November 11, 2004

For the Marine Corps birthday and young Marine Sam Crist, recently wounded in Falluja, the story of Evans Carlson and the meaning of Gung Ho.

Carlson's a hero of mine, whose methods deserve to be remembered.

posted by atchafalaya 20 years ago
  • Interesting synchronicity. I have been spending several days reading about the Kiribati islands, and the first link has pages on Kiribati.
  • The gung ho link doesn't work for me.
  • Neither me.
  • It needs and exclaimation point. Try this: Gung Ho!
  • I prefer 'Tally Ho' as my battle cry - it has an ironic nod towards the animal tortures (fox hunters) and recalls the futile 'over the tops' of bygone days. Ignites a lively terror (as Churchill said) in the other chaps too.
  • So what battle ya been in, then? Oh yeah. Silly me. Clone Wars. /bow
  • darn. i don't have a battle cry. i seem to have overlooked selecting one. *ponders*
  • To me the cool thing is Gung Ho means "Work together." Not what you'd expect from the Marines. Neither was Carlson. Mex, thanks for cleaning up my bad html.
  • Except it doesn't. As I said here:
    To quote the always quotable American Heritage Dictionary:
    Earlier Gung Ho, motto of certain U.S. Marine forces in Asia during World War II, from Chinese (Mandarin) gongh
  • An inspired typo that made me think I was reading E R Burroughs: Each fire group, led by a private first class, was equipped with atomic gun, a Garand rifle and a browning automatic rifle (B. A. R.). Radium rifle!