General
Victor H. Krulak
Small
Wars Jounral
https://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/lieutenant-general-victor-h-krulak-updated
LIEUTENANT
GENERAL VICTOR H. KRULAK (UPDATED)
Tue,
01/13/2009
Via
the Los Angeles Times - Lieutenant General Victor H.
Krulak dies at 95.
"Retired
Marine Lt. Gen. Victor H. "Brute" Krulak, celebrated for his
leadership in World War II, Korea and Vietnam and for his authoritative book on
the Marines, "First To Fight," died Monday at Scripps Memorial
Hospital La Jolla. He was 95 and had been in declining health for several
years."
"In
a career that spanned three decades Krulak displayed bravery during combat and
brilliance as a tactician and organizer of troops..."
More at
the International Herald Tribune and San Diego Union Tribune.
Lt. Gen.
Krulak's official USMC biography:
Lieutenant
General Victor H. Krulak, a "paramarine" during World War II, was
born in Denver, CO, January 7, 1913. He was commissioned a Marine second
lieutenant upon graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy, May 31, 1934. His early
Marine Corps service included: sea duty aboard USS ARIZONA, an assignment at
the U.S. Naval Academy; duty with the 6th Marines in San Diego and the 4th
Marines in China (1937-39); completion of the Junior School, Quantico, VA
(1940); and an assignment with the 1st Marine Brigade, FMF, later the 1st
Marine Division.
At the
outbreak of World War II, he was a captain serving as aide to the Commanding
General, Amphibious Corps, Atlantic Fleet, General Holland M. Smith. He
volunteered for parachute training and on completing training was ordered to
the Pacific area as commander of the 2d Parachute Battalion, 1st Marine
Amphibious Corps. He went into action at Vella Lavella with the 2d New Zealand
Brigade.
As a
lieutenant colonel in the fall of 1943, he earned the Navy Cross and the Purple
Heart Medal on Choiseul Island, where his battalion staged a week-long
diversionary raid to cover the Bougainville invasion. Later, he joined the
newly formed 6th Marine Division and took part in the Okinawa campaign and the
surrender of Japanese forces in the China area, earning the Legion of Merit
with Combat "V" and the Bronze Star Medal.
After
the war, he returned to the United States and served as Assistant Director of
the Senior School at Quantico, and, later, as Regimental Commander of the 5th
Marines at Camp Pendleton. He was serving as Assistant Chief of Staff, G-3,
Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, when the Korean Conflict erupted, and subsequently
served in Korea as Chief of Staff, 1st Marine Division, earning a second Legion
of Merit with Combat "V" and Air Medal.
From
1951 to 1955, he served at HQMC as Secretary of the General Staff, then
rejoined Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, as Chief of Staff. In July 1956, he was
promoted to brigadier general and designated Assistant Commander, 3d Marine
Division on Okinawa. From 1957 to 1959, he served as Director, Marine Corps
Educational Center, Quantico. He was promoted to major general in November
1959, and the following month assumed command of the Marine Corps Recruit
Depot, San Diego.
General
Krulak was presented a third Legion of Merit by General Maxwell D. Taylor,
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for exceptionally meritorious service
from 1962 to 1964 as Special Assistant for Counter Insurgency Activities,
Organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. On March 1, 1964, he was designated
Commanding General, Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, and promoted to lieutenant
general.
For the
next four years he was responsible for all Fleet Marine Force units in the
Pacific, including some 54 trips to the Vietnam theater. He retired on 1 June
1968, receiving a Distinguished Service Medal for his performance during that
period.
Rest in
peace General Krulak and our condolences to the family and friends of this
great Marine.
Please
see A New Kind
of War written by Lt. Gen. Krulak.
Serving
in the Joint Staff as the focal point in counterinsurgency operations and
training, I went to Vietnam eight times between 1962 and 1964. In those early
years, I learned something of the complex nature of the conflict there. The
problem of seeking out and destroying guerrillas was easy enough to comprehend,
but winning the loyalty of the people, why it was so important and how to do
it, took longer to understand. Several meetings with Sir Robert Thompson, who
contributed so much to the British victory over the guerrillas in Malaya,
established a set of basic counterinsurgency principles in my mind. Thompson
said, "The peoples' trust is primary. It will come hard because they are
fearful and suspicious. Protection is the most important thing you can bring
them. After that comes health. And, after that, many things--land, prosperity,
education, and privacy to name a few."
Victor
H. Krulak, Marine Behind U.S. Landing Craft, Dies at 95
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/obituaries/05krulak.html
Jan. 4,
2009
Lt. Gen.
Victor H. Krulak, a highly decorated Marine commander who championed innovative
tactics in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, died Dec. 29 in San Diego. He was
95.
His
death was announced by his son Gen. Charles C. Krulak, the Marine commandant
from 1995 to 1999.
When he
attended the Naval Academy, he was nicknamed Brute by his fellow midshipmen, a
wry reference to the fact that he was only 5 feet 4 and weighed 120 pounds or
so.
But
General Krulak became a renowned figure in the Marines. He helped develop the
landing craft that carried troops, vehicles and supplies onto the invasion
beaches of World War II. He received the Navy Cross, the Marines’ highest award
for valor after the Medal of Honor, for his exploits against the Japanese. He
told of the corps’ history and ethos in his book “First to Fight” (1984).
Victor
Harold Krulak, a native of Denver, joined the Marines after graduating from
Annapolis in 1934.
In 1937,
while a lieutenant in an intelligence outfit in Shanghai, when the Japanese
were trying to conquer China, he used a telephoto lens to take pictures of
Japanese landing craft with a square bow that became a retractable ramp,
enabling troops and equipment to be dispatched quickly onto an enemy beach.
Envisioning
those ramps as answering the Marines’ needs in a looming world war, Lieutenant
Krulak showed the photographs to his superiors, who passed on his report to
Washington. But two years later, he found that the Navy had simply filed it
away with a notation saying it was the work of “some nut out in China.”
He
persevered, building a balsa wood model of the Japanese boat design and
discussing the retractable ramp concept with the New Orleans boat builder
Andrew Higgins. That bow design became the basis for the thousands of Higgins
landing craft of World War II.
“There would not have been a Normandy or an
Okinawa or an Iwo Jima without that boat,” his son Charles said in an interview
on Sunday.
Lt. Gen.
Victor H. Krulak
In the
fall of 1943, General Krulak, a lieutenant colonel at the time, commanded a
battalion in a diversionary raid on Choiseul Island in the Solomons that
enabled a larger Marine contingent to capture the more important island of
Bougainville. Although wounded, he continued to lead his marines in battle,
bringing him the Navy Cross. Some of his wounded men were evacuated by a Navy
torpedo boat skippered by Lt. John F. Kennedy.
In the
late 1940s, General Krulak helped pioneer the use of helicopters to carry
marines and supplies into battle, a maneuver employed in the Korean War, when
he was chief of staff of the First Marine Division.
When
Kennedy became president, General Krulak reminded him of their meeting on
Choiseul. He presented Kennedy with a bottle of whiskey, something he had
promised him for his rescue work back in 1943 but never had a chance to
deliver. In 1962, Kennedy named General Krulak the counterinsurgency adviser to
the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
During
the Vietnam War’s early stages, General Krulak expressed optimism over the
prospects for American and South Vietnamese success. But in the mid-1960s, when
he commanded all marines in the Pacific, he opposed the strategy pursued by
Gen. William C. Westmoreland, the overall American commander in Vietnam.
General
Westmoreland proposed the use of marines in large-scale battles. General Krulak
wanted to emphasize pacification, the effort to win over the South Vietnamese
villagers by assisting in economic projects and protecting them from the enemy.
He also advocated the bombing and mining of Haiphong’s harbor to cut off
supplies to North Vietnam. He met with President Lyndon B. Johnson in mid-1966
to press those ideas, but, as General Krulak later put it, “as soon as he heard
me speak of mining and unrestrained bombing of the ports, Mr. Johnson got to
his feet, put his arm around my shoulder, and propelled me firmly toward the
door.”
General
Krulak retired from the Marines in 1968. He settled in the San Diego area and
became an executive and writer for the Copley Newspapers.
In
addition to his son Charles, he is survived by his sons Victor Jr. and William;
four grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren. His wife, Amy, died in 2001.
In a
speech to the Marine Corps Association in 2007, Defense Secretary Robert M.
Gates told of the young marine lieutenant of the late 1930s who pursued his
ideas for an innovative landing craft after being written off as a “nut.” Mr.
Gates said that “Victor Krulak’s story and accomplishments” provided lessons in
“overcoming conventional wisdom and bureaucratic obstacles.”
In his
history of the Marines, General Krulak expressed concern over an
“all-encompassing military bureaucracy” that “represents a more formidable
battlefield than many the corps has known.”
“The
marines,” he wrote, “are an assemblage of warriors, nothing more.”
Correction: Jan.
8, 2009
A
picture on Monday with an obituary about Lt. Gen. Victor H. Krulak, a Marine
commander who championed innovative tactics, was published in error in some
copies. It showed General Krulak’s son, Gen. Charles C. Krulak, retired
commandant of the Marine Corps, wearing four stars and a billed hat. The
correct picture showed his father wearing three stars and a soft cap.
Correction: Jan.
9, 2009
A
picture on Monday with an obituary about Lt. Gen. Victor H. Krulak, a Marine
commander who championed innovative tactics, was published in error in some
copies, and a correction in this space on Thursday described the picture
incorrectly. It showed General Krulak’s son, Gen. Charles C. Krulak, retired
commandant of the Marine Corps, wearing four stars, the highest rank —
not five — and a billed hat. (The correct
picture showed his father wearing three stars and a soft cap.)
No comments:
Post a Comment