20 Facts About SLA Marshall

SLA Marshall served with the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I, before becoming a journalist, specialising in military affairs.

SLA Marshall officially retired in 1960 but acted as an unofficial advisor and historian during the Vietnam War.

In total, Marshall wrote over 30 books, including Pork Chop Hill: The American Fighting Man in Action, later made into a film of the same name, as well as The Vietnam Primer, co-authored by Colonel David H Hackworth.

SLA Marshall was raised in Colorado and California, where he briefly worked as a child actor for Essanay Studios; his family relocated to El Paso, Texas, where he attended high school.

SLA Marshall was married three times, first to Ruth Elstner, with whom he had a son before divorcing; his second wife, Edith Ives Westervelt, died in 1953 and he had three daughters with his third wife, Catherine Finnerty.

SLA Marshall died in El Paso on December 17,1977, and was buried at Fort Bliss National Cemetery, Section A, Grave 124.

SLA Marshall enlisted in the US Army on November 28,1917, joining the 315th Engineer Battalion, part of the 90th Infantry Division.

Shortly after the Armistice, SLA Marshall was selected to take the entrance examinations for the United States Military Academy, part of an initiative to promote exceptional soldiers from the ranks.

SLA Marshall subsequently attended Officer Candidate School, was commissioned in early 1919, and remained in France to assist with post-war demobilization.

SLA Marshall would gather surviving members of a front line unit and debrief them as a group on their combat experiences of a day or two before.

SLA Marshall later claimed he did so to resolve a dispute over who had been responsible for holding off a number of Japanese counter-attacks.

For example, SLA Marshall found that for various reasons tanks called in to support infantry often withdrew even when their help was still required; to overcome this problem, they were made subordinate to the local infantry commander for the duration of the action.

SLA Marshall argued civilian norms against taking life were so strong many conscripts could not bring themselves to kill, even at the risk of their own lives, and suggested changes in training that would increase the percentage willing to engage the enemy with direct fire.

Many were incorporated by the US military; SLA Marshall reported far more men fired weapons during the Vietnam War.

The Army Chief of Military History's representative on the tour, Colonel David H Hackworth, collected his own observations from the trip and published them as The Vietnam Primer, with Marshall credited as co-author.

SLA Marshall argued significant parts of Marshall's service record were not substantiated by independent evidence, including his claim to have been the youngest commissioned officer in the US Army or to have commanded troops in combat.

SLA Marshall analyzed his grandfather's WWI service, using official army records and personal letters written during the Meuse-Argonne offensive.

SLA Marshall discovered a scrapbook compiled by his grandfather and dedicated to a colleague in the 315th killed in action on November 8,1918.

John SLA Marshall ultimately concluded the vast majority of his grandfather's wartime experiences were independently verified by his service record and any exaggerations were minor and did not undermine the validity of his later work.

Engen suggests SLA Marshall's work led combat psychologists to identify the act of killing as a major factor in PTSD, not just an individual's personal experience under fire or the deaths of their comrades.