CHUIE, THE MAJOR

The story of Arthur H. Turner,

a Hero of Belleau Wood and Soissons,

and a Marine in and Out of War

Sensing greater opportunity in America, the eighth son of an English merchant emigrated to the booming coal mining town of Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania in the 1880s and established a successful importing and retail foodstuffs business there. His son, Arthur, grew up in relative privilege, attending a local private school, then Princeton and MIT, emerging with a degree in civil engineering.

Driven to help his country’s allies survive and win what was becoming World War I, Arthur abandoned a bright future in American industry and joined the Marine Corps as an officer and served two years aboard warships in the Caribbean. Frustrated by his country’s reluctance to enter the war in Europe, he resigned from the Marines and unsuccessfully attempted to join the French and British militaries.

Rejoining the USMC nearly two years later, and the same month the U.S. finally joined the Allies in the war, Arthur–‘Chuie’ to his close relatives–helped build the Marine contingent of the American Expeditionary Force in Quantico Virginia, was promoted to Captain, and was the founding adjutant (second in command) of the First Battalion, Sixth Marine regiment–the 1/6.

Newly-married Captain Turner sailed to France in late 1917. After six months training and front line trench duty, Captain Turner and the 1/6 helped lead the charges at the pivotal and savage battles that turned the tide and would lead to the War’s end four months later. At Belleau Wood, the battalion helped take the Wood from top German forces, with Captain Turner receiving the Silver Star and French Croix de Guerre medals for valor. At Soissons a month later, while attacking across a wheat field, he lost a leg to a German artillery shell and was awarded another Silver Star and Croix de Guerre, as well as the Legion of Honor, France’s highest decoration, for bravery and gallantry.

Following six months of recovery–and with a new, wooden leg–Chuie embarked on a 20-year Marine Corps career as a court martial judge advocate in New York, Haiti, and Washington, enduring the depression years and earning promotion to the rank of Major.

He retired in 1937, and he and wife Dorothy followed their twin sons to their high school and college locations, before Arthur served again during World War II as a Marine on the General Court Martial at the burgeoning Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Finally adopting a quiet retirement in their Brooklyn apartment for nearly 25 years after WW II, Chuie learned to live with total blindness, the result of a decades-long, self-inflicted nutritional deficiency.

This story lays out the turn of events, life decisions, and dominant role of the military in shaping Arthur Turner’s world and his life’s journey.