Chesty: The Story of Lieutenant General Lewis B. Puller, USMC

Lieutenant General Lewis Burwell “Chesty” Puller seemed to crave battle the way other men hunger for bacon. This Marine’s Marine enlisted in the corps in 1918 at the tender age of 20. Before long, he was keeping the peace and chasing bandits in Nicaragua and Haiti, leading the famous Horse Marines in Peking, and prepping for the next great war. When it arrived, Chesty was ready: He fought in four separate military campaigns. In 1950, when the Marines landed at Inchon in Korea, Puller was there, toting a weapon. Not surprisingly, when hostilities reverberated in Southeast Asia in the ’60s, Chesty requested to return to duty in Vietnam, but perhaps adjudging his five Navy Crosses for bravery sufficient for any one career, his beloved corps turned him down. Jon Hoffman, an ex-Marine himself, has cobbled together a never-mawkish biography, capturing the old commander in all his heroic testiness. A great read about a man who none of us would want as an enemy.