Yep!
Marines have indeed been carrying and raising our colors since their beginning in 1775.
In his book, The United States Marines: A History, General Simmons writes of The New Providence Raid,
“…on 3 March, 1776, the landing party went ashore…Nicholas ran up the Grand Union flag (not yet the Stars and Stripes)…”
Grand Union Flag
(“…possible that the Rattlesnake flag was also carried on this expedition.”
(MCO P10529.3B)
Don’t Tread On Me
Rattlesnake Flag
First Navy Jack
First Navy Jack
I do not know how many total combat-related flag raisings (and others of note) there have been for the Corps.The following examples are those I have thus far found documented, listed here in random order. In some cases, some text is provided together with links to the source; but generally I have not attempted to directly support remarks and/or pictoral representations with direct links, as I would very much like to do. Why? Well, the Internet is not forever, and it has been my observation and experience that attempting to provide URLs/links to up-to-date websites is fruitless. To be sure, there are many really great websites out there–but they come and go as with the wind–here today, and gone tomorrow. For further information beyond what is found here, I recommend that the interested viewer simply use Google, and/or another search engine, to find those current sites to obtain information in addition to what is available here.
Better look-see @ link below...
http://gunnyg.wordpress.com/2008/12/12/4776/
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