Monday will mark the 50th anniversary of that muggy October morning I scrambled off a bus and stepped onto a set of yellow footprints at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island, S.C. The Marine Corps I joined as a rather naive 18-year-old was not much different from the Marine Corps that had fought in World War II and Korea, and in 1965 was gearing up for a larger role in Vietnam. We used much the same equipment and employed many of the same tactics as our predecessors. And we had many of the same goals: to fight and win the nation’s wars.