The Legend Begins: LEWIS 'CHESTY' PULLER (1898-1941)

LTG Lewis "Chesty" Puller enlisted in 1918

By JIM PURCELL

Lewis "Chesty" Puller is a United States Marine Corps legend. 

Through the course of his storied, 37-year in the Corps, Puller rose from the rank of private to lieutenant-general. He joined the Marines after World War I, but was already a combat-hardened commander by the outbreak of World War II.

During his career, Puller won five Navy Crosses; a Distinguished Service Cross; a Silver Star; the Legion of Merit twice, once with "valor" device; the Bronze Star, with "valor" device; the Purple Heart; and three Air Medals, among other decorations. But, Puller's character wasn't measured in the medals he won, but the men he trained, led and inspired during some of America's darkest chapters.

During the first of this two-part series on the most celebrated United States Marine in our nation's history, Puller's early life and participation in what has come to be called the "Banana Wars" will be examined. With an eye toward looking at how his participation in these campaigns impacted his later, better-publicized career as a Marine combat leader, this segment looks at young Chesty Puller and the people, times and events that shaped him.

Puller was born on June 26, 1898 in little West Point, Virginia. Puller's hometown was incorporated only 37 years before its most famous scion was born. Puller was born to parents Matthew and Martha Puller. During his early life, young Lewis was brought up on stories of the Civil War -- its battles, leaders, sacrifices and causes.

In 1862, Puller's hometown itself was a strategic objective for Major-General George B. McClellan's Union Army of the Potomac. During his failed Peninsula Campaign of 1862, McClellan tried, unsuccessfully, to secure its key railroad intersection that led to the rebel stronghold of Richmond. Richmond became the South's capital city on February 22, 1862 after it was moved from Montgomery, Alabama.

Tragedy struck the Puller household, though, when young Lewis was only 10 years old. That year, Matthew Puller died.

The Mameluke Sword is worn by Marine officers

Few people know that Puller had a famous relation that would, himself, make his mark in American military history. Indeed, Puller and U.S. Army Gen. George Smith Patton were second cousins.

During America's Border War with Mexico (1910-1919), Puller tried to enlist in the United States Army to go fight. However, his mother, Martha, refused to give her permission for her son to enlist. Accordingly, Puller would have to wait to see the action he so eagerly sought.

The Border War was comprised of a number of military engagements that took place along the border of the United States and Mexico between Mexican revolutionaries, led by the infamous Pancho Villa, and the American Expeditionary Force, led by General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing.

A year after Puller's abortive attempt to enter the Army, he did gain entrance to the Virginia Military Institute, which is a state-supported military college in Lexington, Virginia. It had been established in 1839 and its alumni includes three of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson's four commanders during the Civil War: James Lane, Robert Rodes and Raleigh Colston. Meanwhile, Jackson himself had taught at VMI before the outset of hostilities between the North and South.

However, eager to march to the drums of war, and with America still in the thick of World War I (1917-1918) in August, 1918, Puller left VMI. At VMI, Puller and his fellow cadets were training to become officers. By enlisting, Puller began his military career in the far more humble role of private. Impressed by the grit and determination the United States Marines displayed during World War I's Battle of Belleau Woods (June 1-26, 1918), Puller signed on and went through Boot Camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, in South Carolina. 

Nicaraguan Sandinista rebels (circa 1927)

Soon after Puller graduated from Boot Camp, and with the Marine Corps being in flux with its staffing need due to World War I, he received orders to attend the Non-Commissioned Officer School at the island. Surprisingly, after he graduated from NCO School, Puller was selected to attend Marine Corps Officer's Candidate School, in Quanitco, Virginia. It was from OCS that Puller received his commission as a second lieutenant on June 16, 1919 in the Marine Corps Reserve.

However, though the need for the Marine Corps' wartime expansion assisted Puller in getting to OCS, the draw-downs in the force after the war's end left his commission converted to inactive status and him receiving the active rank of corporal.

Puller did not have a common experience as a junior non-commissioned officer. Perhaps because of his inactive commission, Corporal Puller received orders from the Marine Corps to serve in the Gendarmerie d'Haiti as a lieutenant. At the time, Haiti had a treaty with the United States that allowed for military personnel from the U.S. working closely with local military and law enforcement. So, Corporal Puller became Lieutenant Puller in Haiti and participated in more than 40 engagements as such for the next five years against Caco rebels on the island nation.

Lieutenant Lewis Puller (center) in Nicaragua with the National Guard detachment he led

During his time in Haiti Corporal/Lieutenant Puller attempted to regain an active commission as a second lieutenant in the Active Duty Marines. In 1922, Puller was assigned as an adjutant to Major Alexander Vandergrift in Haiti. Later in his career, Vandergrift would go on to become a future commandant of the Marine Corps.

It was not until Puller returned from the war in Haiti that, on March 6, 1924, he was officially recommissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marines. Subsequently, he was assigned to the Marine Barracks in Norfolk, Virginia and then at The Basic School, in Quantico, Virginia. His assignment at Quantico changed midway through and he was assigned to the 10th Marine Artillery Regiment.

By the time Puller was assigned to the 10th Artillery, he was already an expert at unconventional warfare, in modern language. Due to the nature of low-intensity conflict against a rebel adversary, artillery probably did not play as large a role as it might in other kinds of conflict. So, in a manner of speaking, his assignment to the 10th Artillery allowed Puller to gain some necessary doctrinal uses of artillery that he was not as clear about before that assignment. However, after about two years after being recommissioned, Puller came up on orders for Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii, and then, in 1928, he was ordered to San Diego, California.

Crest for the 10th Marine Arty Regt.

Puller's service in Haiti, though, was not forgotten by the Marine Corps. And, in December, 1928, the Corps wanted to use the skills he had honed there and sent him to another Third World nation, this time Nicaragua, to fight yet another low-intensity conflict. In Nicaragua, Puller led a Nicaraguan National Guard Detachment against Sandino rebels in that country. Again, he led his soldiers against an unconventional opponent. He was effective at this as he won his first Navy Cross for his actions between February 16 to August 19, 1930. Puller led the Nicaraguan Guardsmen, and some U.S. Marines, in a major action that included five successive engagements against the enemy, which outnumbered Puller's troops.

At this point, Puller received orders to return to the U.S. and attend the year-long Company Officers Course, at Ft. Benning, Georgia. Afterward, he returned to Nicaragua. Once there, for his combat leadership in actions between September 20 to October 1, 1932, Puller won his second Navy Cross.

Finally, the battlefield for his last engagement in Nicaragua turned out to be the last of the Sandinista rebellion (of that era) and occurred near El Sauce, on December 26, 1932. Following this decisive fight, the back of the Sandinista rebellion was broken.

Puller won two Navy Crosses before World War II

The Marines did not allow Puller to rest on his laurels for very long following his second "Banana War." Rather, soon after the conclusion of hostilities, Puller was send to the Marine Detachment at the American Legation in Beijing, China. Once there, he commanded a unit of the 4th Marine Regiment until he received orders to command the Marine Detachment aboard the cruiser USS Augusta, commanded by then-Captain Chester W. Nimitz.

While he was the Marine Detachment commander aboard the Augusta, he was sent back to the States in June, 1936 to serve as an instructor at The Basic School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Of note, some of Puller's students included Ben Robertshaw, Greg "Pappy" Boyington and Lew Walt.

However, in 1939, Puller received orders to return to the Augusta. After serving several months in this position, during May, 1940, Puller disembarked at the Port of Shanghai, where he would command the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment until August, 1941. After his command in Shanghai, Puller was finally ordered back to the United States, where he was given command of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division at New River, North Carolina (later to be re-christened as "Camp Lejeune").

It is from there, with war clouds mounting in Asia and Europe, that then-Major Puller would wait for the inevitable conflict. He trained his Marines for a war he knew was coming, which was unlike the rebellions he had helped put down in the past. This war would not span a small country, but oceans and continents as it raged between vast land and sea-going forces.

MG James M. Gavin: The 'Jumping General' of the 82nd Airborne

MG James M. Gavin during combat operations in Holland, 1942

By JIM PURCELL

For students of military history and U.S. paratroopers from every era during the past six decades, he is one of the most compelling figures of World War II: Major General James M. "Jumpin' Jim" Gavin, third commander of the U.S. Army's  82nd Airborne Division during World War II (1941-1945).

Before he would retire from the Army, after the war, in 1958, he would garner yet another star on his shoulder, as a lieutenant general and commander of the U.S. Army Research and Development Command.

Yet, it is as a fighting general that MG Gavin is most remembered. MG Gavin was the youngest major general to command a division during World War II, being only 37 years old at the time of his promotion. Similarly, after the war, LTG Gavin became the youngest lieutenant general promoted to that rank, in March, 1955. M1

During combat operations in North Africa, Sicily and Europe, MG Gavin was well-known by his preference to carry an M1 Garand, a weapon normally used by enlisted Infantrymen, instead of either an M1 Carbine or M1911, .45 Caliber pistol, preferred by most officers.

MG Gavin's nickname was not just something made up one day. Rather, the "Jumping General" took part in all four combat jumps during World War II that the 82nd Airborne Division was involved with.  For the officers under his command, MG Gavin made it clear he intended they be "... the first one's out the door [during airborne drops] and the last ones on the chow line." So loved by many of his soldier's in the 82nd Airborne, decades later many veterans simply referred to the general as "The Boss."

Who knew that MG Gavin would travel so far in the world, given the humble circumstance of his birth.

MG Gavin was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 22, 1907 to Irish-American parents, Katherine Ryan and James Nally. On his birth certificate, he was given the name "James Nally Ryan." However, by the age of 2, the future airborne commander was given up for adoption and placed in the Covenant of Mercy Orphanage, in Brooklyn, where he remain until he was adopted, in 1909. The future war leader of the famed 82nd was adopted by a Pennsylvania coal miner and his wife, Martin and Mary Gavin, of Mount Carmel. Consequently, "James Nally Ryan" was re-christened "James Maurice Gavin."

Then-COL James M. Gavin

Despite the fact that his father was employed full-time, the Gavin family just barely got by, which promoted young James Gavin to quit school in the 8th Grade to become a full-time clerk at a shoe store for $12.50 per week. However, on the day of his 17th birthday, James Gavin took the night train to New York City. Once there, he sent word to his parents that he was well, so they would not be concerned about him. Then, he took the first steps in a military career that would span more than 30 years and three continents.

Young James Gavin went to an Army recruiter to join-up. However, being only 17, the recruiter brought him before a local lawyer, followed by the young Gavin being sworn in on April 1, 1924 as a private in the U.S. Army. Then-Private Gavin was not sent to Basic Training. Rather, in the Army of the 1920s, Basic Training was performed at the unit. In PVT Gavin's case, the unit was a 155mm battalion that served as coastal artillery at Ft. Sherman, Panama. He did well there and served as a crewman on a 155mm battery.

Once in Panama, PVT Gavin attended a local Army school to complete his education. At the Army school, the top graduates were given a chance -- only a chance -- to attend the United States Military Academy, in West Point, New York. It was stipulated that such graduates would be given the opportunity to be admitted to West Point only if they did well on the academy's entrance examination.

Well, in the Summer of 1925, Cadet James M. Gavin was entered into the freshman roll at West Point. Subsequently, as a graduating cadet in 1929, it was mentioned in the West Point yearbook, "Howitzer," that Cadet Gavin was an accomplished athlete, a boxer, and was "already a soldier" when he arrived to the Cadet Corps.

Upon graduating, in June, 1929, then 2nd Lieutenant Gavin married the former Irma Baulsir, on Sept. 5, 1929. This would be the first of two marriages for the future general. After divorcing his wife, Irma, then-MG Gavin married his second wife, the former Jean Emert Duncan, in July, 1948.

MG Gavin moved steadily through the ranks of the peacetime Army. Then, with war on the horizon, Lieutenant-Colonel James M. Gavin was promoted to the rank of full Colonel and assigned as the first commanding officer of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, at Ft. Benning, Georgia, in July, 1941. Gavin's brigade would join the 82nd Airborne Division, which at that time was comprised of the 325th and 326th Glider Infantry Regiments and the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

Following combat in World War II in North Africa, Sicily and France, Col. Gavin was promoted to the rank of major general and became commander of the 82nd Airborne on Aug. 8, 1944, directly before Operation Market-Garden, which took place in Holland.

LTG Gavin

After the war ended, in 1945, LTG Gavin, an adversary of segregation, played a key role in the incorporation of an all-black battalion in the 82nd Airborne, the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion. Col. Bradley Biggs, first commander of the battalion, referred to LTG Gavin as "one of the most color-blind Army officers in the entire service."

In addition, LTG Gavin called for the use of mechanized troops being transported by air to become modern cavalry. By March, 1958, though, LTG Gavin retired from the Army and wrote the book "War and Peace in the Space Age," which was also published in 1958.

Later, the famed commander of the 82nd Airborne served as a technical adviser for the Hollywood films "The Longest Day" and "A Bridge Too Far."

LTG James M. Gavin died on Feb. 23, 1990 and was laid to rest in the Old Chapel at the United States Military Academy, and buried at the USMA Post Cemetery at West Point. He is survived by his widow, Jean, and five daughters, 10 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.