US Marines 250th Anniversary: Did They Really Play the Helldivers 2 Theme?
Super Earth’s crusade just stormed the real world: a US Marine company commander referenced Helldivers 2 during the official U.S. Marines 250th Anniversary celebration, shoving the co-op phenomenon into the Corps spotlight.
File this under things I did not see coming: a U.S. Marine Corps company commander worked a Helldivers 2 gag and the game’s theme music into the Corps’ 250th anniversary celebration. Yes, really.
So what actually happened
At the official U.S. Marine Corps 250th Anniversary event on October 19, 2025, Marine company commander Kagan Dunlap took the stage and opened with a wink to Helldivers 2’s recruitment-meme energy. If you’ve spent five minutes in that community, you know the bit.
"Join the Marines!, ... oh man, I was hoping some of you would get that reference, am glad that some of you did."
Dunlap has been in the Corps for 11 years and also happens to be a sizable creator on Instagram with over 1 million followers. After a pretty heartfelt speech about the Marines, he exited to the Helldivers 2 theme as the send-off music. He later posted a clip of the moment on his own Instagram, confirming the track was exactly what it sounded like.
- Who: Marine company commander Kagan Dunlap, 11 years of service, also a creator known as @thecolebrew with 1M+ Instagram followers
- Where: U.S. Marine Corps 250th Anniversary celebration
- When: October 19, 2025
- The nods: An opening line riffing on the Helldivers recruitment meme and the Helldivers 2 theme used as the walk-off music
Why this is such a wild crossover
Helldivers 2 launched in February 2024, and the community has a habit of dragging the game’s liberation shtick into real life for laughs and solidarity. Then there was the not-so-funny part: Sony tried forcing players to link PlayStation Network accounts to keep playing. That shut out huge chunks of the player base in countries where PSN doesn’t exist. The backlash was loud, organized, and effective. Sony ultimately reversed course, and the Helldivers crowd took a victory lap for pushing back on a bad call.
Cut to now, and you’ve got the Marine Corps marking its 250th with a direct Helldivers nod. It’s surreal enough that plenty of fans were convinced it had to be fake until Dunlap posted the receipts himself.
The bottom line
From a community meme to an official Marine Corps stage, Helldivers 2 just pulled off another very real-world moment. Chalk up one more unexpected achievement for Super Earth’s unofficial PR team.