Chesty Puller

It was December 8, 1950, on the frozen plateau of Koto-ri in the North Korean mountains. There was a snowstorm in the morning. It screened Chinese foxholes on the hills above the perimeter and muffled artillery fire from the road to the pass, where the First Marine Division was fighting it’s way to the south. The commander was Colonel Lewis Burwell Puller, fifty-two years old, thirty-two years a U.S. Marine. He was in the process of winning his fifth Navy Cross – the nation’s second highest military award. No other Marine had won so many.

For two weeks Puller had commanded the rear of the First Marine Division, cut off in the Chosin Reservoir region by hundreds of thousands of red Communist Chinese troops. The Colonel was visiting a hospital tent when a messenger came: they were entirely surrounded! With the calm and subtle humor of Puller found all through this book he said, “Those poor commies, they’ve got us right where we want ‘em. We can shoot in every direction now.”

Lewis Burwell Puller was born on June 26, 18

On June 27, the day after his birthday, Lewis took the train to Richmond and enlisted in the Marine Corps, bound for boot camp at Paris Island, South Carolina. Puller and the other recruits arrived at Paris Island and were herded into quarantine stations. They surrendered their civilian clothing and were issued their utilities, cots, and blankets. A few days later, they marched to the supply depot where they were issued their uniforms and equipment. That night they were issued their rifles, Springfield 1903’s.The next day they ate breakfast and formed companies on the parade grounds.

Lewis Puller’s great-uncle, Robert Williams, a West Point graduate, deserted the South in the Civil War to command a Federal division at Gettysburg, which fought against three of his brothers. The Virginia branch of the family never spoke to him afterwards, though he came to a new renown by marrying the widow of Stephen A. Douglas. Lewis Puller had another cousin who would become a famous soldier: George S. Patton.

“Remember, whatever you write, this was no retreat. All that happened was that we found more Chinese behind us than in front of us, so we about-faced and attacked.”

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