Quotation: "a marine and his rifle"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Not in YBQ - as far as I can tell.

38,000 raw Googlits for the phrase "The deadliest weapon in the world is a
U.S. Marine and his rifle," attributed to AEF commander Gen. John J.
Pershing in 1918. There are, of course, a number of variant wordings.

Every U.S. Marine since WWII has been exposed to this quote.

The earliest ex. I can find is in a news item apparently based on a Marine
Corps press release:

1942 _Paris (Texas) News*_ (*April 5) 47:  Creed of Marine and His Rifle
Written By Officer ... When the reports on the battles of Chateau Thierry
and Belleau Wood came into A.E.F. headquarters at Chaumont, France, back in
1918, officers reported General Pershing said, "The deadliest weapon in the
world is a United States Marine and his rifle."

The immediate source of the quote may have been Brig. Gen. William H.
Rupertus, Commander of the San Diego Marine Base and author of the "Creed."


My search of the Web, Google Books, Newspaperarchive, and ProQuest failed to
reveal either an earlier appearance of the remark or any definitive
connection to Gen. Pershing.

An Internet search also failed to reveal whether Rupertus (a lieutenant
during World War I) was stationed at Pershing's headquarters in 1918, where
he might have heard (about) the remark himself.

38,000 is a lot.

JL

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