Violent But True Bed Time Stories: Chesty Puller

In a special episode of Violent But True Bed Time Stories, we pay special homage to the legendary Chesty Puller. Chesty Puller is a Marine's Marine, cutting through bullshit and enemies alike. It's no wonder that we say goodnight to Chesty before going to bed.

Chesty Puller's journey started out with him being commissioned as an officer (Lieutenant), but it was a desk job and Chesty was like "F*** this noise," so he enlisted as private so he could get down to killing everyone that threatened America. And how! Chesty was really good at that. In fact, he was so good that he did it for 37 years eventually earning the rank of Lt. General. Along the way, he received 14 medals for combat bravery, 5 of which were Navy Crosses.

During his time as commander of 1st Battalion 7th Marines, Chesty was ordered to make an amphibious assault on Guadalcanal. Some of the Marines we cut off by Japanese troops and Puller's commander counted those Marines done for and their situation hopeless. Chesty was none too thrilled with that idea so he ran to the beach and flagged down a destroyer (yeah a destroyer). Upon boarding the destroyer he ordered a second amphibious assault (that he had no authority to order). Combined with the fire from the destroyer and the fresh Marines, Chesty cut a path through the enemy lines and rescued those Marines.Guadalcanal was especially fruitful for Chesty when it came to killing enemy soldiers. Chesty and his Marines defended an American airfield dealing out over 1,400 casualties to the enemy along with taking 17 trucks filled with weapons, all while only suffering 70 casualties in just one night. Neat! During the same campaign, Chesty was shot twice by snipers and also received shrapnel wounds, which proved to be fatal, for the enemy. Chesty went on to kick sack for several more years and even did so in Korea.

Goodnight Chesty, wherever you are.