Just as the enemy seemed ready for a final attack, the Chinese stopped firing and sent a captured American forward with a message: Surrender. McLaughlin, in an air of bravado, replied, “Tell them, I’m prepared to accept their surrender.” The Chinese weren’t amused. Handing over his pistol to an enemy officer, he said, “I’m not surrendering because you beat us. I’m surrendering to get our wounded cared for.”

A Few GoodMajor John “Jack” McLaughlin, Korea 29 Nov. 1950 “Hellfire Valley,” South of Chosin Reservoir

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“When our Corps goes in as guards over the mail, that mail must be delivered,” “Or there must be a Marine dead at the post of duty. There can be no compromise.”“Marines don’t celebrate their technology to the same extent as the Navy and the Air Force. Its reputation is built on something less tangible: what Marines call esprit de corps.”

TSecretary of the Navy Edwin Denby. October1921