WEBVTT - How Marine Dan Daly Lived Forever 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:04.480 Hey everyone, We've put together a survey for listeners of 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:06.760 Medal of Honor and we want to hear from you. 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:09.240 Tell us what you love about the show, what we 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:12.760 can improve on, or stories you think we've missed. We're 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:15.840 committed to making this show even better and you can 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.960 help to take the survey. Visit bit dot lee slash 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:27.320 MH survey. That's bit dot l y slash MH survey. 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:41.479 The link is also in our show notes below. Pushkin. 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:50.040 On a hot June afternoon in nineteen eighteen, the sixth 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:55.160 Marines were facing a massacre. It was World War One 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:59.160 and the American forces had gathered in Bellowwood in northern France. 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:02.800 They were there to fight the Germans, but to get 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:06.520 to them they would have to cross a wide open 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:11.040 field of wheat, and that field was ringed by enemy 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:16.360 machine gunners. They were hidden in trees and behind boulders, 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:22.759 invisible and deadly, the stalks of grain bent in the breeze. 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:26.840 The sun was shining. It might have been a beautiful day, 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:32.360 but the only sound anyone could hear was the snapping 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:37.319 and cracking of machine gun and rifle fire, and the 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:42.280 screaming of wounded men. There was just one way for 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:47.280 the Marines to eliminate those enemy positions, one at a time, 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:56.280 slowly and painfully, using hand grenades, rifles, bayonets, fighting hand 0:01:56.320 --> 0:02:02.040 to hand. If they had to progress seemed possible. The 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:06.120 men had already been there for days, pinned down and stuck, 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:11.040 worn out by the never ending combat. One platoon of 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:14.640 Marines was lying in a shallow fox hole. They had 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:17.160 dug it out by hand, at the edge of a clearing. 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:22.880 They were holding onto that ground for a dear life. 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:27.320 Then a runner came scrambling through the brush. He handed 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:31.200 a piece of paper to their sergeant. The sergeant's name 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:35.720 Dan Day. He was a lot older than the men 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:39.280 he led. He'd been in the Marines for nearly twenty years. 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:44.760 With a bristle of snow white hair and intense gray eyes, 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:48.239 Dan was pretty easy to pick out on the battlefield. 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:53.720 But more than that, Dan was famous, famous for his 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:58.079 courage and battle for his toughness. In fact, the story 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:00.799 goes that when one of the guys in the learned 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:05.480 his sergeant was Dan Daily, he said, quote, he's real. 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:09.120 I thought he was somebody the Marines made up like 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:14.080 Paul Bunyan. Dan Daly read that piece of paper. He 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:18.519 looked across his line of marines, and then Dan made 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:22.280 a forward motion with his hand. The men knew what 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:26.200 it meant. Their sergeant wanted them to advance toward the enemy, 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:32.120 out into the open, into the machine gun fire. They hesitated. 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:36.080 They could already see enemy bullets kicking up the dirt, 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:42.280 inching closer and closer. So Dan stood up and ran 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:44.880 to the center of the platoon, right in the middle 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:48.560 of his men. He swung his rifle over his head, 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:53.400 bayonet glinting in the sunlight, and then he shouted, come on, you, 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:59.800 sons of bitches, do you want to live forever? I'm Jr. 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:05.000 Martinez and this is Medal of Honor Stories of Courage. 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:07.880 The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:12.000 the United States, awarded for gallantry and bravery and combat 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:15.240 at the risk of life, above and beyond the call 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:18.560 of duty. Each candidate must be approved all the way 0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:21.919 up the chain of command, from the supervisory officer in 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:24.960 the field to the White House. This show is about 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:29.520 those heroes, what they did, what it meant, and what 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:34.400 their stories tell us about the nature of courage and sacrifice. 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:39.360 Today we'll meet the ultimate Marine, Daniel Daily, one of 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:41.559 the very few people to have been awarded the Medal 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:46.240 of Honor not once, but twice, plus a zillion other awards, 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:50.080 from the Navy Cross to the CUIs Duguerre. So, of course, 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:53.320 his platoon followed him when he yelled that famous battle cry. 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:58.360 They charged into those German defenses, and Dan himself rescued 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:03.240 twelve Marines who were stranded in that wheat field, risking 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:08.040 his life again and again. And this wasn't even one 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:10.120 of the actions. He received the Medal of Honor. For 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:15.359 Dan's story isn't just about incredible courage. It's about a 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:18.839 man who witnessed a totally different and sort of surprising 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:22.680 version of the Marine Corps and whose legend helped make 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:35.239 it the force it is today. Back in the early 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:39.320 nineteen hundreds, the Marine Corps looked nothing like it does now. 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:43.960 It was tiny, just about one hundred and fifty officers 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:48.080 and around fifty five hundred men. Their main duty was 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:52.760 guarding naval installations on land and working as guards on 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:56.640 naval vessels at sea, kind of like cops on ships. 0:05:57.480 --> 0:05:59.800 There were bit players in a lot of conflicts all 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:00.599 over the place. 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:05.640 Uncle Sam's most colorful and heroic military units officially formed 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:08.000 by the Continental Congression seventeen seventy five. 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:10.880 The Marines have been in the thick of things ever sin. 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:15.240 But they also had a very specific and unusual function. 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:19.400 When there were threats to Americans doing business in foreign countries, 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:23.080 the Marines would go ashore to protect them, which is 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:25.440 how they ended up in China in the summer of 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:30.599 nineteen hundred. For decades, Western nations in Japan had forced 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:34.960 China to accept foreign control over the country's international trade. 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:41.000 American businessmen, bankers, manufacturers, and companies like Standard Oil were 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:45.040 huge presents in the country. They wanted to sell their 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:48.880 goods to the largest population in the world. Not everyone 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:53.560 was happy about this arrangement. A group emerged in northern 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:58.400 China called the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists. 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:04.080 Westerners reduced it to the Boxers. The Boxers thought the colonizers, 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:08.200 and particularly the Christian missionaries, were to blame for their 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:11.920 poor standard of living, so they decided to fight back. 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:18.000 By eighteen ninety nine, the Boxers were destroying churches and 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:23.880 foreign property, killing Chinese Christians and Western missionaries. They got 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:29.920 closer and closer to the country's capital, Peiking, now called Beijing. 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:34.080 That's where the foreigners lived, and a kind of walled 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:38.480 city within the city. They called it the Legation Quarter. 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:43.320 The Chinese government began supporting the Boxers, and the international 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:47.560 community realized that to leave the walled city would probably 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:51.520 mean death for them, so they called in military protection 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:55.840 from their home countries. In May of nineteen hundred, about 0:07:55.880 --> 0:08:00.680 three hundred troops from places like Great Britain, Japan, Germany, 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:05.000 and Italy arrived in Peking and from America came the Marines, 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:11.440 except there were just fifty of them, including a young 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:16.280 man named Dan Daily. Dan had joined the corps just 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:20.520 a year before. According to his enlistment papers, he had 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:24.320 been born in Long Island in eighteen seventy three, but 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:28.520 evidence suggests he was born a few years earlier and 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:33.680 thousands of miles away in Ireland. His parents survived the 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:37.640 Great Famine and resettled in America. Young Dan worked in 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:41.000 a kerosene factory on Long Island. It's easy to see 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:44.800 why the Marines appealed to him. America was spreading into 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:50.120 more and more foreign territory. Marines traveled the world, and 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:53.640 that probably sounded a lot better than spending your life 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:57.679 in a factory on Long Island. Plus Dan was a 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:03.440 prize fighter on the side exploring fighting. These were things 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:08.120 Dan loved, so he enlisted, and after a little more 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:13.400 than a year he was in Peking foreigners and their 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:18.000 families were fleeing the Boxers. They poured into the legation quarter. 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:23.560 Thousands of Chinese Christian refugees did too, and on June twentieth, 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:28.040 the Boxers began their siege of the city. That small 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:32.680 international group of military men Dan included was stationed in 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:38.160 the quarter and they were outnumbered forty to one. They 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:42.400 called for reinforcements, but it would take almost two months 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:46.839 for those to arrive. In the meantime, the heat sword 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:51.720 reaching one hundred and ten degrees in the shade. Food 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:55.280 was dwindling. The people in the quarter had to eat 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:59.960 their horses. Dan and the Marines had one main goal 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:05.199 to hold what was called a tartar wall. It ran 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:07.880 along one side of the quarter, about the size of 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:11.920 a four story building. The Boxers built barricades on the 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:15.120 other side of the wall, and they kept building them higher. 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:18.120 They hoped to be able to storm their way inside 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:22.120 the quarter. So the marine spent all their time firing 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:25.679 at the Boxers on the barricades, trying to hold them off. 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:30.280 They were quickly running out of ammunition. If the Boxers 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:35.800 breached the wall, the fight would be over instantly. On 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:40.240 the night of July fourteenth, weeks into the siege, Dan's 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:43.800 captain told him he needed a volunteer to stay on 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:48.120 top of the wall alone. The captain had to go 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:53.040 down to bring up more men and sandbags. Reportedly, the 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:56.880 captain whispered to Dan, I won't order you to stay 0:10:56.880 --> 0:10:59.959 out here, but if you can hold them back to noight, 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:05.720 they'll never drive us back tomorrow, to which Dan cheerily replied, 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:09.680 see you in the morning, captain, The night would have 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:13.760 been hot. Dan took cover in a little forty five bastion. 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:17.200 He piled ammunition in front of him, and he waited. 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:22.200 He could hear the Chinese soldiers talking nearby, and then 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:27.480 sure enough they came after him in the dark. The 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:30.400 boxers weren't sure how many Marines were in that bastion. 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:35.679 They didn't know it was just Dan. With this limited 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:39.559 supply of ammo, he was going to need all of it. 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:45.160 First two came Dan's way and he shot them. Then 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:48.920 four more men came. He shot three and used his 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:52.840 bayonet to kill the fourth, but the men kept coming 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:57.439 all through the night. Dan held on for daylight and 0:11:57.559 --> 0:12:02.760 watched his pile of bullets get smaller and smaller. He 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:07.720 had to be a perfect shot in the dark. For hours, 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:13.760 he couldn't waste a bullet, and he didn't. Dawn rose 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:17.199 slowly over the tartar wall, and when the captain arrived 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:19.880 back at the top, Dan was there to greet him, 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:25.520 just like he had promised. According to some reports, the 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:29.840 bodies of two hundred enemy soldiers were found that morning 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:34.120 below the wall. This marked the first time that Dan 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:36.920 will receive the Medal of Honor. He had been a 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:40.240 one man barricade. If he hadn't been there, it might 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:44.000 have been the end of the quarter. A few weeks later, 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:48.559 a force from eight nations arrived in China, roughly ten 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:53.240 thousand of them took Peking, defeating the boxers. The siege 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:58.439 was over, and the foreign powers took brutal revenge. They 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:02.800 executed boxers and their supporters. They burned villages to the ground, 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:09.920 they plundered everything, plus the foreign nations demanded reparations from 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:14.760 the Chinese government. These reparations were so large that they 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:19.720 would cripple China for decades. The Marines would stay there 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:31.840 until nineteen forty one. Not Dan Daly, though he kept moving. 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:44.040 Part of what made Dan the ultimate Marine is he 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:50.440 went all in on everything he did. Dan Day arrived 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:54.160 in the Philippines in September of nineteen hundred. While there 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.199 were no battles to fight at the moment, he still 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:02.440 had a lot of energy. By October, he was put 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:05.800 on report for failing to return on time from leave. 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:10.200 Then he was on restriction for thirty days after being 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:15.680 ten hours late from leave. Then he was court martialed 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:19.000 for being drunk on his post and was sent to 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:23.120 the brig He got out and promptly went in again 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:29.560 for the same thing drunkenness, along with quote using obscene 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:33.440 threatening an abusive language toward a sergeant of the guard. 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:38.720 All of these offenses and a bunch more in just 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:44.920 ten months not exactly the description of the ideal marine 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:46.760 that the Corps advertised. 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:50.120 In the Marine Corps, a man is trained first in 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:53.160 those things that will develop him as a man, in 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:57.600 those qualities of general leadership, such as dependability, personal bearing, 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:02.760 physical and metal stamina, should self reliance and self confidence. 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:08.320 Well, he certainly had self confidence. I guess his bad 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:12.240 behavior went on for years. But while he was seeing 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:15.640 the inside of the brig he was also seeing the 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:20.960 world because these years coincided with Teddy Roosevelt's presidency, and 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:24.120 Roosevelt believed that the US should act as a sort 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:29.080 of international policeman, stepping in with force if necessary. So 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:33.680 the Marines were all over the place. Dan was off 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:37.000 the coast of Puerto Rico, then Panama. The Marines were 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:41.640 officially there to protect American citizens and unofficially there to 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:45.120 make sure the US could build the Panama Canal. In 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:48.920 March of nineteen eleven, he was aboard the USS Springfield 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:52.680 and San Juan, Puerto Rico, when a gasoline fire broke out. 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:55.640 Dan risked his life to put out the flames before 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:58.640 the ship blew up. He got a commendation from the 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:03.400 Secretary of the Navy. In nineteen fourteen, Dan went to Mexico, 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:07.520 where the US had investments in oil. He fought in 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:12.400 the Battle of Veracruz. The Marines occupied the city. I mean, 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:19.080 come on, this guy was everywhere. Eventually he became a sergeant. 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:23.880 He was in his early forties mellowing out a little maybe, 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:27.800 and the Marines were changing to The tiny core that 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:31.360 Dan had joined in eighteen ninety nine was up to 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:36.040 ten thousand men by nineteen fourteen, but their role was 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:41.200 still a little odd. They weren't exactly fighting in war zones. 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:45.320 They were kind of like a police force for American business. 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:49.560 That's how Dan wound up in Haiti. Haiti was a 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:52.360 major port in the Sea Lane between the New Panama 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:56.400 Canal and the Atlantic Ocean, so it was more important 0:16:56.440 --> 0:17:00.760 to the US than ever. The United States move Haiti's 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:05.080 gold reserve to New York in nineteen fourteen. Then they 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:08.880 used that as leverage to pressure Haiti to hand over 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:14.199 control of its finances. By July of nineteen fifteen, the 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:16.440 country was on the brink of civil war. 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:21.520 Having suffered a succession of weak presidents and almost continuous 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:25.240 civil wars, Haiti is now on brink of bankruptcy and 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:28.000 laws of the land have been virtually lost in chaos 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:30.359 of island wide anarchy. 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:34.760 A civil war would be bad for business, so President 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:39.399 Woodrow Wilson sent in the Marines. Dan's major was the 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:45.280 awesomely named Smedley Darlington Butler His man nicknamed him Old 0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:50.280 gimblet Eye because he had a crazy, intense stare. Anyways, 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:53.960 Butler had been in China and Mexico with Dan. He 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:58.520 loved him, He said. Dan was quote the fightingist man 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:02.679 I avenue. His hair was gray even then. He was 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:07.919 smooth faced, with skin like leather, hard boiled as the devil, 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:13.119 but fine clear through. I admired his courage and modesty 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:18.400 and became very much attached to him. The Marines took 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:22.800 charge of Haiti's ports and set up camps throughout the country. Meanwhile, 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:27.440 US officials got veto power over government decisions. They had 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:32.200 the constitution change to allow foreigners to buy property. Pretty 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:36.560 sweet deal for the US, maybe not so much for 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:41.080 the Haitians. Everything was settling in for a long occupation, 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:45.840 except that a group of rebels called Cacos began ambushing 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:50.600 Marine patrols, attacking outposts, and so the Marines and the 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:52.119 Cacos went to battle. 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:55.639 And then in nineteen fifteen, United States Marines land in 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:59.919 Haiti to battle Haitian bandits threatening destruction of American properties, 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:03.960 and native bandits quickly head for the hills. This puts 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:07.919 immediate end to troubles in populated areas, but marines prepare 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:11.080 to drive into interior and rout the insurgents out. 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:18.520 In late October, Smedley Darlington, Butler, Dan and around thirty 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:21.560 five other men went to find a CaCO stronghold in 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:25.000 the mountains. They set out from a base camp on 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:29.720 horseback with pack animals, carrying food, ammunition, and a machine gun. 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:32.479 On the third day of their mission, they came across 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:36.080 a Haitian man, and Butler made him an offer. Show 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:41.160 us the Caco's forked. If you do, you'll get five dollars. 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:46.680 If you don't, you'll get a bullet, and not much 0:19:46.680 --> 0:19:52.600 of a choice. The man chose the money. Soon the 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:56.240 marines had the Caco's fortress in their sights. It was 0:19:56.280 --> 0:20:00.159 perched on a mountain surrounded by rough stone walls and trenches. 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:04.919 Butler immediately realized his single platoon of men would be 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:10.800 no match for that, so they retreated. They rode in 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:14.119 the rain. They reached the banks of a fast running 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:17.639 river too deep for them to wade across, so the 0:20:17.680 --> 0:20:21.840 men dismounted and the horses began to swim, with the 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:29.119 marines hanging onto their tails. Suddenly, bullets zipping past the 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:32.879 men into the water. That guy they threatened with death. 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:39.080 He had led them right into a trap. The marines 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:43.320 were surrounded by hundreds of cacos. By a stroke of 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:46.920 crazy luck, all of the marines made it across the river. 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:52.240 Their animals weren't so fortunate. After the men got to safety, 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:55.960 Butler ordered Dan to set up the machine gun, but 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:57.960 it had been strapped to the back of one of 0:20:57.960 --> 0:21:02.240 the pack horses, and that horse was at the bottom 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:06.560 of the river. Butler tried to figure out what they 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:13.160 can do instead, and Dan just disappeared. He crawled back 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:17.720 to the river through the underbrush. That caco's bullet sheared 0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:22.280 off the sticks and leaves around him. Then he plunged 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:26.639 into the river. He dived over and over into the 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:31.240 depths of that cold and murky water, trying to locate 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:36.159 each dead horse, until finally he found the one with 0:21:36.240 --> 0:21:40.080 the machine gun tied to its back. Then he dove 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:45.239 even deeper, holding onto the horse underwater, Dan cut the 0:21:45.280 --> 0:21:48.479 gun loose. He broke the surface of the water and 0:21:48.600 --> 0:21:52.480 gasped for air. Then he swam back to the river bank, 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:57.399 dragging the gun somehow, dodging bullets. He made it to 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:00.240 shore and then He strapped the gun to his back 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:02.920 and carried it to the high ground where the rest 0:22:02.920 --> 0:22:07.320 of the Marines were. Dan threw the gun down, and 0:22:07.359 --> 0:22:10.960 I can only imagine they were like, how the hell 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:15.600 did you get that? But by now they were surrounded. 0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:21.159 Butler said, quote all the men were praying, Even hard 0:22:21.359 --> 0:22:24.760 boiled marines pray when they feel helplessly snared in a 0:22:24.800 --> 0:22:29.879 death trap. Don was breaking. Butler divided the men into 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:34.280 three squads and told them to go in three different directions, 0:22:34.680 --> 0:22:39.560 shooting everyone they could see. That machine gun helped a 0:22:39.680 --> 0:22:45.080 whole lot. The Marines were eventually able to make their 0:22:45.119 --> 0:22:51.840 way back to safety, sleepless, exhausted, and hungry, marching one 0:22:51.960 --> 0:22:57.760 hundred and twenty miles in five days, all without losing 0:22:57.960 --> 0:23:02.840 a man. Later on, Butler recommended Dan for the Medal 0:23:02.840 --> 0:23:06.639 of Honor, saying quote, I wouldn't have had the courage 0:23:06.680 --> 0:23:10.280 to do that. Remember, he went back on his own 0:23:10.359 --> 0:23:14.639 initiative without a hint or suggestion from me, And that's 0:23:14.640 --> 0:23:19.720 how fighting Dan Daily got his second medal. Dan left 0:23:19.720 --> 0:23:23.800 Haiti in January of nineteen sixteen, headed for New York, 0:23:24.280 --> 0:23:28.160 where his mom and siblings still lived, but the Marines 0:23:28.200 --> 0:23:32.280 would stay in Haiti for another nineteen years, fighting the 0:23:32.320 --> 0:23:36.160 rebels and anyone else who objected to the US presence. 0:23:36.880 --> 0:23:40.440 Till nineteen thirty four. Contingents of the United States Marines 0:23:40.560 --> 0:23:44.919 keep border in Haiti, withdrawing only when Haiti finally becomes 0:23:45.000 --> 0:23:47.880 nation of peace and prosperity. 0:23:52.200 --> 0:23:58.600 Well that's not exactly what happened, is it. Dan and 0:23:58.640 --> 0:24:01.920 Smedley Darlington Butler and the rest of the Marines had 0:24:02.000 --> 0:24:06.199 risked life and limb, but one of them at least 0:24:06.640 --> 0:24:22.840 would look back in wonder for what. Let's go back 0:24:22.840 --> 0:24:26.640 to France where we started this episode. It was World 0:24:26.680 --> 0:24:32.320 War One, the Zillian conflict. Dan had seen just one 0:24:32.440 --> 0:24:35.560 more port of call for him. But the Marines had 0:24:35.640 --> 0:24:39.400 changed massively in the almost twenty years that Dan had 0:24:39.440 --> 0:24:43.920 been enlisted. For one thing, they were so much bigger. 0:24:44.640 --> 0:24:47.320 By the end of World War One, there would be 0:24:47.400 --> 0:24:52.800 about twenty four hundred officers and seventy thousand enlisted men. 0:24:53.880 --> 0:24:57.600 Dan put his combat experience to work. He trained new 0:24:57.640 --> 0:25:02.879 recruits and got them ready for war. Ironically, he was 0:25:02.920 --> 0:25:07.200 a stickler for detail, ready to restrict a man's leave 0:25:07.520 --> 0:25:12.720 if his uniform wasn't pressed right, A far cry from 0:25:12.800 --> 0:25:17.200 old drunk Dan, who spent weeks in the brig Anyway, 0:25:17.520 --> 0:25:20.160 he and the rest of the six Marine shipped out 0:25:20.160 --> 0:25:24.680 to France in October of nineteen seventeen. Dan was still 0:25:24.680 --> 0:25:28.720 in fighting shape. Are we surprised and ready to go 0:25:28.840 --> 0:25:33.680 to the front. It was chaos, but Dan just kept 0:25:33.680 --> 0:25:38.600 being Dan. He single handedly put out a fire in 0:25:38.680 --> 0:25:44.720 an ammunition train. He destroyed enemy machine guns, He captured 0:25:44.800 --> 0:25:52.520 fourteen Germans all by himself, you know the usual. Then 0:25:52.640 --> 0:25:55.399 came June tenth, the day on that heel where he 0:25:55.520 --> 0:25:59.720 gave that famous battle cry. And when Dan yelled, come on, 0:25:59.800 --> 0:26:03.040 you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever? 0:26:04.080 --> 0:26:08.640 Maybe his men thought, well, he's kind of lived forever, right, 0:26:09.320 --> 0:26:12.520 and he was a legend. So his men entered that 0:26:12.600 --> 0:26:17.760 field with a roar Dan leading the way. They fought 0:26:17.760 --> 0:26:22.320 for many days. Eventually they were victorious, but Dan was wounded. 0:26:23.280 --> 0:26:25.679 His injuries would keep him out of the rest of 0:26:25.720 --> 0:26:29.680 the war. But let's go back to that famous line. 0:26:29.880 --> 0:26:33.440 When Dan got back to the United States, he claimed 0:26:33.800 --> 0:26:37.960 he never actually said it. The real version he said 0:26:38.080 --> 0:26:42.400 was more like, for gracious sakes, you chaps, leave us 0:26:42.600 --> 0:26:47.800 charge the foe, Not exactly convincing from a man who 0:26:47.880 --> 0:26:53.280 could reportedly swear in seven languages and never repeat the 0:26:53.320 --> 0:26:57.439 same curse twice. But anyway, Dan was one of the 0:26:57.480 --> 0:27:01.800 most decorated men of World War One, but he didn't 0:27:01.800 --> 0:27:05.200 care about the hardware. As he once put it, quote, 0:27:05.640 --> 0:27:08.120 any stiff can go out and win a few medals 0:27:08.359 --> 0:27:13.199 if he ain't entirely out of luck. He was recommended 0:27:13.240 --> 0:27:16.720 for yet another Medal of Honor after France, but he 0:27:16.800 --> 0:27:21.200 received a Distinguished Service Cross instead. Maybe the higher ups 0:27:21.200 --> 0:27:25.280 thought three medals of honor would be overkilled. He didn't 0:27:25.280 --> 0:27:29.600 need them anyway. Every Marine knew his name. In fact, 0:27:30.119 --> 0:27:33.720 his bravery and service helped to define what it meant 0:27:33.720 --> 0:27:39.320 to be a marine. Dan Daley retired from active service 0:27:39.359 --> 0:27:44.000 in the Marines in nineteen twenty and fully retired in 0:27:44.080 --> 0:27:48.880 nineteen twenty nine. In pictures from that time, he's fit 0:27:49.119 --> 0:27:52.639 and trim as ever, with posture that would make Mary 0:27:52.720 --> 0:27:57.240 Poppins proud. He had never married, and when asked why, 0:27:57.280 --> 0:28:00.760 he responded, quote, I can't see how now a single 0:28:00.880 --> 0:28:04.600 man could spend his time better than in the Marines. 0:28:05.800 --> 0:28:08.560 He lived with his sister and her family and queens, 0:28:08.960 --> 0:28:11.760 and took a job as a bank guard. He liked 0:28:11.760 --> 0:28:13.680 to work at night so he could go to baseball 0:28:13.720 --> 0:28:17.080 games during the day, and the kids in the neighborhood 0:28:17.680 --> 0:28:22.520 loved him. One of them remembered quote, I've never met 0:28:22.720 --> 0:28:28.240 a quieter, more thoughtful man, so kind, so cheerful. He 0:28:28.320 --> 0:28:32.160 loved all of us children, and we all loved him. 0:28:32.720 --> 0:28:37.000 Not what you were expecting, am I right? Dan wasn't 0:28:37.119 --> 0:28:41.000 much for speeches or interviews. He refused to talk about 0:28:41.000 --> 0:28:45.560 his famous battles. He told his boss at the bank quote, oh, 0:28:45.600 --> 0:28:49.920 there really wasn't much to it. But while Dan hated 0:28:50.000 --> 0:28:56.480 the spotlight, remember his commander, Smedley Darlington Butler Old Gimlday. 0:28:57.600 --> 0:29:02.959 Butler was a major general, also received two Medals of Honor, 0:29:03.520 --> 0:29:07.600 the only other Marine to do so. And while Dan 0:29:07.760 --> 0:29:13.360 kept quiet, Butler did the exact opposite. He looked back 0:29:13.400 --> 0:29:16.760 and questioned what he and Dan had been doing in 0:29:16.840 --> 0:29:22.400 all those countries for all those years. Sure, in World 0:29:22.480 --> 0:29:26.080 War One, the Marines were fighting for democracy, for a 0:29:26.160 --> 0:29:30.640 principle they could actually believe in. But what about those 0:29:30.840 --> 0:29:36.280 other random places where they'd put their lives on the line. 0:29:36.400 --> 0:29:40.160 Butler retired from the Corps in nineteen thirty one, just 0:29:40.320 --> 0:29:43.840 as the Great Depression was pushing the country deep into poverty, 0:29:44.520 --> 0:29:47.880 he went on a lecture tour talking about how marines 0:29:47.920 --> 0:29:51.520 had been pawns, risking death to put profits in the 0:29:51.600 --> 0:29:57.000 hands of private citizens. Recordings of those speeches haven't survived, 0:29:57.880 --> 0:30:02.320 But here's old Gimletai speaking to a group of unemployed 0:30:02.480 --> 0:30:04.120 World War One veterans. 0:30:04.680 --> 0:30:06.880