If you’ve never head of Smedley Butler, you may want to read up on him. He served in the Marine Corps for 34 years, becoming the most decorated Marine of his time, with a list of award and decorations that included two Medals of Honor. In his later years, he became a fierce anti-war advocate, even penning a book titled. “War is a Racket.”
But his career (and life) was nearly cut short. When Smedley “Old Gimlet Eye” Butler was a young Marine officer, he took part in a mission in the Philippines and then China where he proved his mettle, even earning a brevet promotion to captain that was the closest thing to a Medal of Honor that Marine Corps officers could earn at the time.
Then, despite a wound to his right thigh, he took part in a march on Beijing, where a sniper nearly killed him. Butler survived thanks to a brass button on his uniform.
Smedley Butler in the Boxer Rebellion
Butler joined the Corps in 1898 to take part in the Spanish-American War, but arrived in Cuba too late to see action. Instead, his first operation came in The Philippines. He then reported to China to secure American interests during what became known as the Boxer Rebellion. The rebels called themselves, I Ho Chaun “The Fists of Righteous Harmony,” but Western media called them “Boxers.” No matter what you call thm, Beijing (then called “Peking”) was about to get a visit from the Marine Corps.
