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thedrifter
12-26-08, 08:11 PM
Honoring Chesty
Statue planned for legendary general
By Dan Lamothe - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Dec 26, 2008 6:13:46 EST

Lt. Gen. John Lejeune, get ready. You’ve got company coming outside the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

A group of retired Marines plans to erect an 11-foot high, 14,000-pound monument to the late Lt. Gen. Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller in Semper Fidelis Memorial Park, not far from the Lejeune monument already on the museum’s grounds near Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va.

The design, approved by the Corps in September, features a 6-foot bronze statue of the famed general wearing binoculars and a helmet while holding his trademark smoking pipe. An anonymous radioman crouches by his side.

The monument depicts Puller during the World War II era, said former Lance Cpl. Terry Jones, the sculptor selected to craft it. Palm trees common in the Pacific, where Puller led Marines in epic battles, were included in an early sketch but scrapped so the monument won’t be associated with just one war, said retired 1st Sgt. Jim Barnett, who is spearheading the campaign to raise money for the monument. So far, his group has raised about $20,000 of the $260,000 it needs.

“It kind of fits with what he was wearing in the World War II campaigns and the Korea campaign, where he did such a good job pulling out of the [Chosin] Reservoir,” Barnett said.

The monument’s 5-foot high granite base will memorialize Puller with several plaques, including one engraved with a saying introduced to Marines in boot camp: “Goodnight Chesty, wherever you are.”

For more information, visit http://www.seagoingmarines.com/ChestyPuller/CPuller.htm.

Ellie