CHESTY PULLER: THE CORPS’ MOST DECORATED MARINE
April 17, 2023Mac Caltrider
Chesty Puller
Lieutenant General Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller, the most decorated US Marine. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Lying at the position of attention in rows of metal bunk beds, 60 bald and hungry young men prepare for a very brief night of sleep. The lights go out. Then something weird happens: All 60 men scream in unison, “Good night, Chesty! Wherever you are!”
To an outsider, it might look like the ritual of a doomsday cult. But in fact, those young men are a platoon of Marine recruits, and the name they are invoking is that of the most revered individual to ever wear the eagle, globe, and anchor that each of them are in boot camp hoping to earn.
Lewis Burwell Puller, known by all as “Chesty” for his barrel-shaped chest, served 37 years in the Marine Corps. All but 10 of those were spent deployed to foreign lands. Today, more than half a century after his death, Chesty Puller remains the most decorated leatherneck in Marine Corps history. In the Devil Dog universe, he’s practically a god.
Chesty Puller
A Marine with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines waves to an SH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter flying alongside Expeditionary Sea Base USS Lewis B. Puller (ESB 3). US Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Kyle C. Talbot.
A Legend Is Born
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