The atmosphere at the 2026 Marine Corps Birthday Ball at the Best Western Plus Coeur d'Alene Inn was so thick with pride last night that you could almost cut it with a bayonet.  

"We're here for guys who died in front of us and for the guys who are coming behind us," Master Gunnery Sergeant Jay Lillefloren said. "We're carrying on a tradition that's been going on for 251 years and we're going to continue doing it for another 251 years." 

Close to 250 veterans and family members attended the event honoring those who've selflessly served their country and helped to preserve peace worldwide. 

One of those soldiers was 102-year-old Robert Wynn. 

"I graduated from high school in June 1942 and signed up for the draft in July. I took the physical on January 6th, and I was inducted into the Army 10th Air Corps at the Presidio in Monterey, California, on the 13th, Wynn said. "Then I was sent to radio school." 

After completing his training, Wynn was sent to Drew Field in Florida and then to Burma. 

"I was there for about a year — my job was to protect the Air Force airfield. The radars were good in the flat lands, but they couldn't see in the mountains," Wynn said. "So, they put us — we were a 10-man crew — on the mountaintops to report enemy aircraft. I also spent about a year in India and then was shipped home when the war was over in September 1945." 

Wynn said he boarded a troop transport and was sent to New York on Nov. 1, and he was discharged on Nov. 10. 

The evening's featured speaker was retired Gunnery Sergeant Tanya Hildbrand. 

"We had never had a retired woman Marine speak in front of our balls," event organizer Tina Batha said. "We thought it would be nice to have a lady up there representing the Marine Corps." 

Hildbrand joined the Marines in 1993 after graduating from Lewiston High School.  

"We were sent to Paris Island, South Carolina. It was the only place female Marines were trained at the time," Hildbrand said. "I served my first four years in the avionics as a micro miniature component repair technician. I got out of the Marine Corps, went to college, and got my AA degree." 

Hildbrand then reentered the Marines and was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, before returning to Paris Island as a drill instructor from 2022 to 2005. 

"I then left there and went to Camp Pendleton, California and served back in avionics with MAG 39," she said. "Then I went to Okinawa, Japan for my last tour and retired in 2013." 

The evening wound down with Mike Quinn, commandant of the Marine Corps League Pappy Boyington Detachment No. 966 who hosted the event reading a letter from General Eric M. Smityh, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. 

"Marines have fought and won battles all over the world. From our first amphibious landing 250 years ago at Nassau to the volcanic sands of Iwo Jima, and from the bold invasion of Inchon to the mountains of Afghanistan, we have always marched forward with rifles in hand," Smithy wrote. "The Marines who came before us paved our legacy in sweat and blood. They built a foundation of excellence and proven time and again that Marines remain ready to answer the call." 

    WWII Veteran Robert Wynn.
  

    Cakes for the 251st Marine Corps Birthday Ball.
  

    Retired Gunnery Sergeant Tanya Hildebrand was the featured speaker at the Marine Corps Birthday Ball.
  

    A table of WWII and Korean War Veterans.