Posted on Sep 21, 2025
The WWII Marine Who Convinced 800 Japanese to Surrender
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After a last-stand suicide attack by the Japanese failed, a U.S. Marine of Mexican descent—5-foot-4 and barely out of high school—pulled off a shocking feat: He single-handedly convinced some 800 enemy combatants, instilled with the code of “death before surrender,” to emerge from hiding and give themselves up. The audacious capture, widely considered the largest by a single soldier in U.S. history, earned 18-year-old Private Guy Gabaldon the nickname “the Pied Piper of Saipan.” He was later awarded a Navy Cross.
The WWII Marine Who Convinced 800 Japanese to Surrender
Posted from history.com
WWI
World History
Japan
Military History
Marines
Edited 3 mo ago
Posted 3 mo ago
Responses: 7
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Lt Col Charlie Brown He should have gotten a CMH for that one. Who knows how many lives he saved.
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This is why I find the new direction of the military towards overly bulked up and leaning towards toxic masculinity as problematic. I was in the lean and mean infantry. Being in the Infantry takes a lot of calories. The more bulked up the more calories it takes and the more weight the soldier is carrying. Also the larger the target.
You can look at the history and see plenty of smaller lighter weight soldiers that were highly effective on the battlefield. Big bulked up supposedly scary guys I don't know of any. A pissed off lean and mean smaller person with a weapon is a force to be reckoned with.
You can also see that in Audie Murphy.
What sells in WWF or the UFC means next to nothing on the battlefield. The exemption maybe if you end up in hand to hand combat. If you get to that point someone dropped the ball on re-supply. At that point how calorie depleted would those big tough guys be? That makes them highly vulnerable and a liability.
You can look at the history and see plenty of smaller lighter weight soldiers that were highly effective on the battlefield. Big bulked up supposedly scary guys I don't know of any. A pissed off lean and mean smaller person with a weapon is a force to be reckoned with.
You can also see that in Audie Murphy.
What sells in WWF or the UFC means next to nothing on the battlefield. The exemption maybe if you end up in hand to hand combat. If you get to that point someone dropped the ball on re-supply. At that point how calorie depleted would those big tough guys be? That makes them highly vulnerable and a liability.
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