Paths to Glory: Medal of Honor Ricipients Smedley Butler and Dan Daly
By David T. Zabecki

Military History  | 4 comments  |  Print This Post  |  Email This Post

Two days later, with Marine positions under heavy German bombardment, Daly visited all his machine gun positions, rallying his men. At one point, while leading a local counterattack, Daly urged his men forward, shouting the now famous line, “Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?!” On June 10 a German machine gun section advanced close to Daly’s company and pinned it down. Daly, armed with only a .45-caliber automatic pistol and hand grenades, single-handedly charged and eliminated the Germans. Later that day he brought in under heavy fire several wounded Marines during a German attack near the village of Bouresches.

Daly was wounded on June 21 but later fought in the St-Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne Offensives. He was wounded twice more on October 8, which took him out of combat. For his actions at the Battle of Belleau Wood, Daly was recommended through Army channels for his third Medal of Honor. Someone in the chain of command, however, just could not accept the idea of anyone having three Medals of Honor, so Daly was instead awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and later the Navy Cross and France’s Médaille Militaire.

After the Armistice, Daly served in the Army of Occupation in Germany. His wounds and his age finally caught up with him, and in 1919 he was placed on the list of the Fleet Marine Corps Reserve. He then worked as a bank guard on Wall Street and lived quietly with his sister in New York City, officially retiring from the Marine Corps on Feb. 6, 1929.

When the war ended, Butler returned stateside to assume command of the Marine Barracks at Quantico, Va., transforming what had been a temporary wartime camp into a permanent Marine installation. From January 1924 to December 1925, Brig. Gen. Butler was granted a leave of absence from the Corps to serve as director of Philadelphia’s Department of Public Safety, overseeing both the police and fire departments. He accepted the position reluctantly and only after President Calvin Coolidge personally urged him to do it and assured Butler he would be able to return to the Corps.

It was at the height of Prohibition, and Philadelphia was among the nation’s most corrupt cities. Butler fired corrupt police captains and lieutenants wholesale, and he closed down not only the working-class speakeasies, but also the upper-class clubs frequented by the social elite. Arrests for liquor violations increased sixfold, although convictions actually dropped, as Butler’s zealous brand of anticorruption alienated local judges and political bosses. Mayor W. Freeland Kendrick ultimately fired him, and Butler returned to the Corps, saying, “Cleaning up Philadelphia was worse than any battle I was ever in.”

Returning to active duty in early 1926, Butler assumed command of the Marine base at San Diego, and a year later returned to China as commander of a Marine Expeditionary Force sent to protect American interests in Shanghai during a period of intense Chinese nationalist revolutionary activity. Not a traditional military expedition, this was among the first of what would now be called American peacekeeping missions. To the surprise of many, Butler executed his duties with great sensitivity and diplomatic skill. Twice the Chinese awarded him their ceremonial Umbrella of Ten Thousand Blessings. Butler was most likely the first foreigner ever to receive that honor.

Returning to the United States in 1929, Butler earned promotion to major general and resumed command at Quantico. His experiences in China, however, had completely altered his view of American military interventions over the previous 30 years, and he began openly criticizing U.S. foreign and military policy. Butler especially incurred the wrath of President Herbert Hoover and Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson when he publicly stated that the Marines, under State Department orders, had used strong-arm tactics to rig the 1912 elections in Nicaragua. Butler had, by that time, lost his political protector, as his powerful congressman father had died in 1928.

Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Historical Conflicts, People

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.