MARINE: THE LIFE OF CHESTY PULLER

MARINE: THE LIFE OF CHESTY PULLER        BURKE DAVIS

An action-packed biography of the most decorated soldier in the history of the US Marine Corps
In the glorious chronicles of the US Marine Corps, no name is more revered than that of Lt. Gen. Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller. The only fighting man to be awarded the Navy Cross five separate times—a military honor second only to the Congressional Medal of Honor—he was the epitome of a professional soldier. A son of the South, descendant of Robert E. Lee, and cousin to George S. Patton, Puller began his enlisted career during World War I and moved up through the ranks as he proved his battlefield mettle in Haiti and Nicaragua, with the Horse Marines in Peking, in the Pacific Theater of World War II, and in the nightmarish winter engagements of the Korean War.
Fearless and seemingly indestructible, adored by the troops he championed yet forced into early retirement by a high command that resented his “lowly” beginnings and unwillingness to play politics, Puller remains one of most towering figures in American military history. Bestselling military biographer Burke Davis paints the definitive portrait of this extraordinary marine hero.

HUBBY'S REVIEW:
A fantastic book about a true American Hero who I believe was run out of the Corps. I had seen other true Marines run out as well one use to come over to our house for dinner when I was growing up and I would hear the stories of WWII, and Korea. General Puller would always come up and the way he loved his Marines. He lived with them and fought with them on the front not in the rear where people thought he should be. He also spoke his mind which really was the problem the Corps had with him. They do not like anyone speaking against the way they should run things. The things he said after World War one came true, as did his words after World war two, and then Vietnam, and every action we have been involved in since and he passed away in 1971. But we are a country that does not learn from history even though we repeat it numerous times. This book follows his childhood to when he joins the Marines as a private. Then to his time fighting guerrillas in Haiti and Nicaragua. Which I did not know about he did for years. He was awarded medals from each country for helping them. By the time WWII came to happen he had been to China and sent telegrams stating of the killing of Chinese people by the Japanese almost 2 years before they bomb Pearl Harbor, he was not surprised one bit. The follows him through WWII and then to Korea and some of the fiercest fighting by the 1st Marines. When told that they were surrounded he said perfect we have them right where we want them. The 1st would go anywhere with him and they did. After Korea and them putting him on a base he was bored and coming up with things to do, when he went to the hospital and the Navy used that to force him to retire. He fought it with an attorney but lost on all of the appeals and knew that someone wanted him gone even though his doctor and others gave him a clean bill of health but a Navy doctor said no. he saw the writing on the wall and though they gave him a second star on the way out, he got the last word when he would show up for reunions and the men would tell the other officers to shut up and sit down and shout “we want Chesty we want Chesty” over and over they say it was deafening until he stood up and he actually brought tears to his eyes his wife would say later. Not many of these men left now but this is a good book and for me reminds as a kid sitting listening to some of these men along with my father from WWII & who fought in Europe and Korea, that they were bound together in battle. This is a great book and should be read by students in school. Still gets me is how he was awarded 5 Navy Crosses but no Medal of Honor, the Navy Cross being the second highest award, not that it mattered to him. I got this book from Netgalley. I gave it 5 stars. Follow us atwww.1rad-readerreviews.com