“By God, he’s a Marine. He looks as if he must sleep at attention. You know I always have to tell ‘em to look mean and nasty out there marching, but I never had to tell him. He’s a natural.

And he never makes the same mistake twice.”

[On military history knowledge:] “Hell, he gives me inferiority complex. I’ve read some, but this kid knows von Clausewitz backwards—and guys I’ve never heard of, by the dozen.

He’s some kid. This stuff is like a religion with him.”

The noncoms admired Puller’s work on the bayonet field, where big signs read:

ADVANCE TO KILL