Patriot,
On August 14, 1900, a young Marine was ordered to secure a position during the Boxer Rebellion in Peking, China.
The Marine, Dan Daly, a former paperboy from Long Island, stood at 5'6" and weighed just 134 pounds. He wasn't an imposing figure at all.
But Dan Daly had the fighting spirit of a giant.
He was left alone with a simple order to hold a crumbling fort wall overnight.
As night fell, hordes of Boxers attacked Daly’s position within the intent to overrun and invade the military base. With just one man defending the position, the enemy thought the task would be easy.
But they underestimated the fighting spirit of one American from the streets of New York.
Over the night, wave after wave of Chinese advanced on Daly.
Despite being alone, Daly honored his order. He didn’t retreat, he didn’t hide, and he certainly didn’t back down, Dan Daly fought!
When the sun rose, Daly looked down from his position to see the bodies of 200 Boxers whose last decision on earth was to challenge a United States Marine.
Seventeen years later, during World War 1, a string of defeated French soldiers were limping away from a wheat field in France.
The field surrounded what was known as Belleau Wood, a rock-filled forest entrenched with 5 German Divisions and their machine guns.
The French had attempted to take the forest but were raked by German guns when they stepped into the open field.
As the French were marching out, the Marines were marching in.
With fear in their eyes, the retreating French warned the Marines to retreat, that they would all be killed.
When a French soldier told Marine Captain Lloyd Williams and his men to turn around, he replied, “Retreat? Hell, we just got here!”
The Marines advanced through the waist-high wheat field, and among them was Sgt. Dan Daly, by then a recipient of TWO Medals of Honor with nothing more to prove.
The first wave of Marines were slaughtered. Still, they continued with Daly motivating his men with the famous cry, "Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?"
They fought their way into the woods, and for the next 19 days, the Marines fought the Germans without relief.
Exhausted and low on food and ammunition, the Marines ran through the woods, bare-chested with fixed-bayonets. As they fought, they growled and barked like dogs from hell to terrify and drive out the disciplined German soldiers.
And on June 26, 1917, an American Major radioed in to report, “Woods now U.S. Marine Corps entirely.”
Following the battle, the French renamed Belleau Wood, “Wood of the Marine Brigade.”
The Germans also awarded the Marines a name after the battle . . . “Teufel Hunden" or as Marines are known today, "Devil Dogs."
And the paperboy from Long Island? Dan Daly survived the battle. He was recommended for a third Medal of Honor for his displays of bravery in France, but officials felt it was too much to give one man three medals.
Dan Daly exemplifies the American fighting spirit that flows through every soldier, sailor, airman, and Marine.
That fighting spirit is the reason why you and I can sleep well at night, knowing that we’re not just safe, but our enemies lay awake, wide-eyed, fearing the growl of our Devil Dogs.
And may God have mercy on any enemy that crosses American soil, as 18.8 million veterans are alive today. Please thank one of them today.
Happy Veteran’s Day,
Laura Loomer
P.S. If you served in our Armed Forces, thank you so much for your sacrifice for us. You have my eternal respect and gratitude.
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