Chesty
Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller arrived at Guadalcanal on September 18, 1942. He was forty-four years old and had already spent more than half his life as a Marine. Just promoted to lieutenant colonel, he commanded 1st Battalion, 7th Marines. When another famous Marine, Mike Edson, saw Puller land, he commented to someone nearby, “ There comes the greatest fighting man in the Marine Corps. ”176
Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller. (U.S. Marine Corps)
With two Navy Crosses already to his name, Puller was destined to earn three more before his career was over. His units were called on for the toughest assignments, and Puller put himself in the most dangerous places to best direct the action. In training and in combat he demanded every ounce of effort from every man and was unrelenting in his drive to successfully complete every mission. He was hard on his men, but he was also hard on himself.
Chesty Puller was undoubtedly a natural soldier and a great fighter. His men respected and feared him, but amazingly, they also loved him. This is because he looked after them like a father. He was ruthless with junior officers who took advantage of their “privileges.” He was often seen standing in chow line with the men and eating with them. He pushed them to the limit on forced marches, but was usually seen helping carry machine guns and mortars to give those men some respite. Of commanders on Guadalcanal, he alone wrote personal letters to the wounded who had been evacuated. Sharing every danger and privation, he made his men feel like he was one of them.
Puller made a lasting contribution to the unique style of leadership that became firmly imbedded in Marine Corps tradition. It was not a “rank has its privilege” model. It was fundamentally a “servant” model. Every Marine officer learns, almost as a religious principle, that the needs of his men come before his own. The true prototype of this model is of course Jesus Christ. Service and sacrifice were the hallmarks of his life and ministry on Earth.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant.
—Philippians 2:5–7