David Lipps of the Gloucester Ruritan Club places a wreath at the Gloucester County Veterans Memorial during Sunday's Veterans Day program, which was sponsored by Middle Peninsula Detachment #1317 of the Marine Corps League. Photo by Charlie Koenig

Middlesex County Sheriff David Bushey, standing, was the guest speaker at Sunday's Veterans Day dinner in Mathews. Also pictured is American Legion Post #83 Commander Roy Walker. Photo by Charlie Koenig

In Gloucester

Marine Corps Maj. John South, commander of the 2nd Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team (FAST) in Yorktown, was the guest speaker at the afternoon ceremony, which was held in front of the new Gloucester courthouse.

South reflected on "looking to those that have gone before" as the theme of his talk during the ceremony organized by Marine Corps League Middle Peninsula Detachment #1317. He said that we see examples of this in civilian life as hopeful athletes, musicians and others look to the idols in their particular field.

South didn’t have to look too far for a role model. His father was a Marine and, in 1964, had been part of an advertising campaign for the Corps that emphasized "Mind, Body and Spirit." For Mind, the poster depicted a Marine taking an academic test; for Spirit, it showed a Marine in dress blues guarding the U.S. Capitol; and for Body, they selected the best shot in a unit, which happened to be Martin South. So, South said, he had "a poster-boy Marine living right in my house."

From the first days at boot camp, the men and women of the Marine Corps look to their superiors for inspiration; to the non-commissioned officers with the blood stripe on their trousers; to the leadership of the commissioned officers. "You find somebody who’s doing it right and you try to copy it," South said.

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