Word: belleau
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Jerry Thomas has been in the thick of Marine Corps battles in both wars: Verdun, Belleau Wood, Soissons, Meuse-Argonne; Guadalcanal, Tulagi, Bougainville. A competent desk man as well as a first-class fighter, he was recalled from the Pacific in 1944 to head the Corps' Plans & Policies Division in Washington. Old Leathernecks recall his quizzical understatement during the fight for Guadalcanal : "We want to give them [the Japs] a sense of futility...
...echo of a 1918 statement that has become a part of Marine Corps legend. Moving up to Belleau Wood at the head of a company of marines, Captain Lloyd Williams was overtaken by a courier, told that the order of the French area commander was to retreat. "Retreat, hell," snapped Captain Williams, "we just got here," and took his troops into battle...
...Belleau Wood, Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daly, twice winner of the Medal of Honor* (Boxer Rebellion and Haiti), was reported to have said: "Come on, you sons of bitches! Do you want to live forever?" But profane old Dan Daly [shaken by reports that the Corps was going to be politer] grimly insisted that what he said was: "For goodness sake, you chaps, let us advance against the foe!" ¶ Col. Frederic W. Wise (who claimed that during World War I he had originated the phrase: "Retreat, hell-we just got here!") once heard his men had coined a nickname...
...week before the House Armed Services Committee, he was a distinguished grey figure in service blue. His chest was asplash with ribbons. In World War I, he had gone to France with the Sixth Marines and stuck with them through some of the bloodiest fighting of the war-Verdun, Belleau Wood, St. Mihiel, the Meuse-Argonne. He earned six battle clasps for his Victory Medal, the Army's Distinguished Service Cross, three Purple Hearts, five Silver Stars. He had also won the Congressional Medal of Honor for twice dashing through an open, mustard-drenched field under "extreme enemy fire...
...knows his destiny, nor does any nation. The destiny that lay beyond Yorktown and Appomattox and Manila Bay, that lay mockingly behind a slogan ("Make the World Safe for Democracy") at Belleau Wood, took a new and decisive turn last year. It was in 1947 that the U.S. people, not quite realizing the full import of their act, perhaps not yet mature enough to accept all its responsibilities, took upon their shoulders the leadership of the world...