Lloyd,

The following from "MARINE!: The Life of Chesty Puller" by Burke Davis:

On October 10 Puller went with Homer Litzenberg and Ray Murray to dine at the headquarters of General Almond at X Corps. Lewis was staggered by the display of luxury and wrote his wife in detail:

[The Army staffs live better than ours. An excellent salad with fresh lettuce, tomatoes, celery, spring onions with good mayon­naise; soup; roast beef, mashed potatoes, biscuits, butter; apple pie, coffee. Drinks, of any kind, before the meal, which was served in courses.]

He wrote of the fine china and linen and silver and white ­uniformed soldiers who waited on the table. After dinner Puller fell into a conversation with the operations officer:

"How big is your staff, General?"

"Well over three thousand." Puller wrote of it to Virginia:

[Imagine! Enough men to form an additional infantry regiment! If we become involved with Russia, our Army must change its ways and in a hurry, or else we will go down in defeat. This is not my way of fighting a battle, and if I had authority I would change such things in less than 24 hours. Our country and our leaders had better wake up, and that in a hurry. May God protect us if we do not!
Before this meal, for 26 days I had food out of a can, almost entirely. If you wanted it hot you had to build a fire under the can. I will always remember my dead and cripples and those of other units either buried or evacuated. . . .]