Mr. Fuggin Mertle

Some interesting Marine Trivia👇🏼Hope you like it In 1952, a young Korean stable boy named Kim Huk Moon faced an impossible choice. His sister had stepped on a landmine. She needed an artificial leg, but the family had no money. So Kim sold the only thing of value he had: a small Mongolian mare named Ah Chim Hai—"Flame of the Morning." A U.S. Marine lieutenant named Eric Pedersen paid $250 for the horse. He needed a pack animal to carry heavy ammunition up the steep Korean mountains where no truck could go. The Marines renamed her Reckless. But Reckless was never treated like a mule. She was treated like a Marine. She roamed freely through camp. She slept in the tents with the men on cold nights. She ate scrambled eggs at the mess hall, drank beer with the platoon in the evenings, and once devoured $30 worth of poker chips. She was their mascot. But in March 1953, she became their savior. The Battle for Outpost Vegas was one of the bloodiest clashes of the Korean War. The Chinese launched a massive assault, raining artillery down on the Marines at a rate of 500 rounds per minute. The Marines on the ridgeline were running out of ammunition for their 75mm Recoilless Rifles—their only defense against enemy bunkers. The shells weighed 24 pounds each. No vehicle could reach the gun pits. The ammo had to be carried by foot up a 45-degree incline through a no man's land of explosions and sniper fire. Reckless went to work. Her handler loaded her pack with shells, slapped her on the flank, and she started climbing—alone. When she reached the firing positions, the Marines unloaded the ammo. Reckless turned around, walked back down, and came back for more. She did this 51 times in a single day. She walked over 35 miles on steep terrain, most of it under direct enemy fire. She carried over 9,000 pounds of ammunition on her back. She was wounded twice. Shrapnel cut her above the eye and tore into her flank. She didn't stop. She didn't spook. Gunnery Sergeant Joe Latham had trained her to respond to the word "Incoming!" When she heard it, she would drop to the ground and crawl into a trench to wait out the explosion. Then she'd get back up and keep walking. On her trips back down the mountain, she didn't go empty. She carried wounded Marines to the medical station. Because of the ammunition she delivered, the Marines held Outpost Vegas. After the war, Reckless was not left behind in Korea. She was brought to the United States. In 1954, she was promoted to Sergeant—and in 1959, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Randolph Pate, promoted her again to Staff Sergeant in a ceremony with a 19-gun salute and 1,700 Marines marching in her honor. She outranked her own handler. She spent her retirement at Camp Pendleton, where she gave birth to four foals: Fearless, Dauntless, Chesty, and one filly who did not survive. When she died on May 13, 1968, she was buried with full military honors. Her decorations include two Purple Hearts, a Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, and two Presidential Unit Citations. In 2016, she was posthumously awarded the Dickin Medal—the Victoria Cross for animals. She wasn't a horse. She was a Marine. ~Professor Calcue