by Robin Hutton
Chesty is introduced to his new name. Camp Pendleton Archives
Breaking with Tradition: No “Less” on Chesty
Chesty was named for Lewis “Chesty” Puller, the most decorated Marine in Corps history, who retired as a lieutenant general in 1955. There was even a rumor that Puller had ridden Reckless while in Korea.
The winning entry in the contest to name him came from Staff Sergeant Philip T. Poe, a wire chief with the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines. Poe’s prize: a card redeemable for fifteen rides at the base stables.
Don’t Mess with Chesty
Chesty was much bigger in size than his two brothers because his sire was a thoroughbred. Because of this, he was used mostly as a trail guide horse. “Chesty was just an exceptional horse,” recalled Tom Fant, Chesty’s main handler for several years at the base stables. “I loved that horse. He was great. We’d go out on trails and do brush poppin’ and stuff, just having a great time. That horse was special.”
Chesty was incredibly picky about who he would allow onto his back. Fant remembered when the base stables manager, Sergeant Major William Stepp9 “let some boy come there who said he could ride anything with hair on it. Mr. Stepp called for Chesty to come up. And they never made it out of the paddock area. He was thrown right there in the dirt. Chesty also put one of my friends out of the Marine Corps because he rolled over on him and messed up his knee. He was trying to ride him one day and Chesty didn’t like other people riding him.” Even though Fant was among Chesty’s favorite mounts, he still was thrown eighteen times and rolled over on three times.
Fant recalled the time several young girls who worked at the stable got a big straw hat and cut holes for the ears and plopped that hat on Chesty’s head. Unlike his mother with the Australian hat, Chesty loved this one. “We’d put that hat over his ears and he’d stand underneath the shade tree on three legs with this big ol’ hat on and fall asleep. He was so funny-looking. The hat made him look like a donkey, but he didn’t care.
Tom Fant up on the back of his favorite horse, Chesty. Debbie McCain
“And there would be times when guys would come out to ride and brag about their skills, so here they come leading Chesty out there with that hat on and the guys all thought this horse looked stupid and was no match for them. And then all of a sudden they’d get up there on his back and he’d throw them right there in the dirt and then he’d go back and stand under the shade tree, drop his ol’ head and fall asleep on three legs.
“He was an exceptional horse because nobody could ride him except me and I was stupid enough to get out there and do it! He and I had a great time together.”
Fant wanted to buy Chesty. “I loved that horse. I really wanted to keep him and I offered $500 for him. But Mr. Stepp said he couldn’t sell him.”10
Chesty Leaves Home
Fant must have been frustrated when, a few years later, the stables ended up giving Chesty to Sergeant Lynn Mattocks, Chesty’s former rodeo rider.
“When Chesty became old enough to start breaking and schooled, we took him to the rodeo grounds, and he was a big dark thoroughbred horse. And so these guys who got sent down to the stables for sixty to ninety days to help clean up poop and stuff, they didn’t know anything about horses. But the people who were assigned at the stables permanently were screened and selected. And Chuck Dacus worked at the stables, and he was quite a horseman. So Colonel Ace Bowen11—who was quite a cowboy, knew I was a professional cowboy before I came in—so it was Chuck and I who had the knowledge to do it. So we were given these horses to break.
“Well, Chesty came around, a really, really good horse, but you gotta remember that we were professional horsemen, so to speak—I’d been breaking colts since I was 14 years old—and here I am up in my twenties now and we had him working really good.
“So they decided, ‘Hey, why do we only use him at the rodeo grounds four months out of the year? Let’s send him over to the stables and let him pay for his keep.’
“Well, he was still pretty young, and they sent him over there. And of course, he’s with Marines that are there [for] sixty to ninety days of temporary assigned duty; they’re the ones that take the trail rides out. Well, they don’t know how to ride and ninety percent of the people they had as trainers and riding instructors didn’t know, either.
“So anyway, they just were too heavy-handed. This horse had a nice easy mouth, soft mouth, and he would work off the body and everything, and he was working real good as a young horse as long as we who knew what we were doing were riding them. And that’s what they saw in the rodeo arena.
“So when the rodeo was over, they took him over to make him a trail guide horse. Well, these guys were holding up on him. They’d squeeze him and he’d take off because that’s what he was trained to do. And then they’d jerk back on him and got him to rear up and flipping over backwards. Then he became a danger.
“And there was something in the [ownership] papers for Reckless that said that these horses could not be sold from the base. So what they did was, Colonel Ace Bowen and I think Colonel Jinx McCain—I believe he was the special services officer at the time—and I made a deal. They didn’t sell the horse to me. But because he was deemed to be unsafe for the stables and I was deemed to be a professional cowboy horseman, the horse went to me, and I made a donation to the Navy [-Marine Corps] Relief Society. And so that way Chesty was never sold to me.
“And so in essence, he was given to me because he was a danger for the people over there at the stables who were not professional horse people.
“I brought Chesty home to my ranch in Murietta and I rode that horse all over that ranch. And one time I was riding up by Idyllwild, California. And I was up there getting cattle and this guy, he was in Korea in the 5th Marines and he knew Sergeant Reckless. And when he found out that I was riding Chesty . . . he just went spastic: ‘I gotta have that horse. I’ve gotta have that horse.’
“And so I said, ‘He’s already seventeen or eighteen.’
“And he said, ‘I don’t care, I’ve gotta have that horse.’
“And so about a year later, I ran into him at the Swingin’ Cafe in Temecula. And he said, ‘You still got that Chesty horse?’
“And I said, ‘Yessir, I do.’
“And he says, ‘When can I come and get him?’
“And I looked at him and said, ‘You’re really serious, aren’t you?’
“He says, ‘I’ve been waiting for a year.’
“And I said, ‘You know what, I’m going through a divorce. Bring the trailer.’
“He says, ‘It’s on the truck right now.’ And so that’s where Chesty went. And he told me later on, ‘Oh, I love that horse. We can cover more miles across those pastures out there. Nobody can stay up with us.’”12
Chesty’s last reported public appearance was the headstone dedication ceremony for Reckless at the base stables in the fall of 1971. Beyond the recollections of Fant and Mattocks, there is precious little information on Chesty, even down to when he died. Camp Pendleton records indicate 1976, of natural causes. But Mattocks claims Chesty died of old age sometime in the early 1980s.
Chesty is buried with his two brothers at the Camp Pendleton rodeo grounds.
Sadly, Fearless, Dauntless, and Chesty were all gelded; there were no offspring to carry on the bloodline of their heroic mother.
PART IV
IN MEMORIAM AND MORE
I am also sure that in the land of rewards that lies beyond, this chestnut mare with the handsome, blazed face and [three] white stockings is mingling even now among the men of the Corps. And when there’s a load to be carried, when there’s ammo to be rushed up to the front, she’ll always be there to perform her tasks beyond the call of duty, in the spirit of “Semper Fidelis”: Always Faithful.
—George Putnam, Los Angeles television news anchor
CHAPTER 13
“FAMED MARINE HORSE ‘RECKLESS’ DIES AT 20”
—PASADENA (CALIFORNIA) STAR-NEWS HEADLINE
Reckless’s passing on May 13, 1968, came at age twenty—a respectable lifespan for any horse, much less one who had endured as much as she had. One final time, she was front-page news across the country.
Reckless had enjoyed a long, rich life with the Marines. In later years, however, she clearly suffered; the arthritis in her back and hip made it difficult to get around and her left rear leg was lame. Then there was the developing laminitis.
“We didn’t talk too much about the laminitis,” recalled Sergeant Art DiGrazia, who helped care for Reckless. “We knew what she had and just kept her comfortable. We gave her some Butazolidin [anti-inflammatory medicine] and that seemed to help her quite a bit. She got around okay on the ’Bute.”1
Yet, Reckless’s infirmities proved more than uncomfortable; they indirectly led to her death.
“She was out in the colonel’s pasture,” Eric Pedersen Jr. recounted. “When she didn’t come in for her feed, they went out to look for her.”
The Marines found Reckless severely injured, having fallen through a barbed wire fence into a ravine. “She wasn’t in good shape. And right away we called Doc Miller,” DiGrazia said.
They rushed Reckless into surgery, but her injuries were so severe that Miller felt compelled to make a veterinarian’s ultimate medical decision: she had to be put down. “I haven’t gotten over that yet,” Pedersen painfully recalled forty years later.2
Reckless, whose war heroics and colorful postwar life were the stuff of legend, was buried quietly, without fanfare, in an unmarked grave behind the base stable office at Camp Pendleton. Today, unless you ask where the grave is, there’s no way to identify it.
“At that time, we didn’t know what they were going to do with the office there,” DiGrazia recalled. “[Stables manager] Mr. Stepp, God bless his soul, said, ‘We’re just going to bury her next to the office,’ and then he figured there would be a big memorial built for her there at some point in time. So we got the backhoe out there and that’s where we did it.
“We wanted to get her underground as soon as possible. But the utmost care was taken to make sure that her resting place was in good shape—that even in death, she was really comfortable. And we made sure there wasn’t a lot of public around when we did bury her.”
It was a small, somber ceremony. “Everybody just stood there kind of very silently,” DiGrazia reflected. “I think I said something like, ‘God bless her for what she did,’ but if anybody said anything, they said it to themselves.”3
Memorial Erected in Reckless’s Honor
On November 20, 1971, the 1st Marine Division Association dedicated a stone memorial at the stables’ front gate, where some of her bones were re-interred after being exhumed from the gravesite behind the stable office building. Finally, Reckless received a burial with full military honors.
“The spirit of Reckless is embodied in the proud carriage of ‘Dauntless’ (l) and ‘Chesty’ (r) offspring of the 1st MarDiv’s famous mascot, ‘Reckless.’ They are saddle horses at the Base stables where the 1st MarDiv Association will place a dedication marker at 10 am, Nov 20, in honor of the Mongolian mare which earned her position as Division mascot by carrying ammunition during combat in Korea. ‘Reckless’ lived out her remaining 19 years at Camp Pendleton’s stables and was buried there in May 1968.” Original photo caption from Pendleton Scout, Nov 19, 1971, 10. Photo courtesy of Debbie McCain
The black granite marker has a picture of Reckless wearing her parade blanket. A bronze plaque below it includes the following inscription:
In Memory of
R E C K L E S S
Pride of the Marines
KOREA
July 1949–May 1968
SSgt. U.S. Marine Corps, Recoilless Rifle Platoon, 5th Regiment
1ST MARINE DIVISION
The memorial headstone that sits at the entrance of the Stepp Stables at Camp Pendleton to this day. Nancy Latham Parkin
About 120 Marines and members of the association turned out for the ceremony. “This memorial that we dedicate today,” said Major General George S. Bowman Jr., the base commanding general, “will insure that others will know that the Marines value courage and devotion to duty and by knowing what we value, they will know who we are.”4
Moments later, he added, “She could have balked and refused to make those torturous trips up and down the hill. . . . A lesser animal would have done so.”5
A Fitting Eulogy and Tribute
Longtime Los Angeles television news anchor George Putnam gave the eulogy at the dedication ceremony. Two nights later, he told his KTTV evening news audience about the truly unique American heroine:
As a Marine and as a horseman, I am privileged to honor this magnificent mare.
Whenever horsemen gather, the discussion usually turns to which was the greatest horse of all. You’ll hear the names of Lexington, Man o’ War, Count Fleet and Swaps, among the thoroughbred owners.
And, if there’s a Standardbred enthusiast present, he’ll speak of Greyhound and Dan Patch.
If you’re an Army man, your horse served with the artillery—a wheel horse named Putnam.
But, if you’re a Marine and with the 1st Marine Division, then, for you, there’s only one. She was Reckless—Pride of the Marines.
She had the courage of a lion. She was shot through with determination. She was deep through the heart, as a good horse always is. And she took her name from the weapon she served—the Recoilless 75 millimeter cannon—the reckless rifle. . . .
And here it was, at these stables, that the magnificent mare enjoyed the rewards of a combat-tested Marine who’s come home from the war. She was treated royally. And her blazed face appeared at many public occasions. And this always brought donations to the scholarship fund.
Reckless produced four foals: Dauntless, Chesty—named for Chesty Puller—Fearless and an unnamed filly. So, she lives here today in these two fine offspring, Dauntless and Chesty.
Horsemen have a saying that a good horse should be deep through the heart. In addition to being a point of conformation, it provides stamina and courage. In every sense of the word, the brave mare Reckless was deep through the heart.
And so . . . we paid our respects to the gallant mare at the base stables and you never saw so much brass as gathered there in tribute . . . and looking down upon this scene from the pastures adjoining were broodmares and young foals, keenly alert that something was in progress.
I am sure that all of us who are gathered here—members and friends of the Corps—held the same affection for her as those who were privileged to fight beside her.
I am also sure that in the land of rewards that lies beyond, this chestnut mare with the handsome, blazed face and [three] white stockings, is mingling even now among the men of the Corps. And when there’s a load to be carried—when there’s ammo to be rushed up to the front—she’ll always be there to perform her tasks beyond the call of duty, in the spirit of ‘Semper Fidelis’: Always Faithful.
And now she is at rest. And where she is, the grass is tall and green. And the hillsides bright with flowers.
Sergeant Reckless—Pride of the Marines—is at rest.6
CHAPTER 14
A LEGACY LIVES ON . . .
Except for an occasional article or acknowledgment, after her 1968 death Reckless all but disappeared from public consciousness. The world simply had moved on; she was a forgotten hero from a forgotten war.
But all that has started to change. Two generations later, Reckless once again is getting her due.
On November 10, 1989, the Marine Corps’ 218th birthday, the first race at Aqueduct racetrack in New York was dubbed “The Sergeant Reckless,” thanks to the efforts of Charlie Murphy, a former Marine who worked at the track, and Bruce Lombardi, secretary of the New York Racing Association.1
Picture that appeared in Life magazine of Lt. Eric Pedersen and a young admirer. Nancy Latham Parkin and USMC History Division, Quantico, VA
Life magazine’s 1997 specia
l collector’s edition, “Celebrating Our Heroes,” offered a brief account of Reckless’s exploits and placed her in such heroic company as George Washington and Mother Teresa. Also in print, the July 2011 issue of Cowboys & Indians magazine, included a piece about Reckless by equestrian writer Elizabeth Kaye McCall.
Reckless began moseying her way back into the limelight. Thanks to the website www.SgtReckless.com and a dedicated Facebook page, Reckless is again receiving the appreciation she once enjoyed and rightfully continues to deserve.
Yet many modern Marines at Camp Pendleton still have not heard her story. Perhaps that will change with this book and other efforts to memorialize the greatest horse in the history of the Marine Corps.
A Model Horse
Breyer Animal Creations®, which makes and markets collectible models of celebrated equines, now is selling a beautiful, finely detailed, twelve-by-nine-inch rendering of Sergeant Reckless, clad in her red blanket, complete with staff sergeant chevrons, medals, and the prestigious French fourragère. A portion of each sale is donated to the Sergeant Reckless Memorial Fund, to help underwrite the cost of monuments honoring Reckless.
An Uphill Battle
One such monument can now be found at the National Museum of the Marine Corps and Heritage Center in Triangle (Quantico), Virginia. On July 26, 2013, the Corps unveiled a stunning bronze sculpture of the remarkable horse, titled “An Uphill Battle,” created by the artist Jocelyn Russell.
The dedication drew the Corps’ top brass, including the Commandant, General James Amos, and the Marines’ highest-ranking non-commissioned officer, Sergeant Major Micheal Barrett. “The President’s Own” Marine Corps Brass Band Quintet provided the music as the U.S. Marine Corps Color Guard marched into position carrying the Corps’ battle colors and the National Anthem was performed.
