SERGEANT RECKLESS

the Real Warhorse

by Robin L. Hutton

Who was Sergeant Reckless?

What made this small, red Mongolian mare the greatest warhorse hero in American history?  Why would LIFE Magazine’s 1997 Collector’s Edition entitled “Celebrating our Heroes” list this little horse alongside such notable heroes as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King and John Wayne? 

  Reckless’ heroic story began during the Korean War on October 26, 1952: a war fought in the most horrible conditions; freezing cold winters and impossible mountain terrain.  Lt. Eric Pedersen, Commanding Officer of the 5th Marines Anti-Tank Division, Recoilless Rifle Platoon, bought the mare from a young Korean boy for $250 because he needed an ammunitions carrier to carry the heavy artillery up the steep mountains where jeeps could not travel.

 The little mare became an American icon in 1954 when a story ran in the Saturday Evening Post that detailed her heroics during the Korean War: heroics so great that she was officially promoted to the rank of Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps, an honor never before, or since, bestowed upon an animal.

  The Marines named her “Reckless” after the Recoilless Rifle. This gun was so dangerous it was known as the ‘reckless’ rifle …“partly from a contraction of its true name and partly from the fact that one has to be a little on the reckless side to associate with such a weapon.”   

  Standing at only 14.1 hands and weighing in at 900 lbs., Reckless would carry ammunition rounds weighing twenty-four pounds each.  She would carry six rounds per load and, sometimes, up to ten rounds of ammunition for the rifle. Most carriers could only handle two to three rounds a trip.  Reckless was not phased by any of it and seemed to know this manuever was her duty. 

Platoon Sergeant Joseph Latham was in charge of putting her through “hoof” camp. Reckless had an incredible intelligence and understood her position in the platoon. Her dedication to her missions was uncanny. Latham found that Reckless only needed to be shown something once or twice – like getting down in the bunker when incoming shells hit, or stepping over communication and barbed wires – and then she knew it.  She was led across open rice paddies up treacherous mountain terrain from the Ammunition Supply Point to the guns on the front line. After that, she would make the trip back and forth by herself courageously.  

“I took her up near the guns,” Latham said, “checked the pack-straps to make sure the ammo would ride securely, and pointed her in the direction of the gun.  From then on she worked like a charm.”

 Colonel Lew Walt, Commander of the 5th Marines, had devised a series of daylight raids against the Chinese in the hopes of capturing prisoners and gaining intelligence on the enemy. 

“RaidTex” took place on January 31, 1953, north of an area known as OutpostBerlin.  This would be the first time that Reckless would carry ammunition from daybreak to sunset.  Reckless made close to 15 trips from the Ammunition Supply Point to the firing line, and carried more than 2,000 pounds of explosives on her back. 

 The next raid was “Operation Charlie” on February 25, 1953, a raid led to reclaim Outpost Detroit, which has been lost to the enemy in October 1952.  This would prove to be Reckless’ most difficult assignment to date.  Carrying six rounds of ammunition a trip, she made twenty-four trips back and forth to the firing sites.  This totaled 144 rounds of ammunition, 3,500 pounds, and an estimated distance of over 20 miles up and down the mountainous terrain.  She was exhausted by the end of the day as she walked back to her bunker with her comrades in battle.  After a bucket of warm bran mash, and a good rubdown by Lt. Pedersen, Latham, and PFC Monroe Coleman (another one of her handlers), Reckless was asleep before they left the pasture.

 Yet her finest hour was still to come – the Battle for Outpost Vegas in March of 1953. 

  At the time of this battle it was written that, “The savagery of the battle for the so-called Nevada Complex has never been equaled in Marine Corps history.”  This particular battle “was to bring a cannonading and bombing seldom experienced in warfare.  Twenty-eight tons of bombs and hundreds of the largest shells turned the crest of Vegas into smoking, death-pocked rubble.” Reckless was right there, in the middle of all of it. 

  Enemy soldiers could see her as she made her way across the deadly “no man’s land” rice paddies and up the steep 45-degree mountain trails that led to the firing sites.  “It’s difficult to describe the elation and the boost in morale that little white-faced mare gave Marines as she outfoxed the enemy bringing vitally needed ammunition up the mountain,” recalled Sgt. Maj. James E. Bobbitt.

Sgt. Harold Wadley, a Demolition Specialist (Sapper) and Anti-tank Assault with Able Company, Third Battalion, 5th  Marines, along with two other Marines, Cpl. Allen Kelley and Lt. Milton Drummond, blew out the man-made protective caves for the wounded on Reno and Vegas.  Wadley was one of only two men who made if off  Outpost Vegas alive before the attack began.  The other was Pvt. James A. Larkin, an artilleryman who was part of a forward observer team responsible for directing artillery support.  Wadley remembers the day as if it were yesterday.  “The battle was indescribable.  It was horrific.  I still don’t know how that mare lived through it.” Cpl. Chuck Batherson watched Reckless through binoculars, “She was getting hailed all over the place and she was jumping all around.” 

 Reckless would make the trip up the hill carrying her rounds of ammunition and on the return trip, she would carry out the wounded. “They would tie a wounded Marine across her packsaddle,” Wadley said, “and she would carry them out of there with all of the artillery and mortars coming in.  The Marines down at the bottom would unload the wounded off her and tie gun ammo on her, and she would turn right around, on her own, and head right back up to the guns.  She was always moving and unforgettable in that skyline in the flare light.”

 On one trip, Reckless shielded four Marines who were going up to the front line.  They threw their flak jackets over her for protection, risking their own lives.  “You talk of the Fourth of July!” recalled Wadley.  “The rounds were coming in and going out so fast a lot of them would collide mid-air over us.  The rounds were hitting each other up there and causing aerial bursts.  The counter mortar radar team that tracks the incoming rounds so they can return the fire said there were so many rounds it just blurred their screen device and they couldn’t tell anything except it was all coming in their direction.”

Reckless never stopped.  She kept the guns so well supplied that one of them crystallized and was forced out of commission.  “I can still remember the flare light and seeing that little Mongolian mare heading up that slope without anybody leading her and going up to that gun pit,” Wadley said.  “There was an angel riding that little mare’s back every time she went up and down Vegas.  No doubt about it.”

During this five-day battle, Reckless made 51 trips, in a single day! She carried 386 rounds of ammunition, over 9,000 pounds, walked over 35 miles through rice paddies and up steep mountains with enemy fire coming in at the rate of 500 rounds per minute. 

Reckless was wounded twice, but that did not stop her or slow her down. What Reckless did in this battle earned her the respect of all that served with her and she was promoted to Sergeant, a monumental first in history.  

 When the Marines went on Reserve, so did Reckless.  She would carry things like grenades, rations, sleeping bags, and small arms ammunition.  She also helped string communication wire with strapped wire to her pack and walked along the hillside to lay it down as she walked.  “She could string more wire in one day than ten Marines,” one reviewer would write.

 Not only did Reckless’ heroics endear her to the Marines but her unique personality and sense of humor captured the heart and soul of the entire nation as well.  As legendary as she was for her bravery and courage, her appetite became even more legendary.  Reckless had a voracious appetite.  She would eat anything and everything including scrambled eggs and pancakes with her morning cup of coffee.  She loved cake, Hershey bars, candy, and Coca Cola.  But her very favorite thing was sharing a beer with her Marines after a hard day’s work.

After the war was over, there was a national outcry to bring her “home” to the United States.   She finally arrived in November 1954.  Her arrival created such fan-fair on theSan Francisco docks that one veteran reporter observed, “She has more cameras and reporters to meet her than Vice-President Nixon had a week ago when he came to town.”

Reckless was stationed at Camp Pendleton and there were standing orders never to put anything on her back other than her blanket, and if she outranked a Marine, that Marine could not give her orders.  She had three colts:  Fearless (1957), Dauntless (1959), and Chesty (1964), plus a little filly that died at a month old from unknown causes.  All of her offspring are buried in the Rodeo Grounds at Camp Pendleton.

 She was promoted twice to Staff Sergeant during this time. Commanding Officer of the 5th Marines, Col. Richard Rothwell, conducted the ceremony on June 15, 1957.  “There was a full regimental parade and she was presented her promotion at the parade,” Col. Rothwell remembered fondly. 

 Her final promotion came when the rank structure changed and two new pay grades were added, therefore qualifying Reckless for another promotion.  On August 31, 1959, Commandant Randolph McCall Pate did the honors, which included a 19-gun salute and a parade of 1,700 Marines that marched in formation in Reckless’ honor.  Her two colts, Fearless, and Dauntless, were both in attendance.

 Her Military Decorations included two Purple Hearts, Good Conduct Medal, Presidential Unit Citation with Star, National Defense Service Medal, Korean Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal, and Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation, all of which she wore proudly on her red and gold blanket.  On November 10, 1960, Sgt. Reckless retired.  In lieu of retirement pay, she was provided with food and shelter at CampPendleton, according to Marine Corps documents. 

 Sadly, on May 13, 1968 Reckless passed away after severely injuring herself on a barbed wire fence.  She was 20 years old.   A headstone still stands in her memory at the entrance of the Stepp Stables atCampPendleton.  While there is the memorial headstone atCampPendleton, Reckless is actually buried in an unmarked grave behind the stables office building.  Plans are in the works for a national memorial statue to be placed at, or near, the Korean War Memorial inWashington,DC, as well as a life-size statue atCampPendleton. 

Robert “Doc” Rogerssaid it best:  “May her memory live as long as we have the Marine Corps.”

 To learn more about Reckless, The Sgt. Reckless Memorial Fund, and how you can help, please visit www.SgtReckless.com   Click here for her fan club on Facebook.  Click here to view the YouTube video, or go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIo3ZfA9da0.  

  E-mail SgtReckless@yahoo.com