U.S. Marine Corps Photo

With its emphasis on its enlisted troops and its creed that every Marine is a rifleman, the Marine Corps is the military service that keeps the smallest ratio of brass to troops. But for a brief moment —actually only until Wednesday—there are, for the first time, six four-star officers in the Corps.

Earlier this month [April 19], the officers gathered at the Home of the Commandants at the Marine Barracks Washington, the only time six active-duty four star generals have gathered together, according to the service. Except for a handful of five-star admirals and generals in American history, four-stars is the highest attainable rank in the military. And for the Marines it is unusual to have four or five, much less six.

The Corps thinks of the gathering as historic. But for the generals, the April get-together was simply a reunion of a group of men who have worked with each other and off for four decades…