Introduction: In this article – for Veterans Day – Melissa Davenport Berry describes a very special Korean War veteran: a beloved horse who carried ammunition for Marines during some intense battles. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

Today I honor a special veteran, Sergeant Reckless, the Korean War mare who participated in the Battle for Outpost Vegas in March 1953.

In the photos below, we see: (clockwise, starting upper left) American flag; Sgt. Reckless with her primary trainer, U.S. Marine Sergeant Joseph Latham, holding her reins; Sgt. Reckless at Rotation Ceremony before leaving Korea for America, with PFC William Moore; Sgt. Reckless in action.

She was given the nickname “Reckless” by the boys because the Recoilless Rifle, for which she carried ammunition, was considered extremely dangerous and was referred to as the “reckless” rifle.

She was wounded twice and retired as a staff sergeant. She was awarded two Purple Hearts and LIFE magazine recognized her as one of “America’s 100 All-Time Heroes.”

Some of Sgt. Reckless’ stories are told by retired Marine Corps Sgt. John T. Meyers in this article published in the Seattle Times in 2012.

This article reports:

War is hell, but there is one aspect of the Korean War that John Meyers, a retired Marine Corps sergeant who lives in Upper Manhattan, remembers fondly every Veterans Day.

The memory is about one of his best war buddies – a popular sergeant who was decorated for battleground bravery. On Friday morning, Meyer pulled out a well-worn photograph he brought back from Korea of the sergeant grazing in a field.

“She was a heck of a work horse – she could carry 12 rounds of ammo,” he said. “She was a dependable, beautiful animal, and she was sociable.”

Meyers was speaking of Sgt. Reckless, a Mongolian mare who won two Purple Hearts and earned the rank of staff sergeant for carrying ammunition in battle.

Meyers was close to the horse, both on the battlefield, where he was a gunner, and also in the mess tent, where he often worked as a cook with the Fifth Marine Regiment Anti-Tank Company.

“I would feed her, so every time she’d see me, she’d trot over,” said Meyers, a retired shipping clerk. “I gave her an apple a day. She knew exactly where I slept and she’d come in the tent and lick my face to wake me up, so she could eat.”

Meyers recalled Reckless carrying heavy rounds for the powerful anti-tank guns the unit used, known as recoilless rifles.

“That gun had a heck of a blast, but it wouldn’t bother Reckless,” he said. “Any animals in the area would take off, but that horse would stay calm.”

She became well known in the 1950s as America’s greatest equine war hero, the subject of an article in the Saturday Evening Post that was published while she was still in Korea. It helped ignite a public outcry to get the Marine Corps to bring her to the United States.

“In the 1950s, Reckless was as popular as Rin Tin Tin and Lassie,” said Robin Hutton, an author from Ventura, Calif., who is writing a book on Reckless.

In 1955, the horse appeared on TV with Art Linkletter and made many other public appearances after the war, Hutton said. Plans to bring her to New York City for an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show were scuttled by a storm, and a planned film fell through, she said. Reckless soon drifted into obscurity.

Hutton helped gain support for a memorial to Reckless that is scheduled to open in July at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Va., near the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va. It will include a statue in Semper Fidelis Memorial Park next to the museum and an exhibition of items, including one of Reckless’ horseshoes and photographs.

Meyers said his unit fell in love with the horse, whom they treated “like one of the fellows.”

“You had guys feeding her everything – beer, soda,” he said.

Reckless’ biography is not entirely complete. The story goes that a Marine purchasing officer bought the horse from a Korean boy who needed money to buy his sister an artificial leg, according to a 1955 book, Reckless: Pride of the Marines, by Marine Lt. Col. Andrew Geer, a Marine commander who served with Reckless and wrote articles about her for the Saturday Evening Post in the 1950s.

[In his book, Geer described Sgt. Reckless braving flying bullets during one particularly fierce battle and continuing to carry ammunition and wounded soldiers even after being hit by shrapnel.]

Reckless is the only animal to ever hold an official rank in any military service, Hutton said.

Her two Purple Heart medals and a multitude of others were pinned to the scarlet and gold blanket she wore at appearances.

She was retired on Nov. 10, 1960, with full military honors. She lived at the stables at Camp Pendleton in California and died in 1968 at age 20.

Sgt. Reckless left descendants, as noted in this Press-Enterprise story featuring a photo of her beside G. M. “Jinx” McCain, who served as captain in the same unit. Alongside them is daughter Debbie holding the mare’s offspring Dauntless.

This photo caption reads:

Debbie McCain, whose father, G. M. “Jinx” McCain, left, served with the 5th Marine Division, in a 1957 photograph with Reckless, left, and offspring Dauntless. The dedication [of the Reckless statue] Wednesday marked 64 years to the day Reckless joined the Marine Corps.

Here is a photo of one of the four foals Reckless gave birth to over time.

Debbie McCain was present when Reckless died. The Press-Enterprise article reports:

Seeing Reckless’ statue brought back a flood of memories to Debbie McCain. Her father, Col. G. M. “Jinx” McCain, served as a captain with Reckless in Korea.

At 6 years old, Debbie McCain wanted nothing more than to meet the mare she had heard so much about. When her father was transferred to Camp Pendleton, her dream came true.

“We got out here and the first thing we did was go to the stables and visit Reckless,” McCain, 67, said following the [statue unveiling] ceremony.

McCain, of Fallbrook, spent every weekend with Reckless, then at the base stables at Camp Pendleton.

“I brushed her, put ribbons on her and loved her,” she said. “When I had my birthday, my mother made one cake for me and one for Reckless.”

Later, as a teen, McCain was back at Camp Pendleton. Her father had been wounded in the Vietnam War and was recovering on base.

Between her visits with him, McCain would go to the stables to see Reckless.

“Whenever she saw me, she’d nicker and come running over,” McCain said.

McCain was there May 13, 1968, when Reckless, 20, died after getting a severe infection.

“She was down and the vet was working on her,” she said. “I went and said ‘goodbye.’

“She gave her whole life to the Marines. When they bought Reckless, history was made and a Marine was born. If it hadn’t been for her, there’s literally a generation of families that wouldn’t be here today. All because of a little horse.”

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Note on the header image: Sergeant Reckless, a highly decorated U.S. Marine Corps artillery horse in the Korean War, pictured beside a 75mm recoilless rifle, between c. 1952-1955. Credit: Andrew Geer or another member of the United States Marine Corps; Wikimedia Commons.