Happy Birthday Chesty: June 26, 1898 (Vanity)

6/26/2019

[Dr. Sivana]

He looks like the prototype for all the soldiers that Jack Kirby drew in the comics.

[tet68]

He was.

Good night Chesty, where ever you are.

[Bonemaker]

[yarddog]

Around 1973 I found a paperback biography of Puller in a trash can. I fished it out and read it. Before that I had never heard of him.

The odds of a man being in al the places, battles firefights from Haiti to Korea, and living are probably in the single digits or a thousand.

A couple of things I still recall. Chesty was a proponent of marksmanship and he caught Omar Bradly fixing a contest between Marine experts and regular Army shooters.

Chesty figured out that Bradly had given the wrong distance. The Marines groups were tight but too low. The Army were all over but more hit the target.

[SMARTY]

Most decorated of all

[jetson]

Chesty Puller displaced most of his ribs in a polo accident. He wore a chest brace for three weeks and took it off himself to get back to his men.

I've displaced one rib and could barely move or breath for a month. He was one tough little marine.

[jetson]

Chesty Puller displaced most of his ribs in a polo accident. He wore a chest brace for three weeks and took it off himself to get back to his men.

I've displaced one rib and could barely move or breath for a month. He was one tough marine.

[BluH2o]

He was awarded 5 Navy Crosses in his career in the Marine Corps. With all the MOH awards being passed out by Clinton, Bush, Obama and now Trump one might ask why at least one of Chesty Puller’s Navy Cross awards should be upgraded to a posthumous MOH?
Clinton upgraded several Distinguished Service Cross awards to Japanese American WWII vets of the 442nd Infantry Regiment that served in Italy. The reason cited ... they were discriminated against and should have been awarded the MOH originally.

[gunnyg]

Gen Puller’s best of his latter appearances was @ the 1956 CM Trial (S/Sgt McKeon) PISC!
He came back on AD for the trial to testify!
Just noticed I have an old salty post for that online...than to the WayBack Machine/Internet Archive...Somewhat resurrected!
GyG
+++

[gunnyg]

Gen Puller’s best of his latter appearances was @ the 1956 CM Trial (S/Sgt McKeon) PISC!
He came back on AD for the trial to testify!
Just noticed I have an old salty post for that online...than to the WayBack Machine/Internet Archive...Somewhat resurrected!
GyG
+++

[caddie]

I read somewhere that, in the movie Heartbreak Ridge, in the scene where Gunny Highway was in jail (the second time), and he was muttering,

"You can beat me, and you can stab me, and you can shoot me, and you can kill me, but just don't BORE me,"

that that quote was actually made somewhere, sometime, by Chesty Puller.

Anyone know?

[real saxophonist]

His son Lew Puller was a Marine officer in Vietnam, got severely wounded. He was in a wheelchair the rest of his life.

He became a pretty successful lawyer, wrote an autobiography, and then just out of the blue, killed himself.

Chesty was gone by then, so he didn't have to deal with that. All that was off the top of my head, didn't look anything up, so it might not be completely accurate.

And of course, the Marines' official mascot is an English Bulldog named Chesty:

[real saxophonist]

Love the Good Conduct Medal.

[Vermont Lt]

The “upgrade” process was a program that went back and reviewed awards that were either denied or downgraded for things like being black, Japanese, or Jewish.

It has been making recommendations for upgrades for years. You should read up on it. It’s identified some very worthy awardees.

[sparklite2]

Good night Chesty, where ever you are.

---

And while we’re at it ...

“Good night, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are.”
———Jimmy Durante