| Like the old saying goes — if it walks like a duck and drinks like a duck… It must be a “Devil duck.” On Nov. 20, 1943, 18,000 Marines stormed the beaches of Betio, the largest and southernmost island in the Tarawa atoll. They endured withering fire, poured out by elite troops of the Japanese Imperial Navy’s Special Naval Landing Force. And amid that lethal hailstorm of mortars and machine gun and rifle fire that pinned the troops to the Tarawa beachheads was a hard-charging, winged and feathered “Marine.” Won in a raffle at a New Zealand pub by Sgt. Francis “Pappy” Fagan, the duck was given the rank of sergeant and named Siwash (a derogatory term for Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest) after Sgt. Jack “Siwash” Cornelius of Skagit County, Washington. Becoming the 2nd Marine Division’s unofficial mascot, the duck followed Fagan everywhere he went, developing a penchant for guzzling beer — just like her owner. “Siwash just can’t pass up a free drink” Fagan told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 1944. “A long one and a short one is her limit, but she doesn’t know it. She won’t touch draft beer though. And it’s got to be warm beer. The way it was in New Zealand.” The Devil duck was beloved by her troops, but it was her actions on Tarawa on the second day of the invasion that cemented her place in Marine Corps lore. By the end of the first day, the Marines had a tenuous hold on all three landing zones, designated Red 1, Red 2 and Red 3. From this precarious position, General Julian Smith radioed General Holland Smith that afternoon: “Successful landings on Beaches Red 2 and 3. Toehold on Red 1. The situation is in doubt.” Corralled onto the narrow beaches, no units had penetrated more than 70 yards inshore, and by nightfall, they feared being driven back into the sea. For the Devil duck, however, the situation was never in doubt. She reportedly locked eyes with a Japanese rooster and took the enemy encounter under her own wing. “The rooster didn’t have a chance,” Fagan later related to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Siwash whipped him and chased him 30 feet up the beach.” While there was initial talk among Marines of rewarding the duck with a Purple Heart, she was eventually cited for her bravery on that day, becoming the first, and perhaps the only duck in military history to be awarded thusly. |
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Devil Duck
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