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THE REMINISCENCES OF A MARINE. By Major General John A. Lejeune, U. S. Marine Corps. Philadelphia; Dorrance and Company, 488 pages. 1929. $4.00.
Reviewed by Brigadier General Dion Williams, U. S. Marine Corps
For the accomplishment of the task which he set for himself in writing the Reminiscences of a Marine General Lejeune drew liberally upon the stores of memory of a busy life replete with varied service at home and abroad, afloat and ashore, and the result is a book of surpassing interest to the soldier and the civilian alike.
A believer in the theory of hereditary influence, he begins his work with an outline of his ancestry in their long journey from the homeland in France to the new land of promise in Nova Scotia, the Arcadia from which they were to be driven by cruel politics in which they had no voice to another far land to the south, the Louisiana which was to be their home until adventure again called and took the son of the family to Annapolis and started him upon the career which this book so well describes.
The picture of his four years at the Naval Academy contains an excellent description of the life there in the days of the “old academy,” a simpler life than that of the midshipman of today, but withal a life more exacting and probably as well designed to fit its participants for the later experiences as officers in the naval service as the more complicated and less directly supervised life at the great modern institution.
Another chapter tells of his experiences on the “two years’ cruise” as a midshipman, which in those days formed an important part of the course designed to fit the aspirants for naval commissions for their future duties. In an old wooden ship, the U.S.S. Vandalia, even then a relic of a former naval period, he, with other members of his class, saw service in the Pacific South Sea Islands which took them through the “Samoa Disaster” of 1889, a hurricane which strewed the reef-lined shore of Apia with the wrecks of three United States warships and three German men-of-war and cost many lives. The story of this debacle, which had such a sudden and vital effect upon the diplomatic tangle between Great Britain, Germany, and the United States, is one of the most readable stories of the many to be found in General Lejeune’s book, and the student of world history will find it well worth careful perusal.
The two years’ cruise over, the story takes the writer back to the Naval Academy for final examination and commission at the end of which we find the author fairly started on the career that was to make him famous as an officer of the U. S. Marine Corps. His early barracks service ashore is next described followed by incidents of a cruise to South America in the U.S.S. Bennington, one of the new steel cruisers of the famous “White Squadron” of the early nineties which marked the beginning of the return of the American Navy to an honorable position among the navies of the world.
Active participation afloat in the Caribbean campaigns of the Spanish-American War; a command ashore on the Isthmus of Panama when we took over the Canal Zone in 1903 and started the work on the great canal; command of the Marine Brigade which landed at Vera Cruz in 1914; command of the Marine Brigade in the Philippines ; and varied shore duty in the United States, are next portrayed in attractive language and interesting continuity.
But all of this is but the forerunner, the picturesque background in the life of General Lejeune before which is pictured the stirring story of his participation in the World War as the leader of the famous Second Division of the A.E.F., than which there was no greater organization in the vast allied crusade which forced back the rising tide of Germanic power which would have crushed for the time in the history of the world the cause of free government “of the people, for the people, and by the people.”
That portion of the Reminiscences of a Marine which treats of the the experiences of the author in the World War forms an authoritative history of the participation of the U. S. marines in the front line fighting on the Western front and the battles at Marbache, St. Mihiel, Blanc Mont Ridge, and the Meuse-Argonne, followed by the triumphal march to the Rhine and the American occupation of one of the zones of occupied German territory on the Rhine.
The book closes with brief mention of nine years as Major General Commandant of the Marine Corps, during which term of office General Lejeune’s great experience, tactful dealing with the other officials of the government, and wise counsel did much which will be to the lasting benefit of his corps and his country; and of his retirement from active service at his own request after forty-six years’ service to take up further important military duty as the Superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute.
The book is a great story of a great man, told in simple and straightforward manner, with flashes of the keen humor which has ever made it a pleasure to serve under his command, and with no vainglorious boasting of his wonderful achievements in nearly half a century with the colors at the head of
America’s sea-soldiers, at home and abroad, on land and sea, wherever the call of our country has led in peace and war.
In the semiofficial journal of the Marine Corps, the Gazette, it seems almost superfluous to say that it should be both a duty and a pleasure for every officer of the great corps to read the Reminiscences of a Marine, for he has been a real marine and his experience has been truly wonderful.
In book reviews as they customarily appear in the better class of American magazines it has become the habit of professional reviewers to add their sketchy opinions of the subject matter of the book reviewed some general estimate of the character and ability of the author.
In the present instance this can be done by quoting from General Lejeune’s book the graceful dedication which follows the title page in which he states that his book is, “Dedicated to the officers and enlisted men of the Marine Corps, the Navy and the Army, with whom I have served. Devotion to duty, unswerving loyalty, fine courage, and unselfish patriotism have been their dominant characteristics.” Surely no soldier of any time has ever exemplified these qualities to a higher degree than has General Lejeune during the forty-seven years that have elapsed since he journeyed from his boyhood home in Louisiana to Annapolis to don the uniform of his country, which he has proudly worn ever since with such eminent success and high credit.
When he retired from active service at his own request after forty-six years’ service it was not to seek a well-earned rest beneath the laurels he had won on many fields, but it was to take up more work as the head of a famous military college upon whose rolls are borne the names of many gallant soldiers and in such a position to let his own life and counsel be a living inspiration to many young men starting in on their careers. As he himself aptly put it when he said, “I do not feel that I have really retired but only that I have moved my headquarters and taken up another command,” his work still continues and hale and hearty and full of life and courage he still faces the front, loyal to the traditions of his great corps and ever true to its motto, Semper Fidelis.
Editor's Note: Published by courtesy of the Marine Corps Gazette.