The virtues of commitment, loyalty, perseverance, and courageousness are often associated with those who embrace military service. Many of our most celebrated heroes earned their elevation to that status during the chaos of war. I guess this is so because a largeness of soul, the hitching of one’s own purposes to larger ones beyond ourselves, the demands of endurance, sacrifice, courage, resolution, and compassion – these are all noble qualities often encountered with the battlefield heroics of our men and women in uniform. But, these virtues we cherish and honor are not exclusively reserved for our species alone.
Scores of Korean War Marine Veterans have fond memories of a scrawny horse called Reckless, who served in that conflict and earned two Purple Hearts, taking shrapnel and saving soldiers like other American war heroes.
The Associated Press reported that this past Friday the horse was honored with a monument at Virginia’s National Museum of the Marine Corps, just in time to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the war’s end.
The 900-pound mare joined the Marines in 1952 after she was purchased by a soldier for $250 from a Korean boy who needed money to buy an artificial leg for his sister. Then known as “Flame,” the horse was later renamed “Reckless” by members of the Recoilless Rifle Platoon of the 5th Marine Regiment she served with. Her new moniker came from the nickname the regiment used to describe the large weapon they were specialized in using.
Almost immediately upon her arrival, Reckless began bonding with her fellow marines. She didn’t consider herself a mere draft animal. She was now member of the platoon. She was a Marine. Her fellow soldiers quickly embraced her camaraderie and found especially entertaining her seemingly insatiable appetite for huge portions of scrambled eggs, chocolate pudding and even Coca Cola and beer. They were also amazed that Reckless was not startled by the powerful anti-tank guns used by the unit, and they would soon be even more astonished by her heroism under fire.
Reckless’ main caretaker, Sgt. Joseph Latham, quickly “taught her everything,” including how to kneel during incoming fire or to step over barbed wires. She also quickly memorized routes to and from battle stations, travelling dangerous paths and mountain trails without the accompaniment of a fellow Leatherneck. She earned her sergeant’s stripes, which were proudly pinned to her horse blanket, after the battle for Vegas Hill, a terrible firefight that raged for three days.
In that battle, Retired Sgt. Harold Wadley, 79, a marine who served with Reckless said the chaos felt like the sky was falling on him and the terror of war was thick in the air when he saw Reckless charging through the smoke. “Going up the ridge, in and out of view, was this little mare. I tell you, her silhouette in all the smoke – I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I thought, ‘Good grief. It’s Reckless!'” That day, Reckless made 51 trips up and down the hill, carrying four tons of shells to the front lines, and carrying wounded and dead Marines down from the battlefield. At one time, she shielded from fire four Marines on the trail she was traversing. She was wounded by shrapnel not once, but twice that day.
During, and shortly following the war, the legend of Reckless spread, earning her a place among other four-legged legends like Lassie and Rin Tin Tin. But with time, that legend has faded.
When Robin Hutton, 58, of Ventura County visited the place where Reckless had been buried at Camp Pendleton she found the area had since been built over and vowed to preserve the memory of the most decorated horse in Marine Corps history.
Hutton wrote a book about Reckless the war horse and hopes to see a movie made. She ran ads in “Leatherneck” magazine and scoured bulletin boards for Marines who may have known the horse to gather war stories.
Hutton raised $45,000 and borrowed $55,000 and convinced the National Museum of the Marine Corps, near Quantico, Va., to commission and install a statue commemorating Reckless’ heroic feat during the battle for Vegas Hill.
This past Friday, she attended and watched the statue’s dedication with more than 3,000 Marines and Korean War veterans.
“What’s special to me about this story and the accounts of her exploits is that she travelled with no handler,” Maj. Billy Canedo, of the Department of Defense’s 60th Anniversary of the Korean War Committee commented, “Whenever a Marine would get hit or wounded, a fellow Marine would put that Marine on Reckless’ back to be carried down unescorted to the casualty collection point. Then Reckless would walk back, again alone, to the thick of the battle with replacement ammunition for her brother Marines.” Canedo said during the battle Reckless walked more than 35 miles amid heavy enemy fire and, according to military lore, she never once flinched.
“She was probably going against every instinct of an animal, working off pure love of her fellow Marines,” he said. “That’s what is remarkable to me. The story, to me, is a great story.”
It has been said that with the worst of war also comes the best of men and women; that these darkest of moments and worst of times bring out the finest in those who serve in uniform. Now, you know that the opportunity to grasp virtue and heroism in war in not exclusive to mankind, but also equines.
Semper fi, Staff Sargent Reckless!
Have an AWE-full weekend!
William J. “Bill” Bacque’