T
his is the amazing story of a horse the entire Marine Corp fell in love
with. This little, chestnut mare served in the Korean War with the US Marines and retired at Camp Pendleton, California as Staff Sergeant Reckless. However, her life did not start out with the Marines and no one in the beginning ever considered her a real war horse. The true story of “Sgt Reckless” is not only remarkable – it is unusual! Once
you learn about her, you will fall in love with her too and see why the entire Marine Corps not only fell in love with her, but honored her and promoted her every chance they got. Eventually even Washington, DC took notice and she was memorialized by a HUGE bronze statue at the National Museum of the Marine Corps. Originally a race horse names Morning Flame, she was owned by a young
Korean man named Kim Huk Moon. When Kim’s older sister, Chung Soon, lost her leg in a land mine accident, the family was forced to sell their only as- set…this horse. At the same time, the Recoilless Rifle Platoon of the 5th Marines were look-
ing for a horse to carry ammunition to the front lines. They bought the mare for $250.00 of their own
money..not the US goverment’s. The men of the platoon named her “Reckless” since that was what the recoilless rifles she would carry were called. The men trained her to carry “stuff” and taught her to remain calm during battle. She became a mascot of sorts that the men truly loved and cared for, an
emotional war diversion. She wandered the camp freely and did silly thing like eat their hats or sticking her head inside their tents or walked inside some of the bigger tents to stay warm by the stove, occasionally she laid down and slept there. They fed her barley, sorghum and hay but she was much fonder of the Hershey bars, Coco Cola and beer they would give her. Her breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, shredded wheat and coffee. Just for fun she would nibble on blankets, poker chips or any other yummy goodies she might encounter in her wandering. But there was also a WAR going on and Reckless was trained to become
serious and brave for it. The highlight of her military career came in late March 1953 during fighting around Outpost Vegas Hill when, in a single day, she made 51 solo trips from the Ammunition Supply Point to the front lines to resupply multiple front line units. She carried 9000 pounds of ammunition rounds dur- ing those trips and crossed the “no man’s land,” several rice patties and climbed the steep mountains while rifle fire, machine guns and bombs made horrible noise. Most times she was alone, without a soldier on her route. She was wounded in combat twice when she was hit by shrapnel over the left
eye and another time on her left flank, given the battlefield rank of Corporal in 1953, and then a battlefield promotion to Sergeant in 1954. She also became the first horse in the Marine Corps known to have participated in an amphibi- ous landing. At the end of the war and it was time for the Marines to come home, they
didn’t know what to do with Reckless but they refused to leave her behind. There was NO Marine Corp money to bring her home too, but after an article in the Saturday Evening Post, a commercial cargo line offered to ship her to California for free. She arrived in San Francisco on November 10, 1954 to a big crowd of people
for, an emotional war diversion. She wandered the camp freely and did silly thing like eat their hats or sticking her head inside their tents or walked inside some of the bigger tents to stay warm by the stove, occasionally she laid down and slept there.
She became a mascot of sorts that the men truly loved and cared
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