5/27/2013 Memorial Day Message From Namazu

"RECKLESS", A MARINE CORPS HORSE

I hope this isn't taken with offense , but as Johnas says "Freedom Isn't Free". I just wanted to point out that it isn't always bipeds who bear the laod for freedom. Lets revisit the story of SGT. Reckless USMC

Click on the link below for a YouTube video on Reckless
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIo3ZfA9da0

Click on the link below for a Leatherneck Magazine description with photos of Reckless
http://www.mca-marines.org/leatherneck/sgt-reckless-combat-veteran

Click below to view and / or join the Sgt. Reckless Fan Club:
http://www.sgtreckless.com/Reckless/About_Reckless.html

Sgt. Reckless on an ammunition resupply mission In Korea

 The only animal stories we have carried up until we hired Namazu the Giant Catfish have involved dolphins and sharks. We are after all, a maritime blog, and not Zoo Story. But "Reckless" was a Marine Corps horse and the United States Marine Corps is a respected and even beloved member of the "Naval Establishment". Marines are in the family and the family had at least one horse of note. The story of "Reckless" is worth telling. 

 "Reckless" was a small horse purchased by the Marine Corps from a Korean race track during the Korean war. She was used to carry ammunition up to the battle front and she at least once carried wounded marines down. In one intense battle full of the kind of sights, sounds, and smells that would surely "spook" most any horse she stoically carried out about fifty pack trips to and from the heart of the battle.

 Other pack animals in the annals of war have performed similar acts of endurance and service. Most were severely traumatized by the environment and had to be forcefully led into the combat zone. What made "Reckless" unusual was that she repeatedly made trips into and out of the front lines she was supporting with no one leading her.  Click on the hyper link above for a short video on "Reckless", who survived her war time adventures to have a colt called "Fearless" both of whom became honored Marine Corps family members in life, while "Reckless" became an immortal Marine Corps legend.

                                                                                                                             
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