George W. Hamilton, USMC

Book excerpt: In its list of the "Top 10 Badass Marines," Leatherneck magazine declared that Major George W. Hamilton "never asked anyone to do anything he wasn't prepared to do himself...and do better." Indeed, the author of A History of the United States Marine Corps once called Hamilton "the most outstanding Marine Corps hero in World War I." A leader of the first major American assault on June 6, 1918, and the last ranking officer in the American Expeditionary Forces to learn that the war was over, Hamilton remained in the thick of the fighting from start to finish. Although he earned the Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross, the Croix de Guerre, and two Medal of Honor recommendations for his service, Hamilton's fame stalled when he died prematurely in 1922. With this first complete biography, Hamilton takes his rightful place among the first rank of American military heroes.