There Was an Angel on Her Back

On March 26, 1953, nearly four months to the day that the Korean War armistice was signed, one of the bloodiest battles in Marine Corps history began: The Battle for Outpost Vegas.

Located in the strategically important “Iron Triangle,” a bitterly contested area along the DMZ, or MLR, Main Line of Resistance, Outpost Vegas was one of three pieces of high ground defended by First Marine Division in the closing stages of the war.

The Americans knew the outposts - the others being Reno and Carson - were prized possessions. The Chinese desperately wanted them. It was just a matter of time, most Marines felt, before communist forces launched an all-out assault.

A Bloody Crescendo

The attack came on the night of March 26, with over 3,500 Chinese troops storming the three outposts. Under withering machine gun fire and constant mortar and artillery barrages, the Marines struggled to defend their coveted positions. Andrew Geer, a Marine Lieutenant Colonel who would later write a book about the battle and one of its most famous Marines, described the horrific engagement as “a bloody crescendo seldom matched in warfare.”

After four days of non-stop attacks, counterattacks, hand-to-hand fighting, and massive air bombardments by First Marine Aircraft Wing, the battle ended. The Marines were in control of Vegas.

The Americans had fought valiantly, killing an estimated 1,300 enemy troops and effectively knocking out two Chinese battalions. But the victory had come at a high price. Over 250 Marines were dead or missing. Hundreds more were wounded.

Throughout the battle, one Marine in particular earned division-wide respect and admiration for incredible acts of selflessness and bravery. Sgt. Reckless, a member of 5th Marine’s Recoilless Rifle Platoon, braved constant enemy fire, carried numerous wounded from the battlefield,  earned two Purple Hearts, and on the worst day of the fighting, single-handedly transported nearly five tons of ammunition to the front lines - all on her back.

Sgt. Reckless was a horse, a Mongolian mare.

Sgt. Reckless with all four hooves off the ground. Remarkably, she quickly overcame her fear of loud battlefield explosions. (Photo credit: Command Museum, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego)

She Wasn’t A Horse - She Was A Marine!

Now remembered as the only animal to officially earn the title “Marine,” Sgt. Reckless saved countless lives during the epic encounter between the Americans and Chinese. Sgt. Harold Wadley, a Marine veteran of the battle, later said:

I never thought she would survive. I figured she’d end up dead. But there was an angel riding that little mare’s back every time she went up and down Vegas . . .

The men who served with Sgt. Reckless, the only combat decorated horse in Marine Corps history, loved her. Her unwavering perseverance and fearlessness in the heat of battle became legendary.

“Outpost Vegas broke the back of the enemy, and we give a lot of credit to Reckless,” a Marine Lieutenant said years later when interviewed for Sgt. Reckless: America’s War Horse, Robin Hutton’s definitive book about the Marine Corps’ most beloved mount.

Sgt. Reckless at a ceremony before leaving Korea. She was sent to Camp Pendleton, California, where she lived the rest of her life. She died on May 13, 1968, at the age of twenty. (Photo credit: Camp Pendleton Archives)

Today, thanks to Ms. Hutton’s New York Times best-selling book, the story of the four-legged Marine is being resurrected. Hutton’s website and Facebook page have thousands of followers, and her nationwide campaigns to place statues of Sgt. Reckless (later promoted to Staff Sgt. by the Commandant of the Marine Corps) at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia, and Camp Pendleton in San Diego, California, have been hugely successful.

Both sites now have dramatic bronze tributes to Sgt. Reckless. Most recently, on May 12, a Sgt. Reckless statue was unveiled at Kentucky Horse Park.

The remarkable acts of heroism and sacrifice made by Sgt. Reckless and the 5th Marines at Outpost Vegas in March 1953 are now being remembered. And the Marine Corps, the families of the fallen, and all those who fought in the Korean War are appreciative.

As General James F. Amos, the 35th Commandant of the Marine Corps, says in the forward to Hutton’s book, “I’m exceptionally grateful to Robin Hutton for keeping Reckless’s story alive. Due to her efforts, Sergeant Reckless will be forever remembered as one of the greatest war horses in history.”

Thank you, Robin, and thank you, Sgt. Reckless! Semper Fidelis!