The Magnificent Bastards

Those who have had the good fortune to serve with the Second Battalion, Fourth Marines, refer to the unit lovingly as the "Magnificent Bastards." This chapter of Images from the Otherland covers the initial period that I spent with 2/4 starting in the fall of 1965. Sections of the chapter talk about the 2/4 base camp on the Chu Lai beach, as well as the position at Hill 69 on the perimeter of the enclave. Several memorable moments from Operation Double Eagle are described, including an ambush, receiving incoming from a U.S. Army artillery battery, and a mortar attack from a rather slow-witted VC unit.

The following passages are excerpted from the chapter.

"After several months as an FO, I was assigned to another battery, this time from the 12th Marine Regiment. Though I was still a first lieutenant, the transfer was a promotion: my new position was artillery liaison officer to the 2d Battalion, 4th Marines. The battalion was well known as the 'Magnificent Bastards.' (I have never learned the origins of the nickname, but somehow it seemed to fit. Perhaps the men of the unit were themselves changed by the name when they became part of it.) They were a very proud lot, and I felt humble in their presence. They were good, really good.

The men of my artillery liaison team had been with 2/4 for some time; most had been assigned to the 12th Marine Regiment in Okinawa and had served in support of 2/4 both there and in Vietnam. They were very familiar with the members of the unit and their individual accomplishments in battle. The men of 2/4 didn't feel the need to brag, but my liaison team let me know who had done what. The battalion had endured considerable combat. They had experienced and withstood significant casualties, and their men had earned an extraordinary number of awards for bravery. I looked up in admiration and awe at these people. There were several men who had won multiple awards; I don't recall any at the time that were higher than the Navy Cross, but I'm not an authority on that.

I had the sense that the Magnificent Bastards were professional men of war, and I felt that I didn't quite belong, that I didn't have the necessary credentials. It really wasn't until after Operation Texas that I felt comfortable in their presence."

". . .In the fall of 1965, the headquarters for the 2d Battalion, 4th Marines was down near the beach on the north side of the Chu Lai enclave. The entire coastal plain was nothing but one dune rolling on into another, but at least here the sand made some sense. The beach was wide and white, and it ended quite abruptly at a line of trees and scrub growth that I keep remembering as a sort of evergreen, a pine of the kind you might find along many of the coastlines in the United States.

Except in the rainy season, the sun pressed down on the place, and the beaches would shine light and bright. The ocean water would twinkle in the surf, and that cooling blue would extend smoothly to the sharply cut arc of the horizon. The view from the treeline was exquisite, the kind of thing photographers travel the world to capture. It was the dream vacation place on the glossy at the travel agency. But the beautiful woman, with the filmy cover-up and the broad-brimmed sun hat strolling the packed sand at the water edge was a little old woman in black pajamas and a conical coolie hat. And she shuffled along past the gaze of a few marine sentries. She wasn't supposed to be here; this was ours."