Chesty Puller Quotes

Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller was a United States Marine Corps lieutenant general who fought guerrillas in Haiti and Nicaragua and, as a senior officer, served with distinction in World War II and the Korean War.

Puller is the most decorated Marine in American history. He is one of two United States servicemen to be awarded five Navy Crosses and one Army Distinguished Service Cross. Puller's six crosses are next in number to the eight times Eddie Rickenbacker received the nation's second-highest military award for valor.Puller retired from the Marine Corps in 1955, after 37 years of service. He lived in Virginia and died in 1971, at age 73.

✵ 26. June 1898 – 11. October 1971
Chesty Puller photo
Chesty Puller: 5 quotes0 likes

Famous Chesty Puller Quotes

“Those days in the woods saved my life many a time in combat.”

Chesty Puller

Recalling his early days trapping muskrats before school to supplement his mother's income
The Savage Wars of Peace, Max Boot, 2002.

“Our country won't go on forever, if we stay soft as we are now. There won't be any America—because some foreign soldiery will invade us and take our women and breed a hardier race.”

Chesty Puller

[Davis, Burke, Marine!: The Life Of Chesty Puller, 1988, Bantam Books, New York, N.Y., 9780553271829, 273].

“I want to go where the guns are!”

Chesty Puller

Statement on his reasons for leaving Virginia Military Institute after his freshman year to enlist in the US Marine Corps (1918), as quoted in Fox Valley Veterans : A Salute to Hometown Heroism (2008) by George Rawlinson, p. 230 <br class="br">Source: Chesty Puller http://www.polaris.net/~jrube/chestpul.htm

“You don't hurt 'em if you don't hit 'em.”

Chesty Puller

1962, U.S. Marine Corps History Division website http://www.tecom.usmc.mil/HD/Frequently_Requested/Quotes.htm.

“We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things.”

Chesty Puller

Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign Korea 1950, Martin Russ, 1998

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