A slender, 19-year-old marine reported for duty last week at the carpenter shop of Camp Pendleton, Calif. For one of the mightiest small fights in World War II, Pfc. Andrew Jackson ("Duke") Carter Jr. of Paducah, Tex. had only one mark to show; he had a deep red scar on his right hand.
In Mare Island Naval Hospital, 450 miles to the north, lay 22-year-old Sergeant William George Harrell, Carter's best friend and doughty ally in the fight. Sergeant Harrell had no hands.
The night they made Marine history, Carter and Harrell were riflemen of Company A of the 5th Division's...
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