Reckless: Pride of the Marines
By Andrew Geer

Introduction

I first heard of Reckless shortly after joining the 1st Marine Division in Korea in June of 1953. I was told she was a beautiful little mare with the head of a thoroughbred, but my first reaction was that this was probably an exaggeration, as I had seen many of the horses from past service in the Far East and knew them to be the Mongolian type of pony. I was also told of her heroic behavior in the battle of Vegas. Some of the tales I heard were difficult to believe.

I first saw this little lady, however, when the Division was in reserve for a brief period. After many, many months of close and bloody contact with the Chinese enemy, the Marines were given a respite from war. There was time to relax. A carnival was organized and a vast field was converted to an area where games of chance were operated. The profits from this venture were to go to Navy Relief.

It was then that I first saw Reckless. I was surprised at her beauty and intelligence, and believe it or not, her esprit de corps. Like any other Marine, she was enjoying a bottle of beer with her comrades. She was constantly the center of attraction and was fully aware of her importance. If she failed to receive the attention she felt her due, she would deliberately walk into a group of Marines and, in effect, enter the conversation. It was obvious the Marines loved her.

Within a few days of the carnival the 1st Marine Division went back into the line and once again Reckless performed with a courage and spirit that was difficult to understand or believe. Later, after the fighting had stopped, I was invited to attend a formal ceremony where Reckless was cited for bravery and I had the pleasure of promoting her to the rank of sergeant. Still later, there was another fund raising campaign in connection with the Iwo Jima Memorial Many ideas were initiated to promote competition among units to see which could raise the most money. Suddenly Reckless was "kidnapped" and held for considerable ransom. The news swept the Division like wildfire. Needless to say, her ransom was quickly forthcoming and the fund over-subscribed. In my career I have seen many animals that have been adopted by Marines, but never in all my experience have I seen one which won the hearts of so many as did this lovely little lady known as Reckless.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Windham Press is committed to bringing the lost cultural heritage of ages past into the 21st century through high-quality reproductions of original, classic printed works at affordable prices.

This book has been carefully crafted to utilize the original images of antique books rather than error-prone OCR text. This also preserves the work of the original typesetters of these classics, unknown craftsmen who laid out the text, often by hand, of each and every page you will read. Their subtle art involving judgment and interaction with the text is in many ways superior and more human than the mechanical methods utilized today, and gave each book a unique, hand-crafted feel in its text that connected the reader organically to the art of bindery and book-making.

We think these benefits are worth the occasional imperfection resulting from the age of these books at the time of scanning, and their vintage feel provides a connection to the past that goes beyond the mere words of the text.