Leatherneck Warrior

General Lemuel C. Shepherd Jr.

Richard D. Camp

• Publisher: Casemate
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781636245072
• Edition: 0
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Leadership
• Index: History

"Retired Marine Colonel Camp presents an excellent biography of the twentieth commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps... Camp has a "just the facts" style that keeps the action moving. Leatherneck Warrior is a concise look at a marine whose life touched many important points in modern American military history." — Booklist Hero of Belleau Wood, Lemuel Shepherd was the living embodiment of a Marine Corps legend, for Belleau Wood was synonymous with Marine valor and sacrifice. At the age of just 22, after early graduation from Virginia Military Institute following the United States' entry into World War I, Lemuel Shepherd was made a platoon commander in the 5th Regiment of Marines. His first challenge was to help screen and organize the many recruits needed to convert the company up to war strength. Within just a couple of weeks of reporting for duty, he was on a ship bound for Europe. He would participate in the Aisne-Marne offensive, facing machine guns at the famous battle of Belleau Wood, receiving the DSC and Navy Cross for his gallantry. There he was twice wounded. He returned to the front in August, seeing action in the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives, being wounded for the third time. His career in the Marine Corps continued after the war, encompassing time as aide-de-camp to the commandant of the Marine Corps, duty in China and Haiti, and a period on the staff of Marine Corps Schools, Quantico. After the US entered World War II, Shepherd took command of the 9th Marine Regiment, training it and leading it overseas. Promoted to brigade command in July 1943, he served on Guadalcanal, then as assistant division commander in the Cape Gloucester operation. In May 1944, he assumed command of the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade and led them in the invasion and recapture of Guam. Finally, he commanded the 6th Marine Division through the battle of Okinawa, for which he received a Gold Star. He would command all Marines in the Pacific during the Korean War, and then in 1952 he was appointed as the 20th Commandant of the Marine Corps, introducing a number of important policies that increased military proficiency for the corps. This new biography utilizes Shepherd's oral history, a wide range of archival records from the Marine Corps History Division and the Virginia Military Institute, and a personal interview conducted by the author with General Shepherd in the 1980s, to give a fuller picture of the consummate "Leatherneck."

Table of contents

• Leatherneck Warrior
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Prelude
• Chapter 1 Molding the Man, February 1896–April 1917
• Chapter 2 Developing the Warrior, September 1916–May 1917
• Chapter 3 First to Fight, June 1917
• Chapter 4 Je Suis Américain, July–September 1917
• Chapter 5 The Blooding, March–May 1918
• Chapter 6 Bois de la Brigade de Marine (Belleau Wood), May 31–June 5, 1918
• Chapter 7 Wounded in Action, June 1918
• Chapter 8 Saint-Mihiel All-American Offensive, September 10–16, 1918
• Chapter 9 Blanc Mont (White Mountain), October 1–9, 1918
• Chapter 10 Streets of New York, August 1919
• Chapter 11 Mapping Belleau Wood, September 1919–December 1920
• Chapter 12 Interwar Years, 1920–1943
• Chapter 13 Striking Ninth, 1943–1944
• Chapter 14 The Green Inferno, January 1944
• Chapter 15 1st Marine Brigade, Operation Stevedore, July–August 1944
• Chapter 16 6th Marine Division, Operation Iceberg, 1 April–21 June 1945
• Chapter 17 North China, September–December 1945
• Chapter 18 Assistant Commandant, March 1946–April 1948
• Chapter 19 Battle of the Potomac, May 1948
• Chapter 20 Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, June 1950
• Chapter 21 The Great Gamble, September 15, 1950
• Chapter 22 Attack of General Winter, November 1950
• chapter 23 20th Commandant of the Marine Corps, January 1952–January 1956
• Chapter 24 Retirement, January 1, 1956
• Appendix A Military Background
• Appendix B Military Decorations
• Endnotes
• Bibliography
• Index