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8 The Meuse-Argonne Capt. Kirt Green had his work cut out for him. His predecessor, Captain Powers, had let down the tired young men of the 80th Company assembled around him. The rank and file disdained two key leaders, Lieutenant Skoda and First Sergeant Dean, as cronies of the battalion commander and members of a cabal of prewar regulars. Even as Green looked into the expectant faces of his men, Powers was engaged in finger-pointing correspondence with Lieutenants Hopke and Ehrhart, two decorated platoon commanders who had risen from the ranks. The 80th was not a happy company. This was Green’s first command, and it had been a long time coming. Green had enlisted in 1905, and his lengthy record was far from spotless. A summary court-martial had convicted him of being AWOL for six days. In Panama he had incurred more infractions for fighting, neglecting duties, and missing class at NCO school. Nonetheless , someone recognized leadership potential in him, for he had been promoted to sergeant in 1908 (the same year he married a young Irish girl from County Mayo) and three years later was accepted into Marine Officer School at Parris Island. Green was a keen student of military history and the American Civil War in particular, but when it came to his routine duties, he apparently had trouble meeting the school’s strict standards. He incurred two minor infractions in as many months and was consequently dropped from the officer course. Over the next six years, Green bounced from marine barracks to sea duty. Despite his past difficulties, his innate leadership ability helped him ascend the ranks to sergeant major. When the declaration of war brought a scramble to expand the officer ranks, the Marine Corps dusted off Green’s file, concluded that the thirty-year-old sergeant major was not such a bad fellow after all, and commissioned him a second lieutenant in April 1917.1 Now, a year and a half later, Green was undeniably a lifer, untested in battle, and standing in front of a company of battle-weary veterans who had come to regard career men with suspicion and even scorn. If the new captain was intimidated by the situation, he hid it well. 182 To the Limit of Endurance Green’s brief remarks were upbeat, to the point, and well received by the rank and file. He told the men that he had never before been at the front, but he was proud to be in the 80th Company and would try his best to give the men proper leadership—and by the way, General Lejeune had authorized furloughs to the nearby town of Chalons for a few men each day. The bit about furloughs won over the “lads.” There were still a lot of miseries a private in the 80th Company could wallow in if he chose, but now there was the prospect of getting away from it all for a day and a night; this new Captain Green did not seem like a bad sort. The men began to bounce back. It was not long before “everyone in the company loved Captain Green,” recalled Sergeant Paradis.2 Green was not the only untested regular officer joining the battalion . Maj. Clyde Metcalf relieved Captain Collier as the battalion second in command. Thus far the major’s wartime experience was limited to guarding enemy prisoners and training replacements. Thin, studious, and acerbic looking, Metcalf would later become chief historian of the Marine Corps. Collier took command of the 79th Company.3 Sellers and Cates, both now captains despite less than eighteen months of service, retained their companies. Most NCOs in 2/6 now had just as little time in uniform as these new captains. Smallunit leadership heretofore had been a consistent hallmark of the battalion’s successes. Thus far, 2/6 had plucked standout wartime volunteers from the ranks to fill its NCO vacancies. The quality of marine replacements restocking Lejeune’s battalions immediately after Blanc Mont portended that fewer natural leaders would emerge in the months to come. Many of the newcomers who joined 2/6 seemed to lack the spirit and physical constitution of their predecessors. “They are naturally green and inexperienced,” Cates wrote home. “But they will soon learn, as they will be mixed up with old men.”4 Some of these “old men” were returning NCOs who had recovered from their wounds. Sgts. Victor Sparks and Melvin Krulewitch and...

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