The actual events on Samar seem far less than heroic in retrospect, and (then) Major Waller's most notable achievement seems to have been getting a column so thoroughly lost in the jungle that a fair number of them died of disease and hunger, then summarily executing their local porters... but I suppose the construction of a legend needn't be hampered by actual events.
I heard a rumor somewhere that when John Glenn got into space he saw the words "Ken White Was Here" hanging inexplicably in the void, and that NASA had to cover up that detail....
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