Colonel Jon T. Hoffman, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, is chief of the contemporary studies branch at the U.S. Army Center of Military History and the author of Once a Legend: "Red Mike" Edson of the Marine Raiders (Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1994, 2002) and Chesty: The Story of Lieutenant General Lewis B. Puller, USMC (New York: Random House, 2001, 2002).