{"id":192604,"date":"2026-08-23T16:24:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T21:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/digest\/?p=185101"},"modified":"2026-08-23T18:16:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T23:16:59","slug":"smedley-butler-marine-medal-of-honor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/smedley-butler-marine-medal-of-honor\/","title":{"rendered":"Smedley Butler: The Marine Who Earned Two Medals of Honor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/span>Estimated reading time: <\/span>11<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Major General Smedley Butler collected two Medals of Honor, fought across the globe, battled corruption at home, and later claimed powerful businessmen wanted him at the center of an American coup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"John

American movie icon John Wayne likely would not have been nearly so successful had he gone by his given name of Marion. Public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Before Smedley Butler, Let\u2019s Talk About Names<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My name is Willis. I might have preferred William, but I didn\u2019t pick it. Mine is a family name. As such things go, it certainly could be worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many famous individuals, particularly actors, often choose a new name if their original names seem insufficiently photogenic. John Wayne entered the world as Marion Robert Morrison. Cary Grant was born Archibald Leach. Michael Caine was Maurice Joseph Micklewhite. Charlie Sheen was Carlos Irwin Estevez. Comedian Jonah Hill was originally Jonah Feldstein. Vin Diesel began life as Mark Sinclair. Diesel changed his name at age seventeen when he became a professional bouncer at a fashionable New York nightclub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are countless examples. Famed British actress Helen Mirren was originally Ilyena Lydia Vasilievna Mironov. Olivia Wilde was Olivia Jane Cockburn before she became enamored with the playwright Oscar Wilde. Natalie Portman was Natalie Hershlag, but changed her name in a failed effort at protecting her privacy. Caryn Elaine Johnson had such a problem with passing gas that her coworkers called her \u201cWhoopi Cushion.\u201d When her show business career began to take off, she adopted Whoopi Goldberg because somebody told her that folks with Jewish-sounding names did better in Hollywood. Apparently, it worked. She\u2019s worth $60 million today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Major
Major General Smedley Darlington Butler had a pretty goofy name, but he was one seriously manly man. Public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The point is simply that some names can make surviving Second Grade pretty tough. Despite having been saddled with an objectively awkward moniker, Smedley Darlington Butler went on to do some pretty amazing things. Butler was one of only two Marines in American history to have been awarded the Medal of Honor twice for two different combat engagements. In 1933, he was also tagged to lead a military coup to overthrow President Franklin Roosevelt. That effort kind of fizzled, but Smedley Butler was nonetheless a simply fascinating guy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smedley Butler Before the Legend: A Quaker Goes to War<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Smedley Butler was born on 30 July 1881, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He was the oldest of three sons born to Quaker parents. Butler was an accomplished athlete in High School, serving as captain of his baseball team and quarterback on the gridiron. He quit school 38 days before his 17th<\/sup> birthday to enlist in the US Marine Corps. His dad was livid, but the young man was terrified he might miss the Spanish-American War. The administrators at his High School had mercy on him and granted him a diploma anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Young
Like so many young men of his generation, Smedley Butler was prepared to do whatever it took to go to war. In this case, the young Quaker just lied about his age. Public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Smedley\u2019s dad served in the US House of Representatives for 31 years. He was chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee under Presidents Harding and Coolidge. Having your dad managing the Marine Corps budget likely didn\u2019t hurt the young Jarhead\u2019s career prospects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The younger Butler lied about his age and was granted a direct commission as a Marine officer. He arrived in Cuba just after the war ended. Butler piddled about the Marine Corps for another year but then mustered out. However, with the Philippine-American War now heating up, the young officer turned around and donned his uniform yet again, this time as a First Lieutenant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the Philippines to the Boxer Rebellion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Like many true warriors, Smedley Butler did not handle boredom well. When not in action, he drank excessively. He once got drunk and was relieved of command. However, in October of 1899, Butler led 300 Marines to seize the town of Noveleta in the Philippines. Though he briefly panicked when his First Sergeant was hit, Butler regained his composure and led his Marines to rout the enemy. Once the carnage abated in the Philippines, Butler headed to China to put down the Boxer Rebellion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Battle
There was a time when America looked to its military rather than Hollywood when it needed heroes. Smedley Butler’s combat exploits eventually made it into the papers. Public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During the Battle of Tientsin in the summer of 1900, Lieutenant Butler was shot through the thigh while rescuing a wounded Marine. Despite the grievous nature of his injury, Butler went on to help evacuate several of his troops under fire. Four enlisted Marines earned the Medal of Honor in this engagement, but Marine officers were, at that time, not eligible for the award. However, Butler was granted the Marine Corps Brevet Medal, which also included a promotion to Captain. He was one of only twenty Marines in the history of the Corps to be so recognized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Old Gimlet Eye and the Bloody Banana Wars<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Having now tasted proper combat, Captain Butler just couldn\u2019t get enough. He fought across Central America and the Caribbean in what has since come to be called the Banana Wars. Even though Butler and his Marines were protecting American business interests, they still no doubt faced some profoundly fierce combat. Losing Marines in support of the United Fruit Company and similar corporate concerns made a deep and lasting impression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Smedley
Smedley Butler served alongside some legendarily hard men. He is second from the right on the front. Public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 1903, Butler took a detachment of Marines into Trujillo, Honduras, looking for trouble. Their primary mission was to secure the American consulate there. In a subsequent letter home, he said that he and his Marines were \u201cPrepared to land and shoot everybody and everything that was breaking the peace.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They landed amidst a 55-hour ongoing firefight between rebels and government forces. They found the American consul hiding in the rafters of the consulate, wrapped in an American flag. Once they got clear of the town with the American diplomat in tow, the opposing forces resumed killing each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Smedley
Here we see Smedley Butler on the far right. He is sitting next to Lieutenant General John Archer Lejeune. Perhaps that name sounds familiar. Something in the water, maybe? Public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At some point in all this traipsing about the jungle, Smedley Butler contracted a variety of bizarre tropical diseases. While rescuing the American consul, Butler was feverish with something or other and had sunken red eyes. His men began calling him \u201cOld Gimlet Eye.\u201d A gimlet is either a cocktail made with gin and lime or a small tool designed to bore holes in wood. This was one of several respectful, though unsettling monikers bestowed upon him by his troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vera Cruz and Smedley Butler\u2019s First Medal of Honor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Butler subsequently fought all over South and Central America. He once led his battalion to relieve a besieged city on the island of Grenada while running a 104-degree fever. In April of 1914, he led his troops in an assault on Vera Cruz, Mexico. The fight roiled across the city and ultimately cost American forces 17 dead and 63 wounded. Along the way, Smedley Butler earned the Medal of Honor. His citation reads in part, \u201cFor distinguished conduct in battle, engagement of Vera Cruz, 22 April 1914. Major Butler was eminent and conspicuous in command of his battalion. He exhibited courage and skill in leading his men through the action of the 22d and in the final occupation of the city.\u201d The rules had obviously been changed by then to allow officers to earn the rarefied decoration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haiti and Smedley Butler\u2019s Second Medal of Honor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Six months later, Smedley Butler invaded Haiti. He first arrived in the lawless area around Fort Dipitie with 44 Marines. They were ambushed by a force of 400 indigenous Cacos and, surrounded, fought them off all night long. The following morning, Butler organized an infantry charge that repelled the enemy forces in disarray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Smedley
Now here’s something you don’t see every day. This is Smedley Butler’s chest salad. Note the matching Medal of Honor ribbons on the top. Famed General George Patton once opined, “I’d give my immortal soul for that little blue ribbon.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On 17 November 1915, Butler led an ad hoc battalion of Marines and sailors in an infiltration of Fort Rivi\u00e8re. The subsequent combat was hand-to-hand and pitiless. When they took the fort, 50 Haitians were dead, and Smedley Butler had earned his second Medal of Honor. Here\u2019s the citation: \u201cFor extraordinary heroism in action as Commanding Officer of detachments from the 5th, 13th, 23d Companies and the Marine and sailor detachment from the U.S.S. Connecticut, Major Butler led the attack on Fort Rivi\u00e8re, Haiti, 17 November 1915. Following a concentrated drive, several different detachments of Marines gradually closed in on the old French bastion fort to cut off all avenues of retreat for the Cacos. Reaching the fort on the southern side where there was a small opening in the wall, Major Butler gave the signal to attack, and Marines from the 15th Company poured through the breach, engaged the Cacos, took the bastion, and crushed the Cacos resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

World War I Passed Him By, but Smedley Butler Kept Fighting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Butler was not granted a combat command during World War 1. There were several reasons for this, some political and others practical. Along the way, he had developed a reputation for erratic behavior. Butler subsequently came home to command the Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Major

After he left the military, Smedley Butler occupied himself speaking out against American adventurism. Public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From Marine General to Philadelphia\u2019s Crime Fighter<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This was a different time. In 1924, W. Freeland Kendrick had been elected mayor of Philadelphia and faced a city awash in Prohibition-driven corruption. President Calvin Coolidge therefore released General Butler to serve as the city\u2019s Director of Public Safety in charge of both fire and police forces. Butler reassigned his police officers to unfamiliar precincts to upset the inevitable protection rackets he knew to be active. In his first two days on the job, Butler\u2019s cops raided 900 illegal liquor clubs. He was quoted as having told his officers, \u201cI don’t believe there is a single bandit notch on a policeman’s gun in this city; go out and get some.\u201d I wonder how that might go over today….<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Business Plot: Smedley Butler\u2019s Strangest Battle<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Butler eventually retired and became an outspoken critic of war profiteering. In November of 1934, Butler claimed that there was a plot afoot led by prominent American businessmen to field a 500,000-man army of military veterans and march on Washington, depose FDR, and install MG Butler as dictator. Along the way, Butler named names. The alleged conspirators dismissed the claims as bluff and bluster, but subsequent evidence came to light that lent credence to the plot. Regardless, Butler\u2019s testimony before a House committee drove those behind it back into the shadows. Historians now call this sordid episode the Business Plot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Brigadier
MG Smedley Butler lived hard, and he died hard. He was a legendary Marine. Public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Fighting Quaker\u2019s Final Years and Legacy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Major General Butler finally retired to Newton Township, Pennsylvania, with his wife. In 1940, he fell ill and was found to be suffering from what was likely stomach cancer. He had a drinking history, and videos I tracked down in preparing this article sounded like he was a smoker as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Smedley
MG Butler also liked his baseball. Public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Fighting Quaker,\u201d also known as \u201cOld Gimlet Eye,\u201d succumbed to his disease in June of 1940. He was 58 years old. A real \u201cBreak Glass in Case of War\u201d Marine, Smedley Butler was indeed a Leatherneck\u2019s Leatherneck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Major General Smedley Butler collected two Medals of Honor, fought across the globe, battled corruption at home, and later claimed powerful businessmen wanted him at the center of an American coup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":254967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_specdata_upc":"","_specdata_placement":"manual","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,772],"tags":[102,636,4659],"featured":[],"hunt365":[],"class_list":["post-192604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gunsamerica-authors","category-will-dabbs","tag-feature-articles","tag-history","tag-smedley-butler"],"yoast_head":"\nSmedley Butler\u2019s Incredible Marine Corps Story<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two Medals of Honor, brutal campaigns, and an alleged coup plot. 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However, shooting guns and claiming it was work seemed like a pretty sweet hustle. As a result, Will serendipitously transformed an avocation into a vocation. Raised in the Mississippi Delta, Will flew UH1H, OH58A\\\/C, CH47D and AH1S helicopters operationally as an Army Aviator. He is SCUBA-qualified and has parachuted out of perfectly good airplanes at 3 o'clock in the morning. Will has summited Mount McKinley, Alaska, six times\u2026always at the controls of an Army helicopter, which is the only way sensible folk climb mountains. Will has delivered sixty babies and occasionally wrung human blood out of his socks. He is married to his high school sweetheart and has three awesome adult children. 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