Kentucky Marine: Major General Logan Feland and the Making of the Modern USMC

14. Returning Home

231 14 Returning Home After nearly two years in Nicaragua, Brigadier General Logan Feland returned Stateside to find that the Corps had changed dramatically. After eight years as Commandant, Major General John Lejeune had decided not to seek another four-year term. Consequently, on February 7, 1929, he announced that he would step down the day after Herbert Hoover was inaugurated as president in March. Wendell Neville’s appointment as the new Commandant was made public the next day, to no one’s great surprise . Then, toward the end of March, Lejeune surprised everyone and accepted a position as president of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI). Lejeune would officially retire from the Corps in November 1929.1 Feland seemed pleased that his old Fifth Regiment and Fourth Brigade commander had been chosen to succeed Lejeune. Just before leaving Nicaragua, Feland had written to James Harbord, noting that “the appointment of Neville to Major General Commandant was exactly what I wished and nobody was more pleased to congratulate him than I was.” He also mentioned that a major general’s slot would open up when Lejeune retired, and he hoped Harbord would once again assist him in seeking the position.2 Although their correspondence had been reasonably friendly during his time in Nicaragua, Feland would certainly not miss working with Lejeune, which he considered “hell.” Feland had found fault with several things Lejeune had or had not done during the Kentuckian’s command in Nicaragua. For example, the Commandant had barely mentioned Feland in an appearance before Congress to report on the Nicaraguan inspection trip in January 1928. Feland also believed that Lejeune had not defended Commandant Wendell Neville. Returning Home 233 the Marines vigorously enough against false charges of committing atrocities . Nor had he responded strongly when newspapers incorrectly reported that the Marines had lost a battle flag to the Sandinistas, a charge that insulted Feland’s brigade.3 In February there was rampant speculation as to how the generals would be moved around, given Lejeune’s decision not to seek another term as Commandant and the return of Smedley Butler and Logan Feland from abroad. Initial rumors had Lejeune going to the Department of the Pacific in San Francisco, Butler to Quantico, and Feland to the Assistant to the Commandant position or back to Parris Island. The latter prospect apparently made Feland very unhappy, but as of mid-March, that seemed the most likely posting for the general.4 Feland’s next assignment remained in limbo while he took leave and Neville wrestled with command assignments. Fortunately for Neville, Lejeune’s March announcement of his retirement meant there would be an opening as commanding general of the Department of the Pacific. As Commandant, Lejeune had created this post in San Francisco for George Barnett, who had refused to retire from the Corps after his removal as Commandant in 1920. Neville had replaced Barnett when he retired in 1923, and when Neville returned to Quantico in 1927, Eli Kelly Cole had succeeded him in San Francisco. Cole was in poor health and awaiting retirement when he died of a heart attack on July 4, 1929.5 Neville therefore had a position available for Feland as head of the Department of the Pacific. At the end of July the Felands moved to San Francisco and assumed their various official and social obligations. General Feland’s duties revolved around periodic visits to various Marine Corps outposts on the West Coast from San Diego to Bremerton, Washington. He inspected the Marine posts and dealt with assorted administrative matters. After nearly two years in Nicaragua, duty in San Francisco proved to be much more comfortable, if not so meaningful. In November 1929 Feland and Butler received their long-awaited temporary promotions to major general. Veteran Marine Corps officers John Twiggs “Handsome Jack” Myers and Robert “Hal” Dunlap became brigadier generals, assigned to Headquarters Marine Corps. Brigadier General Ben Fuller served as Assistant to the Commandant, while Brigadier General John Russell remained in Haiti as high commissioner. The other 234 KENTUCKY MARINE brigadier general, former Sixth Regiment commander Harry Lee, was in charge at Parris Island.6 As the Great Depression settled over the country, the Marine Corps struggled to maintain its strength and its good reputation. Unfortunately, bad publicity sometimes intervened. For example, in December 1929 a speech by the Marine Corps’s “stormy petrel,” Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, criticized the...