Quote Originally Posted by Polarbear1605 View Post
Major General Littleton "Tony" Waller Tazewell Waller (September 26, 1856 – July 13, 1926). Hero of Samar, Marine messes would stand whenever a "Samar battalion" officer was present and toast, "Stand, gentlemen, he served on Samar." I wish one of these little smily faces was a salute.
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....