Looking Back at the Military's Role in America's 150th Birthday Celebration

View Online Looking Back at the Military's Role in America's 150th Birthday Celebration Jan. 23, 2026 | By David Vergun Since 1826, the nation has marked its 50-year milestones with semicentennial celebrations on Independence Day. This year, the United States' 250th birthday, will be its fifth semicentennial jubilee. The third such celebration took place July 4, 1926, in Philadelphia, with a second exhibition, the first being the 1876 Centennial Exposition, also in the city. The Sesquicentennial International Exposition lasted from June 1 to Nov. 30, 1926. There was a 300-acre military encampment, where visitors could see the latest weaponry. The USS Constellation, the last sail-only warship built by the Navy in 1854, was anchored in the Schuylkill River in eastern Pennsylvania, which ran through the city fairgrounds. Today, that vessel is on display in Baltimore Harbor. John Philip Sousa, the former Marine Band director, wrote sheet music for his former band to play during the exposition. Naval Air Facility Mustin Field in Philadelphia opened Sept. 17, 1926. It was named in honor of Navy Capt. Henry C. Mustin, who made the first aircraft catapult launch from a moving vessel Nov. 5, 1915, when he flew off the armored cruiser USS North Carolina in a Curtiss Model AB-2 airplane.   The airfield's opening was considered a significant event, attended by 1,500 visitors, including Assistant Navy Secretary Theodore Douglas Robinson, Army Brig. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Navy Rear Adm. William Moffett and Philadelphia Mayor W. Freeland Kendrick. During the ceremony, aircraft from the Army, Navy and Marine Corps conducted a flyover to honor Mustin. Also, the airship USS Los Angeles circled overhead.   In 1963, the airfield closed and the land was transferred to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Across the country, former Civil War veterans from both the Union and the Confederacy held joint reunions in 1926. There were also Spanish-American War and World War I reunions, the latter then called the Great War.   Dwight F. Davis was secretary of war in 1926. The Army chief of staff was Maj. Gen. John L. Hines until Nov. 20, followed by Gen. Charles P. Summerall. The chief of naval operations was Adm. Edward W. Eberle, and Maj. Gen. John A. Lejeune was the Marine Corps commandant. Among the services, the Marine Corps saw the most combat action in 1926. They assisted the Nicaraguan government during that nation's civil war, which lasted until 1927. They also protected American lives and property. Also in 1926, President Calvin Coolidge ordered the Marine Corps to guard the nation's mail system, including post offices, mail trucks and trains, after a series of violent robberies. In China, sailors and Marines protected foreign interests along the Yangtze River during civil unrest. Marines were the occupying force in Haiti from 1915 to 1934. In 1926, Marine Corps Master Sgt. Faustin Wirkus was crowned Faustin II, king of the island of La Gonave, by the natives who believed he was the reincarnation of Emperor Faustin I. He reigned for three years before the Marines reassigned him.

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