29 July 2010 |publisher=FIRES Center of Excellence |page=6 |url=https://sill-www.army.mil/428thfa/Fort%20Sill%20Blue%20Book%20ver61.pdf |access-date=31 January 2021 |quote=... even as I am human, because it is my life.}}

| quote = This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

My rifle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life.

Without me, my rifle is useless. Without my rifle, I am useless. I must fire my rifle true. I must shoot straighter than my enemy who is trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will ...

My rifle and I know that what counts in war is not the rounds we fire, the noise of our burst, nor the smoke we make. We know that it is the hits that count. We will hit ...

My rifle is human, even as I [am human], because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weaknesses, its strength, its parts, its accessories, its sights and its barrel. I will keep my rifle clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other. We will ...

Before God, I swear this creed. My rifle and I are the defenders of my country. We are the masters of our enemy. We are the saviors of my life.

So be it, until victory is America's and there is no enemy, but peace!

| align = center

| width = 50em

}}

• The Rifleman's Creed is used multiple times in Stanley Kubrick's 1987 film Full Metal Jacket including the now famous scene involving Private Pyle and his partial recitation of the Creed in the bathroom prior to his murder of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman and his subsequent suicide. Through Kubrick's continued use of the Rifleman's Creed throughout the first section of the film, it represented the dehumanization of the recruits as a whole.{{Cite book|last=Nelson|first=Thomas|title=Kubrick, Inside a Film Artist's Maze|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2000|pages=246}}{{Cite journal|last=Stevenson|first=James A.|date=1988|title=Beyond Stephen Crane: 'Full Metal Jacket'|journal=Literature/Film Quarterly|volume=16|issue=4|pages=238–243|jstor=43797551 }}
• The 2005 film Jarhead includes multiple scenes with a modified version of the Rifleman's Creed. The Creed is introduced by Sergeant Sykes and reused in the film on multiple occasions and, whilst the entirety of the Creed is not used, it does succeed in alerting the audience to the motif-like element of the Creed's use in Full Metal Jacket.{{Cite journal|last1=Charles|first1=Michael|last2=Townsend|first2=Keith|date=2011|title=Full Metal Jarhead: Shifting the Horizon of Expectation|url=|journal=Journal of Popular Culture|volume=44|issue=5|pages=922|doi=10.1111/j.1540-5931.2011.00880.x}}
• In Family Guy, season 7, episode 4, Joe Swanson rehearses a modified version of the Creed. The scene takes place in a cut away where he replaces the subject of a rifle with his wheelchair.{{Citation |title=Family Guy Clip – this is my wheelchair | date=19 May 2020 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCFhRR0Grnc |access-date=2024-02-21 |language=en}}
• Saturday Night Live’s [https://youtube.com/watch?v=VRJecfRxbr8&pp=0gcJCdgAo7VqN5tD parody] of the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings included a variation of the creed adapted to Kavanaugh’s calendars from high school used to defend himself against claims made in certain hearings.
• The 2024 gag anime My Deer Friend Nokotan, episode 11, contains a recitation of the Creed by a Matagi who recites it before battling Shikanoko.

• Airman's Creed
• Coast Guardsmen's Creed
• Noncommissioned officer's creed
• Ordnance Soldier's Creed
• Quartermaster Creed
• Ranger Creed
• Sailor's Creed
• Soldier's Creed

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