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On May 12, 1994, Lewis Puller, Jr., Vietnam Veteran and Pulitzer-Prize winning author of Fortunate Son, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. At the time, his suicide was widely covered by the media, renewing interest in both his life and that of his father, General Lewis B. (Chesty) Puller, as well as sparking discussion on the long-term effects of the Vietnam War. This manuscript was submitted and accepted for publication just prior to Lewis' death.
To comprehend the enormity of the shadow cast by the outsized father that was Chesty Puller is to appreciate the singular success of the son, Lewis, Jr. I in getting out from under that shadow and flowering into his own. Thus it's instructive to read Lewis B. Puller, Jr.'s Fortunate Son after one has read Burke Davis' life of Chesty Puller, Marine!.
Written in 1962, Davis' biography is absolutely uncritical of its subject. Unapologetically, Davis proclaims in his Author's Note: "General Puller's prodigious memory is often relied upon, and in matters large and small his point of view is taken; controversial points are not examined from every side, and thus this does not pretend to be an objective history of the many campaigns in which he fought."
Fair notice given and received. Davis' is a book about a hero, written by one who near-worships him. And, truth be told, Puller war heroic, and there's much to admire--if not to worship--about him.
Chesty Puller joined the Marine Corps in 1918, spent the next dozen years fighting insurgents in Haiti and in Nicaragua, where natives dubbed him El Tigre in tribute to his fighting ability, and where, as a patrol leader, he was twice awarded the Navy Cross for his gallantry during numerous skirmishes with guerrillas. In the mid-1930s he was posted to Shanghai; there, in what was to be prelude, he and an outnumbered detail of Marines forced a party of Japanese troops to set free Chinese civilians whom they had incarcerated on nameless charges.
In other words, by the time Chesty Puller, as commander of the First Battalion, Seventh Regiment, First Marine Division, landed on Guadalcanal in September of 1942, he was already an experienced, much-decorated jungle warrior. And still greater glory, more honor, lay ahead: his courageous perimeter stand...