Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 60 - Man of War: Chesty Puller

Episode Date: November 6, 2017

The most highly decorated Marine in the history of the Corps, Lewis "Chesty" Puller won five Navy Crosses, a Purple Heart, a Silver Star, the Army Distinguished Service Cross, five Presidential Unit C...itations, and more. He fought for the Marines in Haiti. He fought again in Nicaragua. And then again in WWII. And once more in Korea. And then, at nearly 70 years old, he tried to fight in Vietnam! He was a fearless soldier, a courageous and talented leader, a loving father, a devoted husband, and just one Hell of an American. Hope you enjoy this Suck in honor of this week's Veteran's Day. Timesuck is also brought to you today by the Dollar Shave Club. Get the first month of the Executive Razor, Dr. Carver's Shave Butter, and more for free for only $5 with FREE shipping by going to www.dollarshaveclub.com/timesuck Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Want to try out Discord!?! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :) For all merch related questions: https://badmagicmerch.com/pages/contact Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG, @timesuckpodcast on Twitter, and www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Five Navy crosses, a purple heart, a silver star, the Army Distinguished Service Cross, five presidential unit citations. These are just a few of the awards earned by Lewis Burwell-Puller, aka Chestie Puller, the most decorated Marine in the history of the Corps. He fought and fought a lot in the Korean War and World War II. He fought in the jungles of Haiti and Nicaragua for years. He earned the rank of Major General and served as Assistant Division Commander and then Commander of the First Marine Division in Korea. He was post-humusly promoted to Lieutenant General at respect for his distinguished
Starting point is 00:00:34 service. He was a soldier or leader, a man's man's man. Remember those old Chuck Norris jokes? You know, Chuck Norris doesn't sleep. He waits. Chuck Norris once shot an enemy playing down with his finger by pointing at it and yelling, bang! What was going into the minds of all of Chuck Norris' victims before they died? His shoe. Chuck Norris has two speeds, walk and kill. Well, Chasty Puller would kick Chuck Norris' ass. So let's get to know this real-life legend, this American military hero, in honor of
Starting point is 00:01:04 Veterans Day this Saturday. Good night, Chessie Puller, wherever you are. And if you're listening somewhere, hope you're enjoying this time suck. Welcome to Suck Time Suckers. I'm Dan Cummins, AKA Admiral Captain Master of Suckers, AKA Suck Master, AKA Pappy Suck, AKA The Duke of Sucking Ham, AKA Profit of Nimrod, AKA Beloved Nimrod, Scrodom, Sanction, Savior of Suck, AKA all the other hilarious titles. You beautiful bastards have bestowed upon me this week. And we have an inspiring suck to get down and dirty with this week.
Starting point is 00:01:46 Careful with this one, sweet lady suckers. It may put some hair on your chest. It may not be avoidable. There is so much man in this episode, just so much nuts, so much chesty puller testosterone in this one. If I would have been able to hop into a time machine these past few days, head back to the 40s to serve under this great, steadfast oak of a man. I may have done so. I'd say they don't make them like Chessi anymore, but I don't know if they used to make them like Chessi. Chessi back in the middle of the live. He just won of a kind. And while he was a Marine, this
Starting point is 00:02:17 suck is dedicated, not not just to Marines, but to all you listeners who served your country's military. Thank you. And thank you not just to American service men and women actually, but to all you international listeners who served your respective countries. I know there are a lot of time suckers in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Germany, elsewhere. This suck is most certainly for you as well. Thanks again for all the reviews, man.
Starting point is 00:02:38 Wow, just over 1600 reviews and ratings on iTunes now, which just keeps extending regular bonus suck episodes. I love it. The next bonus episode, the 1300 review episode, will drop right after Thanksgiving on Friday November 24th. Still trying to come up with what that should be. Just been too busy. Man these past few weeks Jesus to put some proper thought into that. But I'll figure it out. We'll get a vote figured out. Appreciate all you new suckers joining the past few weeks and I apologize for mispronouncing Arnie Nikamp, from Hello from the Magic Tavern as Arnie and I camp.
Starting point is 00:03:10 I think last week, so somebody pointed that out. I have no excuse for that. I listened to their podcast. I know his name, and for some reason I butchered it. Trouble pronouncing names, the bane of my existence, followed closely by trouble pronouncing everything else. But seriously, thank you for tuning in. And thanks to all of you who came out to Dayton this past week and Ohio, pleasantly surprised
Starting point is 00:03:31 with the amount of time suckers showing up to these shows. Yeah, a lot of shows surprise me in Dayton. And that's from recording right now, actually. Do another hotel recording. Hopefully we won't be doing too many of those going forward. We're making a little studio up over the next few weeks. Really trying to get ahead on these episodes a little bit. Get that audio magic floating to your ear holes
Starting point is 00:03:53 and even higher standard. I want to just keep trying to fine tune it, make it a little better. I'd be thanks to you who bought tickets to the Detroit Show on February 16th, 2018. The magic bag, man, please keep pre-binding those tickets. So me and the guys from Small town murder and crime in sports, Jimmy and James can add a second show, a live podcast.
Starting point is 00:04:10 And then if you show up to that, you know, as well, I can set up many other live podcasts around the country in 2018. Stand up shows and spoke and watched in this coming week, November 9 through the 11th, this weekend, my last Northwest shows for the year and probably for a while after that. Dr. Grins and Grand Rapids, Michigan, November 30th through December 2nd. St. Louis Funnybone, St. Louis Missouri, December 7th to the 10th. Appleton, Wisconsin, one night only on December 13th at the Skyline Comedy Club. Comedy Club on state and Madison, Wisconsin, rest of the week, December 14th to the 16th.
Starting point is 00:04:40 And then Comedy Works in Denver, Colorado, December 28th through New Year's Eve. And a bunch of additional 2018 dates are coming. So come to those shows, man, I support my ability to continue touring. It's been a lot of fun having you guys come out. And one more announcement, I can't forget this for Sarah Higgins. Time sucker, Sarah Higgins, are you listing right now?
Starting point is 00:04:58 If so, I need you to pay really close attention because I need to deliver to you one of the most important announcements of your life I have a question for you. Will you marry me? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, no, that's not right. That's not right I'm already happily married and polygamy sounds like a nightmare no offense to any other women But I have no desire for more than one of you in my life ever Sarah, are you still paying attention? Will you marry? I had that part right.
Starting point is 00:05:26 Will you marry another another time sucker? Not me. Mark Herman. Will you marry Mark Herman? He wants to spend the rest of his life with you. And that time suck in son of a bitch has a ring on him right now. He's got the rock on him right now. You give it to her, Mark. Give it to get down on your knee, let's your driving. Then you know, get down on your knees as soon as you can stop safely. Congratulations, you too. Thanks for sharing your big moment with us, suck. And now, how about some tales of wartime valor
Starting point is 00:05:51 to celebrate your upcoming marriage? I don't know, death fits. But it is what I researched this week and I lost a lot of sleep for it. So by God, that's what we're doing. It's time for Chesty Puller. The opening description of Chesty Puller on a very cool website called marineparents.com starts with, Marines are known for always being faithful, for never giving up, for being
Starting point is 00:06:14 hard chargers. Perhaps no Marine better exemplified these traits than Lewis Chesty Puller, the most decorated Marine in the history of the Corps, and the only American servicemen to have been awarded the nation's second highest military awards for valor six times. Yeah, Chester Puller is perhaps the bravest toughest marine wherever it was. He's definitely in the running for that title, which is pretty impressive,
Starting point is 00:06:36 considering that's a military branch known for scores and scores of brave men and women. Yeah, known for just a lot of bravery, since it's an inception in 1775, before we marched down an epic time-suck timeline, the life of Chessie Puller, let's give his service some context and learn a little about the military branch.
Starting point is 00:06:56 He so faithfully served the United States Marine Corps. On the 10th of November, 1775, the continental Marines were formed to conduct ship to ship fighting, provide shipboard security and discipline enforcement and assist in landing forces in the American Revolutionary War. It was formed by the continental Congress, and all there were 131 colonial marine officers and probably no more than 2,000 elisted colonial Marines.
Starting point is 00:07:20 The continental Marines only commandant was Captain Samuel Nicholas commissioned on November 22nd, 1775 and the first marine barracks were located in Philadelphia. Legend has it, recruiting for the marines was first carried out at the Tundh Tavarn. And just weeks after banding together, the continental marines successfully executed their first amphibious landing on a hostile shore. They took over hens and chicken shoals south of Miami, butchering. Thousands of beautiful aquatic sea chickens. I know I already said I was kiddin' about the sea chickens, being real creatures and they could lay eggs underwater and only come to service for air for time to time, but they did use to exist until the first Marines killed them.
Starting point is 00:07:59 At least in my mind, when I came up with that ridiculous lie. No, the first Marines, the first Marine landing did take place in the Bahamas though. The British had been storing large supplies of gunpowder at Fort Nassau in Bahamas for use in battle against 13 colonies. Captain Samuel Nicholas and 234 Marines sailed with the continental navy on a mission to capture the supply. Within minutes of the Marines, arrival, the British troops had surrendered, in addition to the gunpowder, Captain Nicholas successfully acquired cannons and other military stores.
Starting point is 00:08:29 These initial Marines did all of this with very little military training and no uniforms. And then in June, a 1785 after escorting a stash of French silver on loan from King Louis, the 16th from Boston to Philadelphia, silver used to open the bank of North America, the continental Marines are disbanded. And then 15 years later, on July 11th, 1798, President John Adams signed into law, a Congressional act recreating the United States Marine Corps. They were needed after some harassment
Starting point is 00:08:57 by the French Navy of US shipping during the French Revolutionary Wars. The next day, William Ward Burles I was appointed a major. The newly reestablished Marine Corps consisted of a battalion of 500 private, led by a major and a complement of officers and NCOs, non-commissioned officers. Marines aboard the USS USS Constitution and other ships conducted raids in the waters of Hispaniola against the French and Spanish, making the first of many landings in Haiti, participating in the Battle of Puerto Palata Harbor. In 1801 President Thomas Jefferson and Burroughs chose land and commission an architect to build the first marine barracks in
Starting point is 00:09:34 Washington, DC. Also in 1801 the United States Marine Band played for the first time at the President's house, and they have since played for every U.S. presidential inauguration. and they have since played for every US presidential inauguration. The Marines fought in one of their most famous battles in 1805, one that became part of Marine Legend, the Battle of Derna. When pirates had been raiding American merchant ships off the Barbary Coast, President Thomas Jefferson sent in an expeditionary force of Marines to fight back, fighting pirates. Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon led Marines across 600 miles of Libyan Desert to storm the Tripleitan City of Derna and rescue the kidnap crew of the USS Philadelphia.
Starting point is 00:10:13 William Eaton and first Lieutenant Presley, O'Bannon captured Derna on April 27, 1805, successfully defended it on May 13. This victory helped protect US ships and secure US trading in the area. As a gesture of respect and praise for the Marines actions at the Battle of Derna first lieutenant O'Bannon was presented a Mama Luke sword by the Ottoman emperor or Ottoman Empire Viceroy Prince Hamit which is now the oldest ceremonial weapon still in use by the United States Armed Forces today and It was around this battle that Marines received the the nickname of Leathernecks due to the high-collar they wore as protection against the slashes of pirate sabers.
Starting point is 00:10:49 I didn't know that. I thought that was some cool trivia. Man, put on some extra leather to run your neck to protect your fucking head getting cut off by a pirate. That's hardcore. The battle of Derno was the Marines' first ground battle on foreign soil as notably recalled in the Marines him. You know that from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli we fight our country battles in the Yeongland and see
Starting point is 00:11:16 right the Marines would see other action in the first barbery. I don't remember where I know that from by the way. I must have learned it as a kid that melody, nothing I, nothing I'm saying in some miraculous rendition, but I'm, I'm, that is the melody. Um, yeah, there's the other action, the first barbery war, then again, in the war of 1812, the battle Native American tribes in Florida, elsewhere, they'd fight in West Africa, Falkland Islands, Fiji, Peru, Samatra, wherever else they were needed. In 1847, another very famous early marine battle. This is the battle of Chipotle Peck. The Montezuma portion of that ham comes from a large number of marines, all suffering, a really bad case of food poisoning in 1847. They suffered the worst case of monosumas revenge and documented medical history. First off, they made the mistake of drinking
Starting point is 00:12:04 tap water in Tijuana. Then they had a big breakfast of refried bean and cheese burritos, and the cheese was rancid. As it turns out, the beans were also rancid. And the tortillas were not made of flour. Yeah, they were made of old, even rancidier beans and cheese that people had thrown up. The people had vomited onto some kind of concrete slab,
Starting point is 00:12:23 and it was hot, it was dry, and the puke dried up into the Mexican heat and the sun, and then it was rolled into tortillas. Cause you know what, because times were tough, okay? Sometimes it's all you had with some old puke to use as a tortilla, and then they all drank a bunch of coffee, like so much coffee, and then they went to a playground. They had nothing but tire swings,
Starting point is 00:12:40 the kind that's been around in a little circle and mary go rounds, and they just spun the shit out of each other around and around and around so fast. And then they had a stomach punch contest. And then after that, for lunch, they decided to eat old cans of sardines that had been left out in the sun for many years, many years. And the dead fish were kind of starting to congeal with the oil around it to like a thick, like a viscous, mucousy soup type thing. There was very hot and tangy and lumpy and hard to even be near without vomiting, really. And all of that, for some reason,
Starting point is 00:13:15 gave them just violent diarrhea. And a lot of those Marines literally shit themselves to death. And that was a battle. And that's what Monozoom's revenge is. Of course and that was a battle. And that's what the monosumist revenge is. Of course, that's not true. But monosumist revenge is a term for diarrhea when you get, when you drink tap water and like a Latin country that you shouldn't drink tap water inside parts true. But in the case of the Marines, him, the monosumist does come from 1847.
Starting point is 00:13:37 From the battle of, yeah, Chipotlepec fought during the Mexican American War in 1847, knowing that the capture of the Palacio National would greatly disrupt the Mexican-American War in 1847, knowing that the capture of the Palacio National would greatly disrupt the Mexican Army. Marines and Army soldiers led by Army General Winfield Scott stormed an enemy fortress during the battle at Chipotle de Pec. And on September 13th, 120 U.S. Marines and soldiers attacked Chipotle de Pec Castle. A fort being used as a Mexican military academy
Starting point is 00:14:03 to engage in the last battle before invading the Mexican capital. The fort set a top to Poltica hill. A heavily reinforced 200-foot hill that included a 12-foot wall designed to protect it against enemy attacks. The American forces struggled as they attacked a steep hill from all directions. We're greeted by the Mexican army through massive amounts of musket fire and artillery, bombardment. When they reached the Western walls, the troops were forced to engage in vicious hand-to-hand combat. Finally, they were able to hoist
Starting point is 00:14:29 scaling ladders up to the fort, claim the defensive position, get over the wall by the time that troops in general Scott entered the castle, known as the halls of Montezuma 90% of the Marine officers and non-commissioned officers who were fighting in that battle were killed.
Starting point is 00:14:45 They raised the stars and stripes those who were left over the palace to mark the victory upon returning home. The same Marines presented their flag to the Comodant, the victory at the halls of Montezuma remains at part of Marine Corps tradition immortalized in the opening line of that Marines him he disherred. So following this war, Marines would see action in Panama, Asia, that'd be among the first Americans to ever set foot in Japan. John F. Mackie would be the first Marine to receive the Medal of Honor for his bravery during the Battle of Drury's bluff. When Confederate artillery fire from Fort Darling greatly damaged the ship, the then Colonel was aboard the Ironclad USS Galena and the James River near Richmond, Virginia. Most of Galena's naval gun crew were killed or wounded and Mackie let a group of Marines and taking over the guns for the
Starting point is 00:15:28 remainder of the battle. In the latter half, the 19th century Marines fought and died, and various skirmishes, and Formosa, Korea, Samoa, China, Egypt, Argentina, elsewhere all over the world. Sometime around 1883, the Marines adopted the current motto, Semper Fidelis. Latin for Always Faithful, often shortened by Marines to Semperfy. I didn't, I loved the sound Semperfy. I always knew that was Marines. I didn't know it was always Faithful.
Starting point is 00:15:53 I thought it was something like, you're gonna get killed. I thought it was something like darker. I like it, always faithful. During the Spanish-American War, in 1898, Marines would lead American forces ashore in the Philippines, Cuba, Puerto Rico, demonstrating an exceptional readiness for quick deployment. 15 Marines would earn medals of honor in this war alone.
Starting point is 00:16:12 Marines earned a reputation for being so good at storming enemy beaches in 1900, the general board of the United States Navy decided to give the Marine Corps primary responsibility for the seizure and defense of advanced naval bases. And if you're wondering, why is the Navy given the Marines anything? Are they in charge of the Marines? Uh, no, not really, but there is a close connection between those two branches. And although the Marine Corps is a separate branch to the US military, it does not have its own department within the Department of Defense, as the Army, Navy, and Air Force
Starting point is 00:16:41 do. The Marine Corps is part of the Department of the Navy. At an administrative, political, and civilian level, the Marines operate beneath the Secretary of the Navy technically. So what that means is, like, if you serve in the Navy, like if you're listening right now, and you serve in the Navy or have served in the Navy,
Starting point is 00:16:58 a lot of people don't know this, you can legally boss a Marine around as much as you want. As much as you want to, it's unlimited. You, whatever your rank is, a private in the Navy can boss around a major in their Marines. And they don't like it, but they got to do it. If they don't follow your orders, they get court-martialed. So don't look that up, don't look it up,
Starting point is 00:17:16 don't Google it, don't research it, just trust me. Just take my word and find a marine and start bossing them around aggressively and continuously. And just let me know how that works out for you. No, the Marines do operate beneath the Secretary of the Navy. However, the highest ranking Marine Corps officer, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, does not answer to any other military officer. He is the military head of the Corps. Every Marine Corps Commandant has lived in the Marine barracks in Washington, DC, it's the oldest official building in Washington that is remaining continuous use for its original purpose. World War I Marines further added to their hard fighting reputation, then fighting
Starting point is 00:17:51 in numerous battles, such as the famous Battle of Belu, Belu Wood. In 1918, deep in Belu Wood, just outside of Paris, the fourth Marine Brigade fought tenaciously against German soldiers. The Marines suffered heavy losses. We're pinned down by machine gun fire. US Marines under General James, Harvard led the attack against four German divisions positioned in the woods, and by the end of the first day suffered more than a thousand casualties. For the next three weeks, the Marines backed by US Army artillery, launched many attacks into the forested area.
Starting point is 00:18:23 But German general, Eric London Dorf was determined to deny the American's victory. London Dorf continually brought up reinforcements from the rear and the Germans attacked the US forces with machine guns artillery gas. Fuck that is suck man, gas attacks. Ignoring calls to withdraw one, caps and famously said retreat. Hell, we just got here. They have the best quotes.
Starting point is 00:18:44 The Marines held their ground against constant German assaults. They braved withering machine gunfire, poison gas again. We're often forced to fight hand-to-hand with bayonets, with few grenade grenades and no signal flares left. Some Marine forces launched an assault with fixed bayonets, seizing enemy positions. Marine riflemen demonstrated their superior marksmanship, shredding the lines of an oncoming German counter-attack. Finally on June 26th at a 20 days of intense fighting, the Marines won the Battle of Biliwood, but at the cost of nearly 10,000 dead wounded or missing an action. More Marines died at World War I's Battle of Biliwood than in their entire history up to that point.
Starting point is 00:19:19 The German survivors exhausted and wounded gave a fitting nickname that suited the relentless fighting spirit of the opponent the devil dogs That's a cool name for Marines man. Sounds like yeah, sounds like Bojangles. Bojangles the Marine I think you might be I think it might be a devil dog some kind at the end of World War one That takes us kind of to the beginning of Chester puller service in the Marine Corps So let's back up a bit to the beginning of Chester's life And let's see it through to its very end with a big ol' time suck timeline. Shrap on those boots soldier, we're marching down a time suck timeline.
Starting point is 00:19:58 Lewis Burwell Chessie Puller was born in West Point, Virginia on June 26, 1898 to Matthew and Martha Puller. He had two older sisters, Emily and Patty. Matthew was a wholesale grocery who traveled off and for work and Martha was a stay at home mom. Now fitting to that to this famed military man was born in West Point. I mean, now the US military academy is actually in West Point, New York, not West Point, Virginia, where he was born, but still West Point, Virginia is a tiny little town, about 3,500 people. Up from about 1,000 people in the chest, he was born. Town was named after John West, the governor
Starting point is 00:20:28 of Virginia, from 1635 to 1637, who at one time owned the land the city sits upon. The current side of West Point was once the site of Synchrotek, a Native American village of the local Mataponi, and Algonquin speaking tribe, with Powetan Confederacy. Despite American settlers living in the area since 17th century, the town of West Point was incorporated until 1870. West Point did its location on the York River roughly 40 miles from Chesapeake Bay was a thriving commercial point, a port and tourist destination known partially for an abundance of crabs and oysters to be taken out of the rivers.
Starting point is 00:21:04 The York River is formed at West Point by the confluence of two other rivers, the Mataponi and the Pamunki. So there's actually three rivers in the area. I've seen pictures and it's very quaint, just seen a little town. And when Chessy was born, it was Carnival Town. In the summer, there were tourists, rollercoaster, carnie shows, trained bears, trapeze artists, that kind of stuff. And as a baby, Chessie was given to the carny's.
Starting point is 00:21:27 And that is how you turn a baby into a fighting machine. You give it to carny's to have free rain over it. And that baby can figure out how to wrestle an elephant ear and some final cakes away from the bearded lady or a lobster boy. Well, then you know what, there's not going to be anything in the world to can stop him. Uh, no, Chessie was raised by his parents, not carny's. Uh, and the pullers were one of the first non-native families to settle in that area. The first Lewis Borrell was born in Bedford, China, England. 1621 came to Virginia as
Starting point is 00:21:53 a military man, a sergeant major. There were a lot of military men in the Cheshire's family. His grandfather John Puller had been killed in a cavalry fight in Kelly Ford, the Civil War, a cousin Paige McCarthy, a Confederate soldier, had fought in the last legal duel in the Civil War. A cousin Paige McCarthy, a Confederate soldier, had fought in the last legal duel in the state of Virginia killing a man over an insult to the reputation of a woman in Richmond. Man, those were weird times, right? Somebody insults a lady, you're fond of, and you challenge them to a fight to the death. That guy was killed. A gray uncle Robert Williams deserted the south and civil war to command a federal division
Starting point is 00:22:27 of Gettysburg, which led him into battle against three of his own brothers. Another cousin of Pullers was George S. Patton, the famed four star general who led troops all over Europe and World War II. Might have to suck on Patton down the road, for sure actually. A two years old 1900 little chest, he won a beautiful baby contest in West Point. The man who would go on to inspire thousands to fight and kill and die for the country was once West Point's cutest chubby, cheek-lil baby.
Starting point is 00:22:52 Chess, he was biolic, counts quiet kid, kind of kept to himself, tough kid. When he was four or five, he broke his arm in a fall, and when he visited the doctor weeks after having his arm put in a cast, the doctor realized his arm hadn't set right, and he just kind of suddenly snapped the bone apart again to reset it. No anesthetic. Legend has it that little Chessie grimaced when this guy broke his arm, but did not make
Starting point is 00:23:13 a sound. That's a tough kid, that's true. I'm thinking if I would have balled for several hours, if that would have happened to me at the age of four or five, very good chance I cry myself to sleep in that situation at that night or at that age, you know He was also a bookworm a bookworm is a little kid especially fond of books on war He was raised around tales of war tales of ancestors bravery and vicious battles or various battles being being told around the house He grew he grew
Starting point is 00:23:39 up listening to West Point civil war veterans telling stories of their their times in the war like, you know Thomas Stonewall Jackson was his idol. Another future suck. 1905 his brother Sam would be born. Another polar boy who would go on to be a marine man. The polar boys wonder how much they got teased for that name growing up. What you, what you pulling? What you pulling on, puller?
Starting point is 00:23:57 You pull on your wean? Is that your, is that how you found me guy the name? Pulling weans. I bet your middle name is wean, isn't it? Wean puller? It's probably, I would think of boys, you know, back in 1905 where anything like they are now. 19-no weight track, de-strike, to pull their family.
Starting point is 00:24:13 Chessi's father, Matthew, dies after a long battle with cancer. After Matthew's death, Martha immediately lets her hired help know they can no longer afford them, sells the family's horses and the family's carriage. And just like that, 10-year-old Chestie is the man of the house. He immediately starts to help bring an income for the family, trapping muskrats, and selling their hides. No shit.
Starting point is 00:24:33 We should have bought some, man. We should have bought some. Some of the times, you know, shirts, as you know, are made of muskrat labia, and it would have been nice to support young Chestie's enterprise. He also starts hunting to bring some food, wild while turkey squirrels, whatever kind of critter had meat on spones and wasn't smart enough to hear a little chest he's sneaking up on it with his rifle was fair game. He bought his own ammo because money was tight. He learned not only to hunt but to shoot accurately. 50 years later he'd reflect back on this time and say that he learned more in the woods hunting and stocking
Starting point is 00:25:02 about the actual art of war than I ever learned in any school of any kind. Those more in the woods, hunting and stalking about the actual art of war than I ever learned in any school of any kind. Those days in the woods a kid saved my life many a time in combat. Just you also continue to read about warfare. While other kids are reading Huck Finn, he's reading about Genghis Khan and other ancient military leaders like Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar. He's also a scrappy kid who never backed down from a fight when some local older boys beat up a friend of his, he organized a gang of other kids and put a beat not every kid to
Starting point is 00:25:28 hurt his friend. After his dad died, he converted part of the horse tables, the family he was no longer using after these soldahorses to a boxing ring and he and his friends would train and spar there after school. In 1913 at the age of 15, he gave away his sister Emily and marriage in place of his dad in the summer of 1913. He also took a job in the town pulp mill, working 12 hours a day for 15 cents an hour. When he wasn't working at the pulp mill, he used hucking crabs at the gates of the beach
Starting point is 00:25:53 park for tourists for 25 cents a dozen. He also worked hard in school, learned in Latin. He expanded his wartime reading, reading Caesar's Gallic Wars and its native Latin. 12 hours a day in a pulp mill, man. Do 15 year olds pay dues like that anymore? If not, they should start, right? Build some character. You're not going to become a legend like Chesty Polar working five hours a day at a yogurt
Starting point is 00:26:14 shop and spending four of those hours dicking around on Snapchat, all right? Chesty was a decent athlete in high school, playing baseball, football, basketball, competing in track. He was always the best acting on his team, but no one ever outworked him, dude had a motor on him. Chesty himself couldn't remember years later how he got his own nickname,
Starting point is 00:26:32 but it could have started when he played football, someone who watched his first game described him as a fullback with a chest like a powder pigeon. At least we puffed it out, I guess. 1916, Chesty tried to enlist in the army and fight in the border war with Mexico, but he needed his mother's consent to do so and she wouldn't give it. Remember that war?
Starting point is 00:26:49 We've talked about it in both the Teddy Roosevelt and the Texas Ranger episodes. 1917, he graduated high school and then enrolled in the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. He wasn't given leave to return home to visit for the first full 10 months, even spending Thanksgiving and Christmas at the Academy. And it didn't seem to bother him one bit. I went out for both the football and the baseball team.
Starting point is 00:27:09 It didn't make the cut. He finished the year without a single demerit, though, which was almost unheard of for a cadet. He was diligent, but not a particularly gifted student. Academically, he finished 177th out of a class of 233. Chesdy, as I learned reading a lot about him these past few days, never loved the classroom. Always preferred the field. He was doer much more than he was a studier now. He learned by getting your hands dirty, right? Getting his hands dirty. You know,
Starting point is 00:27:35 one thing you hated about this time, about his time at the Institute was that they didn't have guns. Normally they would, but World War I was raging on in Europe and all arms and ammunition were being used in the war effort. At the conclusion of his first year, he decided not to return for his second. He wanted to get over there. He wanted to go to World War I. So on June 27th, 1918, he enlisted in the Marines and headed out for boot camp on Paris Island, South Carolina, eager to ship off and fight for his country. Well Chessy's boot camp drill instructor, Corporal John Despair, found him to be a natural
Starting point is 00:28:06 leader three days after the start of camp he was given a platoon to handle. A few weeks in Despair would say, you know, I always have to tell him to look mean and nasty out there marching, but I never had to tell him. He's a natural and he never makes the same mistake twice. He's already made the company number one for parades and he did it by himself. Despair also examined a puller on military history and said that puller gave him an inferiority complexity already knew more than he did it by himself. Dysbar also examined a polar on military history and said that polar gave him an inferiority complexity already knew more than he did. At the end of camp, Polar was among the top 5% of his class
Starting point is 00:28:31 selected for non-commissioned officer school and he took drill instructors training. For two months, he went through intensive drills and bayonet rifle boxing judo and infantry drill then in October, Polar was prepped to ship out to Europe to fight in World War I. These big moments have been waiting for him, he packs up, heads out to Hoboken, New Jersey, where he's going to ship out across the Atlantic, and then the move was postponed for a couple
Starting point is 00:28:53 days, and then on November 11, 1918, the armistice was signed between Germany and the Allied forces and the end of the war. We referenced Armistice Day in the time-suck way back in March, actually, the suck on Hitler's Third Reich. It was one of the events leading towards that. We referenced our armors this day in the time suck way back in March actually the suck on Hitler's third Reich As one of the events you know kind of leading towards that so instead of shipping off to Europe He finishes non-commissioned officers training graduated on June 4th 1919 is the second lieutenant He ranked 128th in his class and then two weeks later after finishing machine gun school on June 16th After being a Marine Corps officer after all that for less than half a month. He's discharged
Starting point is 00:29:24 Along with a lot of other Marines due to post-war military cutbacks. It's peacetime now, and they just didn't think they needed that many Marines. So he gets cut. Polar returns home for a few days, and then he takes off for Long Island to enlist an Polish-American army that was going to head off to Europe to help liberate Poland. Parts of which were still under foreign German, Soviet control. You know, they're still fighting for boundaries and stuff. Polar wasn't even Polish. He just really wanted to fight.
Starting point is 00:29:47 He wanted to get after it. And on the way to Long Island, he stopped to Washington, DC, where he ran into a Marine named Captain Rupertus, who told him that if he wanted to fight, he had to Haiti, where he could get commission to serve in Haiti as lieutenant, you know, training the newly formed Zendomari, the Haiti, a Khan, a con-stabulary force that consisted of Haitian and listed personnel and marine officers.
Starting point is 00:30:12 Rebel forces in Haiti had created an enormous amount of governmental instability in the regions since 1914, almost a quarter of a century since the nation gained independence from France and the Haitian government had requested U.S. military support to suppress uprisings. Since 1916, Marines and Marine-led combat forces had policed the jungles and cities of from France and the Haitian government had requested US military support to suppress uprisings. Since 1916, Marines and Marine-led combat forces had policed the jungles in cities of Haiti and between 1916 and 1918, there had been 2,000 deaths as a result of fighting, almost all of which had been Haitian.
Starting point is 00:30:37 NCOs, who enlisted and did well, could serve for years under the theory that the longer you stayed there, the more familiar you would become with the language, the customs, and the terrain, and you would become more effective at your job. So 1919, Polar arrives in Haiti. The rebels are attacking government-led forces in the Marines, and the rebels that were doing this were the Cacao's, fierce local tribesmen who led raids on both remote villages, and sometimes the cities of Haiti as well. By the time Chess had made it to Haiti, the battle has been going on for five years.
Starting point is 00:31:04 Two weeks after arriving in Haiti, every single last could count man, women, child, were put to death. 95% of them at the hands of Chester himself. He piled the heads of the men into one pyramid. The heads of the women are another and the kid heads in a third pyramid and the poor concrete all over them and they still stand today around the boundaries of Port of Prince. The school pyramids of Haiti, a little reminder that you do not fuck with Chester. A lot of tourists sit on those and get their pictures taken. Of course not. That did not happen.
Starting point is 00:31:31 I went a little mongol horde with a whole head pyramid thing, went a little Nisha Puer. No. Polar was thrown into fighting within days of arriving. No, he was thrown into a convoy leading 25 mounted local soldiers in a Haitian sergeant, taking ammunition on shoes randomly. I think the shoe part is random from a town called Mira Belay to the town of Los Cahobos. None of his men even spoke English other than understanding a few basic orders. While going around a bend along a jungle trail with lush jungle vegetation on either side
Starting point is 00:31:58 of it, you know, to reduce visibility, they ran into a band of roughly a hundred Cacao warriors who were equally surprised but not on horseback. Puller gave the order to charge them immediately fired his weapon right away that cacao's quickly cut into the jungle, but not before a puller shot one of them. 21 years old and he has killed his first enemy combatant. He also gets his first taste of how barbaric war can be the next day when he sees a local Haitian soldier from another company pulled to Rotten cacao heads from his saddlebags, just carrying them around as trophies. A few weeks into his Haitian commission, Lewis began planning actual military attacks,
Starting point is 00:32:33 as opposed to getting caught off guard. He was learning enough of the local language, Creole, derivative of French to communicate more effectively with his soldiers. He would actually kind of know what the hell is, Haitian scouts were telling him now. One night, his scouts came upon a small party of chaos celebrating a victory at night, gathering around some campfires, pulled over prepared an attack at dawn, noise of him setting up his attack, covered by their cow wardrums. He placed the number as men in line along a ridge and sent crews with three machine guns up to another ridge behind the cacao where they would cover the enemy rear. He had a few locals with him who, you know, could understand, understand English well enough now. He told
Starting point is 00:33:09 one of them that when his men on the ridge would open fire in the morning, the cacao would run in the opposite direction towards the rear flank, who would then mow them down with that machine gunfire and the plan worked. Polar's unit took no hits whatsoever when they opened the attack in the morning and they killed 17 Kakao possibly won't eat many more They also recovered over 200 chickens The Kakao left behind pounds of pounds of rice and they like kings and he do this at 21 Holy shit that blows my mind when I was 21 I was in charge of nothing and thank God rightfully so
Starting point is 00:33:39 I sure a shit wasn't lead men into battle and planning and carrying out machine gun attacks in the fucking jungle with, so you didn't even speak my language, a thousand miles from home in another country. When I was 21, I was getting blackout drunk once or twice a week at least. I was writing songs for my band and trying to sleep with a lot of my female friends. I had a work study job, helping social workers
Starting point is 00:34:00 where I had to supervise visits between kids and the parents who had lost custody of those kids, and that seemed like way too much responsibility. Probably was. I was hungover a fair amount while supervising a lot of those visits. I wasn't in a jungle. No, I was trying to kill me. I wasn't responsible for anyone's life or anything's life. I wasn't responsible for anything. I didn't even have a pet fish. Well, on another patrol months later a local lieutenant who had spent many years fighting in the Hadesop polar fall to the ground when he, when they heard enemy fire and he told him after the scrimmers that he couldn't
Starting point is 00:34:27 do that anymore. Told him his men needed to see him be fearless to inspire bravery in his unit and that lesson really seemed to stick as chess he would become famous for walking around a firefight in the midst of battle as if the enemy just didn't have the balls to shoot him. Soon tales of his bravery under fire began to spread around Haiti. He wasn't a leader to hang back and send his troops up ahead to do the fighting for him He was often a man out in the front with his men He met some veteran Marines in Haiti as well such as Lewis Cookella
Starting point is 00:34:53 Man who'd won the Medal of Honor and World War I and Cookella told him the importance of Concentration of force Cookella thought that they were going about to fight in Haiti the wrong way sending small patrols into the jungle to fight a few Cooke cow here and there. He thought that they should mass one large force and that force should plow relentlessly through the jungle and exterminate the cow in mass, be done with it and the revolt. And Polar began to learn how to improvise and Haiti as well. Carvin wooden stakes for men to rest their rifle barrels on when they land the ground to shoot because his unit was having accuracy problems.
Starting point is 00:35:23 He also talked local brass and let him use local prisoners to cut airstrips into the jungle for us so they could use planes, you know, have them land and they could use them to spot cacao camps from the sky. Once he did that, got it figured out, started doing those reconnaissance missions. He had a local pilot to improvise a way to drop small bombs, small munitions out of his plane, and they began bombing cacao encampments. And it's believed these first flights are the first examples of air support being used with Marine Corps ground forces. In 1920, after being there about eight months, Polar was promoted to command the sub-district of Port of Pement
Starting point is 00:35:56 in a remote corner of Southern Haiti where he was put on near constant patrol by April he had contracted malaria. He recovered well enough to be back on patrol within a week, tough son of a bitch. Shortly after one, the first of his many awards, the medell, military of the Republic of Haiti, awarded for valor and action with fine disregard
Starting point is 00:36:15 for his own life. Chessy's actions in Haiti did not go unnoticed by marine superiors. In an early 1921, he was recommended for permanent commission back into the marines. However, he failed his entrance examinations to do so. Again, he didn't like the classroom as much. Later in 1924, while still in Haiti, he was recommended again, and this time he got in. Now he's now he's ranked as a second lieutenant. By the time he left Haiti in early 1924, the now 25-year-old, Chasty had already fought in over 40 battles.
Starting point is 00:36:40 That's nuts. 1924, Chasty reported toesmouth, Virginia, to the Marine Barracks at the Navy Yard, where he served as post-adjutant under the Commander General Carter Berkeley in early 1925. He was sent to the Basic School in Philadelphia to receive further instruction in fundamental military skills. He learned how to handle heavy artillery amongst other skills there. He moved up to the Quantico Marine Base near Washington, D.C., 1925, where he was assigned to be in charge of the Marine Drill attachment. For years, Army, Navy, and Coast Guard teams had outshown the Marines in the National Drill Competition held in Boston's Mechanics Hall.
Starting point is 00:37:15 The Marines had never won. Polar took over and the Marines won immediately. One sergeant who watched the first Pol lead drill attachment said polar won that cup all by himself he didn't look like flesh and blood he stepped out so smartly and proud and soldierly that it was like watching a mechanical man he just carried them on his back and it was hard to keep your eyes off him to watch the ranks governor of Massachusetts presented the championship trophy to polar and the marine top brass were thrilled with his victory man the legend continues to
Starting point is 00:37:43 grow shortly after the victory polar was sent to sent to Pensacola, Florida for training and flight. He'd wanted to learn how to fly for the marine since those initial bombings and scouting runs and Haiti. However, he just wasn't cut out for it. A review medical board found him medically fit to fly, but not temperamentally cut out for it. Apparently he liked to come in a little too hot for landings and was a little too loose and juicy with his turns. You know, you can't storm through the air like you can in the ground, I guess. Oh, well, on the ground, you know, the ground would be a perfectly good place for him to build his legacy, his legend.
Starting point is 00:38:14 In 1926, Chess, you went home to West Point a few days late and it upshown his softer side for a second, went to a dance in the nearby town of Urbana, less than 30 miles away in the 27-year-old, noticed that Virginia Evans, the 16-year-old daughter of a family friend, Judge Evans, had grown up considerably and was now a beautiful young woman being courted by a number of suitors. She was now known also as Busty. I was her nickname. It was Chesty and Busty. No wait, no, Bresty.
Starting point is 00:38:38 It was Chesty and Bresty. And they made quite a pair. No, she was not known as Busty or Bresty. At least not that I know if I couldn't find a Brock Cup size anywhere in my extensive research. Uh, and I researched that a lot, so much. No, I did not. But sweet Luciferina tried to talk me and do it big on Luciferina. And I believe she was simply known as Virginia and Virginia dance with a variety of young
Starting point is 00:38:57 men, and he danced only with her. The fourth time he danced with her after barely speaking. At all the previous three dances, he asked her to marry him. And that was when to catch your predators, Chris Hanson popped out and arrested him for being a borderline pedophile. No calm down military listeners at ease. At ease at at fooling around at kidding. No totally normal in 1926 for 27 year old to chase after 16 year old.
Starting point is 00:39:22 In 2017 you go to jail for that. The age of consent in Virginia is 18. I didn't have to look that up. I have the age of consent for every state in the country memorized and have had that for many years. I can't tell you how many times that knowledge has saved my ass. Kidding again, being a creep. No, about the memorization I'm kidding,
Starting point is 00:39:42 not the age of consent, it really is 18. And it's funny how things have changed in that regard and not that long of a creep. No, about the memorization I'm kidding, not the age of consent. It really is 18 and it's funny how things have changed in that regard, not that long of a time. You know, truly totally normal in 1926, 16-year-olds fair game for a man of 27. Now, you know, 27-year-old touches a 16-year-old, he might get touched himself in jail a few months later. Well, of course, Virginia did not accept his offer of familiarity. She barely knew him. She said, according to my primary source for this episode, Marine, the life of Chesty Puller, a biography written by historian Burke Davis, she said, Heavens, no, I couldn't do that. I haven't even finished school.
Starting point is 00:40:14 And then Chesty said, you will. And then a few weeks later, he sent her three orchids, which were not cheap. And when she wrote him a thank you letter for the beautiful flowers, he wrote back, marry me and I'll buy you three dozen orchids every month of your life. And then he left to take an assignment with the Marines and why. He wouldn't see her again for over a decade. Man, maybe she would have said yes, you know, had chesties face, been nice and smooth. You know, I was thinking about that.
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Starting point is 00:41:56 Get yours for just five dollars. Five bucks. Exclusively a dollar shave club.com slash time suck. That's dollar shave club.com slash time suck. Do it. Get that high and he's sparkling and fresh. All right. So Chesley does not get Virginia to immediately marry him. He has to head out to Hawaii. Polar arrives in Hawaii late July 1926 and gets to work improving things for the 620 marine station on the islands. He realizes that the islands are supposed to be guarded primarily with artillery guns, but the guns are nowhere to be found. They're not being
Starting point is 00:42:26 used. He finally does locate them and he finds them in storage and then realizes they're missing key components to actually make them fucking work. You know, as they were, you couldn't load ammunition to them, couldn't get them to fire anything. So he gets that stuff sent to the islands, gets them put together, they instruct them in a way how to actually use the things, teaches a gunnery class to get the troops up to speed with machine guns as well. In interviews later, he did admit to being pretty frustrated with Marine Command in Hawaii. He found the local Marine leaders there to be living a life of leisure, operating under the delusion that Hawaii would never be attacked.
Starting point is 00:42:56 He'd say, it was no surprise to me when the Japanese caught us asleep at Pearl Harbor. Actually, a full disclosure, he did not say Japanese. He said, he said, japs, not Japanese. I will be changing that to Japanese and all quotes, uh, but I felt compelled to just, you know, let you know what actual words were spoken. But before you judge him too harshly, just like with the 16 year old girl situation, it was a different time. Uh, teens, ruffer grabs and Asians were, uh, well, uh, constantly and casually referred to with racial slurs, I guess. Anywho, Chessie said of Hawaii, I've been through there many times since and served there
Starting point is 00:43:31 later and I bet we're in the same condition now more or less. Our trouble is that common sense has gone out the window and we make generals today on the basis of their ability to write a damn letter. Those kinds of men can't get us ready for war. That is fucking, that's classic Chester Puller right there. He did not suffer fools lightly. And he showed great disdain towards those who didn't prepare their men or their base properly for war.
Starting point is 00:43:54 He hated military brass who earned promotions through kiss and ass and playing the game as opposed to battle. Anything Chester was in charge of ran like a fucking clock. And he was as hard on himself as he was on the man he led. While in Hawaii, a gun accident went off, the chassis hadn't thoroughly checked an inspection, inspection that he had called for. He'd done everything except looking to the barrel
Starting point is 00:44:13 and there was a bullet in the chamber. And again, even though he was the one running the inspection, he find himself a hundred bucks. Not a small amount of money for Lieutenant in the 20s, not a small amount at all. And then he gave the hundred bucks to his men to buy some beer and throw a party with. And that is how you become beloved. Puller became quite the marksman while in Hawaii, getting so good he qualified
Starting point is 00:44:31 to join Pearl Harbor Rifle team and competed in a marksman's competition in San Diego in 1928. He stayed in San Diego for most 1928 and then shipped out for his next round of actual combat. And December in 1928, heading down to Nicaragua. Now, similar to the situation nearly a decade before in Haiti, Polar arrived in a nation destabilized by constant attacks on the existing government by rebel forces. Marines have been brought into stabilized things in squash and tribal resistance, led by rebel chief Augusto Cesar Sandino. Now, to be fair, Augusto Sandino has revered now in Nicaragua, and 2010 was unanimously named
Starting point is 00:45:05 a national hero by the nation's Congress. The US occupation was seen by many as they're not to protect the common Nicaraguan but to prop up a US friendly kind of puppet government. But none of that had anything to do with Chessie. His nation told him to support government A and fight bad guy B and that's exactly what the hell he did. Chessie had his orders and his orders were to fight against the forces of Sandino and he did that very well.
Starting point is 00:45:29 Shortly after arriving, Chesty was assigned the task of heading to the town of Carrinto and restoring order after a mob and shot a Marine there. He found out who the top native boss was, the local chief. That was kind of like, you know, and charged that mob that attacked the Marine, a Marine named Lieutenant Stevens, who did live and walked into this guy's office, his chief's office, where the man was based and told him that there's any further trouble in Carrinto, any at all, he personally would be held responsible and he would pay for future trouble with his life in no uncertain terms.
Starting point is 00:45:58 He tells this guy this, well, the guy doesn't like to hear that and the guy starts to motion, you know, kind of moves his hands, starts to grab a first gun. And Jesse tells him, go ahead, use it if you can. We'll settle this once and for all. You better be fast. Well, I guess the chief thought about it hesitated and then put his hands flat out on his desk to show that he was not going to grab the gun. And then Polar just turned his back to the guy and walked out and that story spread around
Starting point is 00:46:22 the country. Dude was bad to the bone, unbelievable. Here in that story of Chester, you reminded me of that scene in Tombstone, my favorite movie of all time, where Kurt Russell's White Earp confronts Billy Bob Thornton's Johnny Tyler at the Pharaoh table. Remember that? That chubby Billy Bob Thornton. Johnny threatens to draw his gun and shoot him and Wyatt rocks,
Starting point is 00:46:40 he walks right up close to him face to face and he says, go ahead, skin that smoke wagon, see what happens. And then when Billy Bob hesitates, white slap, he's in the face. Oh, it's so good. And says, getting tired of your gas, now jerk that pistol and go to work. He doesn't, he slaps him again. I said, throw down, boy. And he slapped him again.
Starting point is 00:46:58 He says, you're going to do something? I just stand there and bleed. And he takes his gun from him. God, I love that movie so much. But you know, I would see that movie and think, yeah, that's cool. But I mean, who does that in real life? No one. Well, then I read about Chessie Polar, I think, oh, all right, all right. At least one guy does. She'll like that in real life. At least one guy's done stuff like that. Just dares a man to shoot him. Stairs that man down.
Starting point is 00:47:20 Polar goes, Polar goes right back to work in the jungles in Nicaragua killing enemies with both a rifle and a pistol and close combat He was respected and admired by his fellow soldiers once again, especially those under his command One of the soldiers who served under his leadership would say of his time with puller He was a common sense officer and you always knew where you stood with them when he was displeased about something I'd done he'd never chewed me out as so many inexperienced officers would have done He would say if I've been doing, I would have done it this way. And that would be the end of it. We got on like brothers.
Starting point is 00:47:50 Puller was so effective fighting bandits in Nicaragua that he was awarded his first Navy Cross, in his first year in the country, the recommendation for the war, citing five fights against superior numbers from February 16 to August 19, 1930 without loss to himself, and while confiscating an impressive loot of munitions, animals, food, and captured military dispatches. The Navy Cross, by the way, is the United States Military's second highest-decoration awarded for valor and combat. The Navy Cross is awarded primarily to a member of the United States Navy, US Marine Corps, and US Coast Guard when operating under the Department of the Navy for extraordinary heroism. And if you got one of those men, you are a seriously brave human being.
Starting point is 00:48:31 Pull the returning United States 1931 completed the year-long company officer's course at Fort Benning, Georgia, Lewis left Benning carrying more distrust over the over-schooling of military men than ever, saying, the trouble with this school business is that we've taken it too far and we sit around classrooms and will the conditions of battle. Of course, in actual battle, you can't will anything. Not a damn thing because the enemy will do whatever you don't want him to do or expect him to do almost every time. Then when the actual warfare, you know, are studied back in the schools, the staff officers and planners, most of whom who have never seen battles wonder when it went wrong with their plans. Well, the more learned about chest, the more I'd like to go back and have a featuring with him kind of doubt he'd be interested in having drinks with me though.
Starting point is 00:49:12 You know, probably a little disappointed like you do, you do what for a living? You tell silly stories and talk about your dog, scare you in the dark when you're doing some research about it, goddamn, haunted house. Take off your pants. I want to see what kind of hole you got down there where a pair of nuts should be. Haunted house. Can't take a bayonet and got you. Can it? Well, I can. After completing the school and puller
Starting point is 00:49:33 who received an unsatisfactory evaluation on using a machine gun, returned to Nicaragua in late 1932, where he earned a second Navy cross for leading American Marines and Nicaragua National Guards went into battle. Again, Sandinista Rebels in the last major battle of the Sandino rebellion near Alessasse, Alessasse on December 26, 1932, kick an ass with a machine gun. Right. He was like the Alan Iverson of the Marines when it
Starting point is 00:49:56 came to school versus actual battle. You know, just man, we, man, we talk about practice. We talk about practice, not a game, not a game. We talk about practice. He left 1933, headed for San Diego, and then almost immediately shipped out to China just a few months later, where he trained Marine station in Beijing. In China, there were Marines at the fourth regimen,
Starting point is 00:50:18 station in Shanghai, China from 1927 to 1941. To protect American citizens and property, and the Shanghai International settlement during the Chinese Revolution, and the to protect American citizens and property, and the Shanghai International settlement during the Chinese Revolution, and the Second Cino-Japanese War, China in Japan would go to war against each other in 1937. Their battles would flow right into World War II. Puller gained intimate knowledge of how the Japanese military fought during his time in Beijing, Shanghai, information that it would be helpful years later, when he would lead his men into
Starting point is 00:50:41 battle against Chinese forces during the Korean War. In 1934, Puller left China to serve aboard the USS Augusta, a cruiser in the Asiatic fleet that was commanded at the time by then Captain Chester W. Nymphs. Nymphs, there we go, Nymphs. Nymphs, man, sounds a little like Nimrod. Hail Nimrod. Maybe Chesty served the god of suck. The Augusta visited Japan, Australia, elsewhere, a show of military mites, to remind the world just kind of who they were fucking with. They started to mess with the USFA. You know, the show hub just said, hello people of Tokyo, check out my ship, take a close look at if you wanted those massive guns, a lot of them, a lot of massive guns, man. Man, sure,
Starting point is 00:51:19 it's suck to get your coastline just blasted by those things, wouldn't it? Yeah, man, sure would. Anyway, just not we drop by and, you know, like, you know, look at our many, many guns and take a second to notice the aggressive and blood thirsty look at our soldiers eyes. And that's all. So yeah, we're going to take off now. Got some more places to visit. Have a great weekend. Well, polar gets recommended for promotion from first Lieutenant to to captain, while aboard after studying naval gunnery, while
Starting point is 00:51:43 aboard the Augusta polar passes his captain's exam in summer 1935. Despite keeping in touch with Virginia for the past several years, he is a confirmed bachelor. He's now at the age of 36. Apparently he says to a friend around this time, the Marine Corps ought not to permit marriage. A monastic order. All the way, married men make poor soldiers. As the government wanted you to have a wife, they'd issue you one. And the spring of 1936, guy has the best quotes. Spring of 1936, Polar was sent to Philadelphia to ready young Marines for battle and teach
Starting point is 00:52:11 the Marine Corps basic school. He taught soldiers how to fight in a jungle, how to use a bayonet, how to use your terrain to your advantage. Colonel Turnage of the basic school would say of Polar, Lewis left nothing undone. We had the best classes in 1935 and 1936 that I ever knew in the Marine Corps and polar did a great deal for that second class. So he's not only a great Marine. He was a he was a great maker of great Marines. Polar
Starting point is 00:52:34 now back in the East Coast, we kindled his pursuit of Virginia, who had been writing letters to for years. He invited her to the Army Navy game in 1936. And after that game, he began taking long trips down to Saluda. For Saluda, Virginia, to see her almost every weekend in April of 1937, he asked her to marry him again and she accepted. Still to mom while they were recording, he's the most attentive thing you ever saw. He writes me every day. The two were married on November 13th, 1937. Puller was 39. Virginia was 28. So not as bad anymore, as about a 16 27 on
Starting point is 00:53:06 November 14 to two then tragically both died instantly when the train they were heading on to taking back to saluda ran into another train in washington dc so that's all for this week hope you guys enjoyed this chats you puller suck man sorry about the abrupt ending but that's how life works sometimes you know stories just are what they are enjoyed this Chesley puller suck man sorry about the abrupt ending but that's how life works sometimes you know stories just are what they are. That'll be a terrible way to end this. No, no they're still fine in 1937 and the spring 1939 they're still fine. The pullers left Philadelphia where Chesley was stationed and took off aboard the USS Augusta
Starting point is 00:53:40 again. In May of 1940, puller was assigned to Shanghai, was promoted to Major, also in 1940, his first child was born, Virginia, McCandish Puller. Man, these people really like Virginia, don't they? I mean, they're both from Virginia, his wife's name is Virginia, and now they have a daughter named Virginia,
Starting point is 00:53:57 we fucking get it. You really, really, really like Virginia. Maybe I should have changed my name to Idaho. You know, Idaho Cummins, you know? I could change one of my kids' names to Idaho, and I could change the other kids name to Ho. Hey, hey, I'm Idaho. These are my two kids. Idaho. We're from Idaho. Idaho. Oh, get back over here. Idaho. Oh, I'm not, I'm done talking about Idaho. Ah, man, his wife and daughter headed back to the state shortly after his little Virginia her birth.
Starting point is 00:54:25 Japanese taking over parts of China by this time, including an area rang Shanghai, but we're not yet at war with America. It was a tense time to be there. Puller and a Navy captain were having dinner one evening with two Japanese officers. And after one, too many sockets, one of these Japanese men said, soon American, we will be at war. I will meet you. You and a cruiser, me and a destroyer.
Starting point is 00:54:44 We will sink you and I will steam by. You will shout from the water. Help me friend. Then I will stop my ship and kick you down with my feet in your face and say, die you American son of a bitch. That is actually how that account is written. I recited it as it was written in
Starting point is 00:54:59 Burke Davis's Chester's Chester Biography. Did that Japanese officer really say all of that? That was a very specific death scenario. He's supposedly laid out, right? Well, who does that? You, I will see you in 12 months, and seven days, 900 kilometers, do east of Tokyo. You will look at me through binoculars,
Starting point is 00:55:19 but it will be foggy that day, and it will be hard to use them. Plus one of the lenses has a small crack in it, which will irritate you greatly. And you'll give up and wave in my general direction and will believe to see me wave back at you, but you will be mistaken. I will not be waving. It will only seem that way because you can see my general shape but not make out final details due to the distance between our shapes and the fog and the binoculars not being used, but instead of waving, I will actually be flipping you off. Ha ha ha. Fuck you. Fuck you. That's what I will be saying,
Starting point is 00:55:51 and you can't hear me say that because of the combined noise of both of our ships engines and the sounds of the sea and a few seagulls and such, squawking and whatnot. And then I will fire a torpedo, and it will sink your battleship, but you will jump off it, will not sink you. You will jump off into the water. You will avoid sinking with the ship and then I will grow to you in a small lifeboat and I will throw a life jacket to you and you will put it on and you will swim to me and I will extend my hands to you and you will take my hand but then realize I have rubbed my whole arm down with olive oil.
Starting point is 00:56:19 Ha ha ha ha! Gotcha! I am too slippery now and you can't get a grip and then you realize you realize that the lifejack and I gave you has a small hole in it And you will start to sink in the water and hypothermia will start to sink in and then I will say remember when we talked about this I told you this would happen and then you will say oh, oh, yeah, oh, I forgot oh, yeah Now I do remember to use it and then I'll say remember how I told you a shark will get you and then you'll say I know I don't I say, remember how I told you, a shark will get you, and then you'll say, I don't, I don't remember that. I, wait, I know I thought you said you were gonna shoot me.
Starting point is 00:56:47 And then I will say, oh, that's right, I did say that. And then I will shoot you, and you will be dead. You American son of a bitch. And then I feel like, you know, the other Japanese officer jumps in at that point. I'm, I'm, I'm really sorry about this guys. He gets like this sometimes when he's drunk. He gets very threatening and, and very specific and long-winded about his threats. We're going to go down.
Starting point is 00:57:08 This has gotten very uncomfortable. August 1941, Chessie heads back to the States to Quantico to prepare for war. Things are looking bad in both Asia, you know, with the Japanese and in Europe with Germany. He's ordered to report to Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina in October, where he would command the first battalion, Seventh Marines. The Seventh Marines, including Puller's battalion, were combined with the battalion of the 11th Marine Artillery into a new unit. The third Marine Brigade, and this Brigade, was the first expeditionary force to leave the United States during the war.
Starting point is 00:57:37 Its men began boarding ships in Norfolk, Virginia on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1942. Puller's final act before leaving was to turn over his bank account to his brother-in-law with instructions on how to take care of his lady and his daughter, which included the instructions to have Virginia get a dozen red roses on the 13th of every month, their anniversary. Man, he may not be a grandma,
Starting point is 00:57:56 but he sure knows how to make a Galfill special, doesn't he? He sends letters to him here every day, when he's deployed anywhere for the rest of his life. Before engaging in Japanese in combat, Puller trained his men in Samoa with grueling exercises. He let his troops one day in a particularly long march and intense heat and told his men that if anyone were to stagger over to the roadside and sit down, they would be court-martialed. The march was 22 miles long in intense heat. Several men lost consciousness and collapsed.
Starting point is 00:58:21 Private Gerald White wrote in his diary of the day, Polar must have marched twice the distance we did. For all day long he kept marching up and down the column. John T. is a bantam rooster, pipe clenched in his teeth. Ever alert to see that men who were succumbing to the heat, exhaustion, or blisters were taken care of by Cormin. Many times today I saw him take a machine gun or mortar off the shoulder of some marine whose fanny was dragon and carried to and carry it to give the guy some poor to give the poor guy some respite. Man, love it. Dudely is tough and leads by example.
Starting point is 00:58:51 Also while in Samoa, Polar is promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and while there he hears of a battle in Guadalcanal in which one unit killed 670 Japanese soldiers and reportedly said 670 they moat him down. One day we'll be giving him hell like that too. Better than that. Dude was hungry for war and then two weeks later he got his wish and headed to Guadalcanal. Guadalcanal was an island in the Solomon Islands east of Papua New Guinea. It's 90 miles long and was the nearest Japanese outpost to Australia and was a threat to US supply lines in the South Pacific. In 1942 the Japanese had taken it from the British.
Starting point is 00:59:25 Chasty Polar was 44 years old when he landed on September 18th with a seventh regiment of the first division leading over 4,000 Marines onto the beach. Unknown numbers of Japanese patrol to mountain asylum with peaks up to 7,500 feet high. Polar carried a raggedy old company of Caesars, Gallic War and his pocket still reading those books
Starting point is 00:59:42 on warfare. And I should point out, as a veteran time sucker and date in Ohio this past week and pointed out to me, Chasty's life and the life of 500 other Marines he was with were saved by a member of the Coast Guard that day. During the Guadalcanal campaign, Douglas Monroe, a young Coast Guard cox Wayne was tasked with getting Marines ashore, eventually returning his boats to their previously assigned position once the job was complete. Almost immediately after they returned, they learned that the Marines, including legendary
Starting point is 01:00:08 Chessie Polar, had encountered unexpected conditions and needed immediate evacuation to avoid utter annihilation. Never one to shirt from duty, Monroe volunteered for the job and brought the boats to shore under heavy enemy fire, evacuating the men on the beach. After getting the bulk of the Marines onto the boats, several events and complications arose in evacuating the last group of Marines, whom Monroe realized would be wiped out if not rescued in time. Springing into action, he laid down suppressing fire and maneuvered his boats into position
Starting point is 01:00:35 to act as a shield for the beleaguered Marines and the other boats. Unfortunately, Monroe paid for this action with his life. As the Americans withdrew, the Japanese set up machine gun positions, opening up on the boat with heavy fire. Though he was warned by crew member to get down Monroe could not hear over the roar of the engines and was shot in the base of the skull shot knocked him unconscious, didn't kill him at first. Monroe came to once they were behind them American lines. His boat was, you know, able to get behind American lines. At the time, it was reported that he had remained conscious long enough to utter his final words, did they get off? You know, did they get off the beach when he was informed that the Marines did indeed get off the island,
Starting point is 01:01:11 he smiled and then he died. For his actions on that fateful day, Douglas Monroe was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. So wow, man, even the toughest and the bravest soldiers can't survive on their own. That's a cool story. You know, Marines aren't the only badasses, man. Coast Guard, badasses too. Anyone who goes to war is a bad ass. My book. Back on Guadalcanal, Polar let a group of 800 soldiers into the jungle the next day to find out what they were up against. When they ran into gunfire for the first time, everyone hit the deck, except of course Polar.
Starting point is 01:01:39 He walked up and down the line, telling his men that be all right. This was just small stuff. And his bravery calmed them. They lost some of their fear when they saw what kind of man they were fighting with. One soldier said, it was the greatest disregard for personal safety I ever saw. Puller and Ben took on some light fighting, running into a few snipers here and there, a few machine gunness here and there. More tales of pullers and sane bravery begin to be witness and spread around. Apparently puller smoked from a pipe at night in order to ascertain the location of any machine gun fire. Like where there were nests where he'd light his pipe in the jungle and then hit the ground immediately afterwards,
Starting point is 01:02:09 knowing that Japanese soldiers would zero in on the location at that little pipe flame and fire, also knowing that the flash of their guns would give away their location for his men to fire back. Bananas. And one firefight when Polar's unit was ambushed, he ended up killing three Japanese officers with his 45 pistol at very close range. One of them was a major. Man, Polar had no use for other leaders. He was working with who weren't out fighting alongside the men. When a regional commander called him from a safe base
Starting point is 01:02:35 away from the action one time, told him to execute a reconnaissance while he's engaged. And also to not engage in large action and be prepared to withdraw, I guess pull her shouted at him. How the hell can I make reconnaissance when I'm engaged down to the last man? We're fighting tooth and nail. If you get off your duff and come up here where the fight is, you'd see the situation and slam down the field phone.
Starting point is 01:02:55 Not afraid to stand up under enemy fire. Not afraid to stand up to superior officers when they act like jackasses. I gotta love this guy. Pull her kicked a lot of ass in Guadalcanal. One battle he traps Japanese soldiers in a crater and blasted them with mortar fire in the batter battle. Puller's battalion had 5 dead and 21 wounded. The Japanese lost almost 700 men. Word spread amongst the Japanese soldiers that these marines were an especially fierce type of American soldier. Despite dealing with the Japanese heavy losses, they were not about
Starting point is 01:03:24 to give up the island. The Japanese needed it as a place to land and refuel their planes and stage attacks to try and take over their next target, Australia. So they kept sending reinforcements due to the constant battle by October. Polar had lost a quarter of his men and roughly a third of his officers. And he also won a second gold star for his Navy Cross. And then in November, Polar's luck under enemy fire ran out. Shell fragwent from Japanese artillery fire, shredded his legs, knocked him to the ground. He was able to get back to his feet, bleeding freely,
Starting point is 01:03:51 and then he was shot twice through the arm with a small caliber rifle bullets, knocking him back to the ground. Men shoveled out a foxhole for Polar to lower him into it. When the battle was over, and Metix came in, Polar refused to be helped off the battlefield until all of his other men were 10 to 2 first. Then he insists on walking
Starting point is 01:04:08 himself to a jeep. The drove him back to the beach where doctors removed six shell fragments from his legs. The bullets hit his arm went clean through. A large shell fragment still remain in his thigh when they'd have to fly him to Australia to operate on. So Polar instead insisted that they just sew him up and that he would deal with it later. He said, hell, when I was a boy in Virginia, half the old men in the country cared enough, Yankee iron in their bodies to open junk yards. I can't go to Australia. Will my men are fighting for his bravery in this battle? Polar was recommended by General Van De Grift for the Medal of Honor for leading his battalion for 24 hours on the field of battle while he had seven holes in him.
Starting point is 01:04:45 He never got that medal though, because some paper pusher, who probably had never had a bullet wizz by his ear in his life, fucked up at his job back in DC. By the time the first battalion, seventh Marines left Guadalcanal in the first days of 1943, due to nearly every man in it coming down with malaria,
Starting point is 01:05:01 like all of them basically got malaria, they were the most tightly decorated unit on the island. The seventh regiment had 137 medals and 19 recommendations, and from this total, the first battalion had won 28 of the medals and all but four of those recommendations. Polar returned home to see his wife and daughter on January 9, 1943, after returning, Polar toured military bases for four months around the country to explain Guadalcanal fighting conditions to troops around the nation. Get troops morale up, you know, to tell them that the Japanese could be beat. He did that while his division hung out back in Australia for six months, so they weren't
Starting point is 01:05:35 fighting without him. In addition to speaking out about combat strategy, though, Polar would also critique the American military machine, asking why US soldiers weren't giving better equipment to fight with, for example. You know, like one example of that is that US shovels would break down quickly when dig and foxholes, and the men would end up taking Japanese shovels from the battlefield and using them instead because they were much built, you know, much better quality. Jesse was never afraid to speak his mind when he thought it could help soldiers save
Starting point is 01:06:00 their lives. In late 1943, Polar was back in the Pacific this time, Stormin, the beach Cape Glossia Glossia on the island of New Britain, 6 or 3 miles from New Guinea, 70,000 Japanese soldiers defended the 330 mile long 50 mile wide island. Their main objective was to capture the two main Japanese airfields near Cape Glossia. The Marines landed on December 26, 1943 and by December 30th. They had control of both airfields. They then pushed south to extend their perimeter fighting until April of 1944.
Starting point is 01:06:32 The battles were horrific. The Marines having to bulldoze roads through the jungle so tanks could follow all while under heavy Japanese fire. Japanese machine gunness, a high ground mowing Marines down as they cross and open areas and streams such as what would become known as suicide creek Puller like always put himself as much danger or more as the troops fighting underneath them He ran a bulldozer at one point. It was being shot at by Japanese snipers One of whom who you know just shot out the driver of the of the bulldozer
Starting point is 01:06:58 He just you know hopped up there himself so he could help clear a path across suicide creek Get those tanks out there to take out those machine gun nests. When a young soldier asked him why he wasn't more careful, telling him that polar exposed himself like a private even though he was the most valuable man in the outfit, polar replied, no officers life is worth more than that of any man in his ranks. He may have more effect on the fighting, but if he does his duty so far as I can see, he must be up front to see what is actually going on with his troops. They'd find a replacement for me soon enough if I got hit. I've never seen a Marine outfit fall apart for lack of any one man.
Starting point is 01:07:31 Man bravery combined with humility and integrity. No wonder the dude is a beloved legend. While fighting in Cape Loster, Polar was awarded his fourth Navy Cross for overall performance of duty between December 26, 1943 in January 19, 1944. He also continued to write his wife, those letters, and have those flowers sent. Polar was promoted to Colonel, effective February 1, 1944, and by the end of the month had been named Commander of the First Marine Regiment. In September, in October 1944, Polar led the First Marine Regiment into the protracted battle of Pela Lio,
Starting point is 01:08:07 one of the bloodiest battles in Marine Corps history and received his first of two legion of merit awards. The fighting was so intense and close up meant actually beat Japanese soldiers to death with bay net stones, even their fists when they ran out of ammunition in some cases. The first Marines under Polar's command lost 1,749 out of approximately 300 men. But these losses did not stop Polar from ordering frontal assaults against the well entrenched enemy. They knocked the Japanese out of 144 defended caves.
Starting point is 01:08:34 By the end of the fighting, Polar could hardly walk due to his leg being swollen from that trappin' all that was still inside it. After the fighting was done and Polar made it back to the beach, he wrote his wife, you had a loveliest woman in the world and you belonged to me and I treasure you more than you will ever know. I'm the most fortunate of men and we'll never forget it. The guy with such a man's man and he was so good with his lady job. Polar was featured in Time Magazine for his heroics and pit. God damn it.
Starting point is 01:08:58 That is a tough word to say. Pelalio, being called Man of War by the magazine, sadly also in 1944, Polar's younger brother Samuel D. Polar, the executive officer of the fourth marine regiment, was killed by an enemy sniper on Guam. Dammit. Polar returning to the United States in November 1944 was named executive officer of the infantry training regiment at Camp Le Journ and two weeks later commanding officer. Lejeune, yeah, after the war, he was made director of the eighth reserve district in Orleans and later commanding the Marine barracks at Pearl Harbor. Yeah, this episode, man, there's geographical names like from all over. You've got your
Starting point is 01:09:37 fucking Cajun names. You got names in Haiti, names in Guatemala, or never mean sorry, Nicaragua. We got an Africa for a while. He was just hitting everything. He was fucking hitting everything in this one. So it's quite the tongue twister of an episode. Moral dropped back in the South Pacific amongst the Marines. Polar was in charge of as soon as he left, his replacement hung out in the officer quarters,
Starting point is 01:09:59 unlike Polar who hung out with all the soldiers. When Polar was in charge, he insisted that officers eat with the rest of the men, eat the same food. Now that was gone as well. Yeah, Polar never acted like out with all the soldiers. When Puller was in charge, he insisted that officers eat with the rest of the men, eat the same food. Now, that was gone as well. Yeah, Puller never acted like he was above the soldiers he commanded. Why can't more leaders act like that? I think it's so inspiring to the people you lead.
Starting point is 01:10:15 In November of 1944, Puller returned to the United States, his named executive officer of Infantry Training Regiment at Camp Lejone, North Carolina, less than a month later, with named commanding officer. After the conclusion of World War II, Polar was made director of the eighth reserve district at New Orleans, Louisiana, and later commanded the Marine barracks at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In 1945, his second and final child, a son,
Starting point is 01:10:35 Lewis Burwell Polar, Jr. is born. Now Lewis, Jr., aka Nipples, he was known as Nipples, would follow in his father's footsteps and become Marine Officer. So it was Nipples. He was known as Nipples. He would follow in his father's footsteps and become a marine officer. So it was Nipples Polar. I guess that was his nickname. It was Chestia Nipples. No, it was not.
Starting point is 01:10:54 That'd be awesome though. If it was just Chestia, this is my son Nipples. No, Louis Jr. graduated high school 1963 from the College of William & Mary. He graduated 1967. He received orders to go to Vietnam in July 1968, where he served as an infantry platoon commander for three months, and then on October 11th, 1968,
Starting point is 01:11:11 his rifle jammed during an engagement with North Vietnamese troops. He was wounded when he tripped, a booby-trapped howitzer round, losing his right leg at the hip, his left leg below the knee, his left hand, and most of his fingers on his right hand in the explosion, holy shit.
Starting point is 01:11:29 The shell riddled his body with shrapnel, he lingered near death for days with his weight dropping to 55 pounds, but he survived. All that was left of him was 55 pounds of him. He later recalled the first time his father saw him in the hospital, he described how Chessie broke down weeping and how that hurt him more than any of his physical injuries. Despite those wounds, he'd go on to earn a lot of degree, have two children with the woman he married before going to Vietnam, raise a family.
Starting point is 01:11:54 You know, he also won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for biography or autobiography for writing fortunate son, the autobiography of Lewis B. Puller Jr. And those Puller boys, holy Christ, are they some tough bastards? Back to Chessie. Well, when the Korean War broke out, Polar was once again assigned as the commander of the first Marine Regiment. On September 5th, 1950, Polar and his Marines took part in the landing at Inchon, for which Polar was,
Starting point is 01:12:22 or Inchon Inchon, for which Polar was awarded the Silver Star for his overall leadership from September 15th, through November 2nd, 1950, Polar was awarded his second Legion of Merit Award. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by the US Army for Heroism and Action from November 29th to December 4th, and he received his fifth Navy Cross for Heroism for his actions during the Battle of Chosan. Reservoir from December 5th to the 10th 1950. It was during the battle of Chosan. Reservoir that Polar uttered his famous quote, we've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We finally found him. We're surrounded.
Starting point is 01:12:55 That simplifies things. I love it. That quote shows up in various forms by the way on the web. That was the one I seemed to be from marine websites in the book, the most accurate. Well then Korea Polar also wrote many letters to his wife and daughter, and in one of those letters to his daughter, there's a quote I really like where he says, the difference between success and failure in this life of ours is mostly hard work. So you must constantly work to try and improve yourself. I love that. And I believe it too.
Starting point is 01:13:18 Man, hard work does not guarantee any success in life, but it sure is how greatly increases your chances of being successful. And you'll definitely be more successful than you would have been if you didn't work hard. And what a hard work in the son of the bitch Chessie Polar was. Man, 52 years old, he's fighting in Korea, getting shot at, walking in and out of foxholes, checking on his men to keep morale up, watching men die in war after fighting wars for 30 years, unreal. And the high plateau, or plateaus of northern Korea, the temperature could drop to 25 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.
Starting point is 01:13:49 You could hit over 110 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. There's a story about Polar given his officer's park to a private because he felt like that guy needed it more. Now 52, and he is still hard and rugged and fierce and caring as ever about his men. And one battle in North Korea against Chinese, when some army soldiers had fallen under his command, Chessie added to his legend, when the army commander
Starting point is 01:14:12 fighting under him was told, you know, what is position in the battle is gonna be? That guy then asked for his direction of the line of retreat, like where would that be? Well, I guess in front of him, Polar then called his artillery men, gave them the army position and told them that if these army men start to pull back to retreat, that they were to open fire on them. He said, Mario, march forward and fight or die. He looked at the commander after giving that order and he said, does that
Starting point is 01:14:38 answer your question? We're here to fight and nothing else. And the dude did not retreat. Despite how successful Polar was, America did eventually back out of the Korean War. Despite all the fight needed done for America, Polar wasn't shy about critiquing the military after he got home. And right before he got home, and another letter to his wife before he came back, Polar said, my prayer now is that our leaders knowing that we have no war machine will evacuate career completely, have a thorough house cleaning, and then build a real war machine before becoming involved in another war. May God give us wisdom and common sense. In January 1951, Polar was promoted to the rank of Brigidier General and was assigned to
Starting point is 01:15:14 serve as the assistant division commander of the first marine division. In late February of that year, Polar's immediate supervisor, Major General, OP Smith, was transferred to command 9-core when its commander, Army Major General Bryant Moore died, leaving polar on temporary command of the first marine division until March. Polar completed his tour of duty as assistant commander and left Korea to return to the United States in late May. Upon his return from Korea, polar took command of the third marine division at Camp Pendleton, California until January of 1952, and then he served as the assistant commander of the division until June 1952. Puller then took over troop training, unit Pacific at Coronado, California.
Starting point is 01:15:55 September 1953 was promoted to Major General. Then July of 1954, Puller assumed command of the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Le Jun, North Carolina until February 1955 when he became Deputy Camp Commander. Then in 1955, pull herself for the stroke. It was forced to retire by the Marine Corps on November 1, 1955. It was a little suspicious. Initially, doctors cleared him to resume full activities, but then he was sent to other doctors in Bethesda by the top brass. And then those doctors found him unfit to serve.
Starting point is 01:16:22 Chesty was convinced he'd spoken too honestly about the military too many times in a critical way and that the top top, you know, generals wanted him out. He was just, you know, too opposed to being, to the military being led by men who hadn't been battle tested and those men pushed him out. Then following his death in 1971, Polar would post humously be promoted to Lieutenant General. Well, after Chesty's retirement, for the most part he lived a quiet life and salute a Virginia with his wife Finally got to spend a lot of time with his family Then a 1966 I loved this so much despite his medically induced retirement over a decade earlier now at 68 years of age
Starting point is 01:16:59 Chessie volunteers to fight and Vietnam That is the coolest shit ever, you know, just send me back. Send me back to boot camp if you need to. I'll tear shit up. I don't care. I don't care that I'm damn near four times as old as most of those recruits. I'll knock out 50 pushups with four of those dipshit 18 year olds on my back. Throw their candy asses up there right now. I got it. I still got it. And then on October 11th 1971 at the age of 73, Chess de Polar passed away after a long fight with an illness. His wife Virginia would live for another 35 years, passing away on February 8, 2006 at
Starting point is 01:17:32 age 97. And that is it for this timeline. Chester Puller, never quit. Good job, soldier. You made it back. Barely. Well, I hope you had fun with the time-soaked. It was hopefully a little inspiring. This one was a kind of a hard one to do in a sense, because I couldn't... I could have included several more hours of cool quotes and stories about this amazing man that is Chessy Puller, but I only got so much time to put these ones together. You know, they don't need to be that long. He just seemed like such a solid dude.
Starting point is 01:18:06 He loved his kids' death. He seemed to be a great loving father. He adored his wife and treated her like a queen. Stood up for the little guy. You know, stood up to the big guys, spoke his mind. You know, gave his job everything he had. He just always seemed to do what was right as opposed to what he thought people might want him to do or what would be the least confrontational or what would be the easiest or the best for his career. Kind of a bummer
Starting point is 01:18:28 to think about how rare the type of person is, man, it's so admirable. What a cool way to lead your life, you know, really, you know, I was, I stayed up literally all night to do this episode. I did not, I did not sleep last night, which I know is crazy, but doing this episode, it made it easier, because it was so inspiring. Man, I, it sounds corny, but I remember thinking like, not that, not the chest you probably would have ever, you know, lowered himself to do, to do a podcast. But if he were, oh, he wouldn't, he wouldn't quit. He wouldn't sleep. He'd stay up the fucking twenty nights. And I don't know if he needed to. And if you put off by his blood
Starting point is 01:19:04 lust, I'll just say that the world has. And if you put off by his blood lust, I'll just say that the world has always thus far needed men like Chess need to keep the rest of us safe. You know, maybe someday when we all agree to never be violent again, if that ever happens, we can all agree on who gets what, and who gets to live where and act like they want to act and just be peaceful about it,
Starting point is 01:19:23 then we won't need men like Chess anymore, but I highly doubt that time is ever going to come. If you do get something good, someone else who has nothing good usually wants to take it from you. No idiots to the internet today just didn't feel right with this one, right? We're staying away from the idiots with Chess, but there is always time for Top 5 takeaways. Number one, Chessie Puller is the most decorated Marine in the history of the Corps and the Time suck. Top five take away. Number one, Chester Puller is the most decorated Marine in the history of the Corps and the only American servicemen to have been awarded the nation's second highest military awards for valor six times.
Starting point is 01:19:55 Number two, Chester Puller led troops into battle in World War Two in his 40s, the Korean War in his 50s, and tried to lead troops in Vietnam when he was damn near 70. 1916, Chester tried to enlist in the US Army to fight in the border war with Mexico, but it was too young to enlist and his mom did not give her consent to allow him to join. The guy was trying to fight in some war or another pretty much his entire life. Number 4. In World War II, Chessie continued to lead his troops and stay with them in battle for hours after getting shot twice and getting another six pieces of metal stuck in his legs from an artillery
Starting point is 01:20:26 shell. My God. And number five new info, the Marine Corps mascot has been perpetually named Chasty Pullerton. He's been a series of purebred English bulldogs and the current dog is Chasty the 14th. Also, women have served in the Marines since 1918 and have served in combat roles within the Marines since 1918 and have served in combat roles within the Marines since 1967. Thought that was cool to add as well.
Starting point is 01:20:48 Time suck. Top five take away. All right. I hope you enjoyed that Chesty puller veterans day suck everybody. Special thanks to time suckers Wade Hollowell, Juan Martinez, Nicholas Sanzón and Michael Johnson for suggesting today's topic. Thanks to Sydney Shives for managing the times, like emails and social media is always excited for next Monday. Suck already, man, chief crazy horse.
Starting point is 01:21:10 I've had requests for a native American suck for a long time. And it's about, we're finally doing it. Finally, go native here in the suck. I've always been interested in Native American history, you know, but I've just never taken the time to really look into it. You know, one of those many people that supposedly has a little Cherokee blood, a little bit of this, a little bit of that, never looked into it. And that changes this week. Chief Crazy Horse took up arms against the United States federal government to fight
Starting point is 01:21:30 against encroachment by white American settlers on Indian territory and to preserve the traditional way of life for the Lakota people. He fought against Custer at the battle of Little Big Horn in 1876 in which he led a war party to victory. What else did he do? And what exactly was the way alive he was trying to preserve? Gonna find out on a little Wild West, Native American Suck, you know I love those. Thanks for the continued PayPal donations, so generous you guys. Thanks for choosing the link to Amazon
Starting point is 01:21:56 from time suckpodcast.com. You know, you helped the show. Thanks for buying times like hats, shirts, all that. All right, let's catch up on previous episodes in recent happenings with some time sucker updates. This first one is another shadow person update from time sucker Tony Maldonado. Subject line is fuck you you glorious mother sucker. Aggressive and profane I prove. So up until
Starting point is 01:22:23 now the shadow people who were sucked. So up until now, the shadow people were sucked. So up until the shadow people were sucked, I had never heard of those mischievous little bastards. But ever since I could not shake that insane feeling that I am being watched, even occasionally catching glimpses of what looked like a shadowy figure with red eyes, then this past Saturday, while home alone, I woke up abruptly during a nap. I couldn't move, but I felt someone or some thing standing to the right of me. I felt terrified as it leaned forward close to my ear.
Starting point is 01:22:52 I was then pleasantly surprised when with a voice a smoothest butter. The shadow said, I keep forgetting when I'll never love anymore. I keep forgetting things will never be the same again I'll keep forgetting Ha ha, at this point I realized this whole thing was a load of bullshit and just an elaborate effort from Michael Motherfucki MacDonald, the master suckhead to mess with my mind. Hopefully I got you or at least made you smile
Starting point is 01:23:21 keep sucking the good suck and hail Nimrod, Tony Maldonado. Oh, Tony, you didn't just Michael Mothafucka McDonald me. You just triple-empt everybody listing. Well played, well played. That was a good one. This next update comes in from Joey. Stooled for her, stooled Rayher, stooled Rayher. Joey, stooled Rayher.
Starting point is 01:23:43 I'm fucking goddamn it. Why is this out of Suck Master Suck? Really good information about the Zodiac Killer and really scary. However, I'm pretty sure the scariest thing you mentioned was a supercomputer program to think like a killer. That sounds like we are asking for SkyNet to happen. Have these super nerds ever seen a goddamn movie
Starting point is 01:23:59 and by the way, the pronunciation of my brother's name was not too far off, Stool Dreyher, keep sucking and hail Nimrod. Well, thanks, Joe. I didn't even think of that, man. Why would anyone program a computer to think like serial killer? I mean, yeah, I guess to catch him, but that does sound kind of reckless, you know?
Starting point is 01:24:12 And then I was, that made me think, like, if an artificial computer, like a computer running on artificial intelligence, does kill somebody, who do you charge with murder, the computer, or the programmer, or both? I don't know. Okay, one more, a fun, silly the programmer, or both? I don't know. Okay, one more. A fun silly one from Time Sucker, Rachel Stevenson.
Starting point is 01:24:29 She says, hello, Reverend Dr. Time Suck Master. I just wanted to let you know that I truly enjoy getting to delve into each of the topics you choose to suck on each week. I thankful, Jangles and Lucifina, that this podcast was created in pray to Nimrod. Blessed be his name that you keep on growing the suck. Also, I would like to check and see if you could maybe craft a sea chicken shirt out of a unicorn scrotum. This podcast was created in Praetan Imran. Blessed be his name that you keep on growing the suck. Also, I would like to check and see if you could maybe craft a sea chicken shirt out of a unicorn scrotum, chipmunk labia, or any other deliciously soft and otherworldly fabrics you have kicking around in the product warehouse.
Starting point is 01:24:55 I would proudly wrap that shirt in any situation. Anyway, keep on sucking and inspiring others, like myself, to suck on as well. Yours truly, Deacon, Secretary, operating the Eaton, also known as Rachel. Rachel, you are hilarious. I love that, I love that email. We'll see how those sea chickens hang around, you know, the show, see if they come back enough. Maybe we will get some kind of sea chicken shirt,
Starting point is 01:25:17 that'd be funny. It'd be fun to order. I am working on some new products. I've just been so damn busy lately with touring and getting the app developed. But I have more time coming up for the Suck, coming up. It is growing. Got to stand top of it. Hiring someone to help me get organized so I can actually respond to others offers for help as well and get things going. The Suck is the only project
Starting point is 01:25:39 man I would ever want to be this busy for. It's truly a passion project. I'm tired, but you know what? I love it. And, uh, I'm able to keep going even when I'm exhausted because of you guys' encouragement. And your guys' love for it, man. Thanks for encouraging me to do what I enjoy so much. I'm very, very lucky, very grateful. Uh, and, you know, I'll be talking, uh, I'll be talking to you next week. See you, chickens. Thanks, time suckers. I need a net. We all did. Have a great week, time suckers. I need a net. We all did. Have a great week, time suckers.
Starting point is 01:26:08 Follow the show on social media, at time suck podcast on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Get those Detroit tickets now, please. If you're gonna go get them early and, uh, and good night, Chesty Puller, wherever you are. Urah, keep on stockin'. [♪ music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music

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