Marine!; The Life of Lt. Gen. Lewis B. (Chesty) Puller, USMC (Ret.)

New York: Bantam Books, 1988. Twelfth printing [stated]. Mass market paperback. very good. Scott B. Mills (Cover art). Pocket Paperback. xi, [1], 369, [19] pages. Author's Note. Maps. Appendix. Index. Burke Davis was a journalist, novelist, and nonfiction writer, best known for popular war histories. A native of North Carolina, he lived for about thirty years in Virginia, and many of his histories and biographies tackled Virginia subjects, such as Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, George Washington, and Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller. He was awarded the Mayflower Cup in 1959 for his history To Appomattox: Nine April Days, 1865, and the North Carolina Award for Literature in 1973. Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller (June 26, 1898 - October 11, 1971) was a United States Marine Corps lieutenant general who fought guerrillas in Haiti and Nicaragua and, as a senior officer, served with distinction in World War II and the Korean War. Puller is the most decorated Marine in American history. He is one of two United States servicemen to be awarded five Navy Crosses and one Army Distinguished Service Cross. Derived from a Kirkus review: General Lewis Burwell Puller, holder of five Navy Crosses, hero of five great American military campaigns, and symbol of old-style, almost mythical heroism to all U.S. Marines, is the subject of this interesting biography. The author takes Puller through the "occupations" of 1919, the Nicaragua campaign, Shanghai duty in war and other harrowing South Pacific fights of World War II, and finally the terrible days of Korea's Chosin Reservoir retreat of late 1950. Not only are Puller's military feats described (they led to a Lieutenant Generalcy for him) but his own philosophy on military training and preparedness, his own Marine Corps mystique, are also closely examined. The figure of a hard-fighting yet highly intelligent professional soldier emerges. It offers a valuable historical portrait for our time.