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gunnyg
12-01-02, 09:27 AM
U.S. Army BGen. Commands Marine Brigade, Wears Marine Corps Emblems!
by Dick G (Login Dick Gaines)
Forum Owner

The following from the book, The United States Marines A History, by Edwin Howard Simmons, Naval Institute Press, 1998, pages 96 & 102....

(9 May)
"Pershing was mercilessly thinning the ranks of senior officers he considered too old or infirm for field command. Brigadier General Doyen was one of the casualties. He was ivalided home and replaced by a Pershing favorite, Army Brig. Gen. James Harbord. Harbord had been Pershing's chief of staff and he had gone from major to brigadier general in a year. Col. Buck Neville, now the commander of the 5th Marines and far senior to Harbord at the war's beginning, had every reason to think that he should have been given command of the brigade.

On Harbord's arrival, when Neville handed him a pair of Marine Corps emblems, it was half a greeting, half a challenge. Harbord promptly put them on his collar...On 29 July, Harbord was detached to take over the AEF's troubled Service of Supply, and Lejeune, in an Army concession to Marine sensibilities, moved up to command of the 2d Division. Neville, soon to be promoted to brigadier general, resumed command of the brigade."