Look at the scarlet stripe running down the trousers of a Marine NCO's dress blues and you are looking at a battle honor. Tradition holds that the "blood stripe" commemorates the Marines killed on 13 September 1847, when Winfield Scott's army stormed the fortress of Chapultepec guarding Mexico City — the "Halls of Montezuma" of the Hymn. Losses among the officers and NCOs leading the assault were heavy, and the red stripe was adopted to honor them. Whether exact history or burnished legend, no Marine puts on the blues without knowing the story. This figure stands in the uniform that carries that memory forward.

W. Britain sculpts the Marine at parade rest, hands clasped behind the back, in "Full Blues Dress Order": the dark four-pocket tunic — its outside pockets marking post-war manufacture — closed to a high stand-up collar, a white web belt at the waist, ribbon bars over the left breast, and the white barracks cover carrying the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor. The blue trousers and sleeve chevron place him among the Corps' enlisted leadership. On a parade ground he traces the lineage of the dress uniform back through the 1859 Dress Marine and the 1833 NCO in dress uniform — the same blues worn by legends like Chesty Puller.

W. Britain model 13054. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), solid metal hand-painted in a matte finish. Single foot figure on a plain rectangular display base. Supplied in original W. Britain packaging.