Ever since I was first introduced to the Internet, which quickly resulted in my obtaining my own website--seven years or so now--it has been my intention to gather information on the legendary "Lou" Diamond, the master mortarman of the Marine Corps. This has not been a easy task. No book has been written on him,  and this seems strange considering the legendary character of this Marine. Many authors have all too  briefly mentioned him in their writings, and many authors do indeed make note of him, but information is rather sketchy.

There is a good biography on him from the Marine Corps Historical Center that I obtained back in 1997 and posted to my webpages, and that has now become widely circulated. But that is limited to officially recorded data, newspaper clippings, etc. Ideally, I would like to have first person testimonies from those who were there and who served with and knew Lou Diamond.

I have therefore made it a point to make it known via my webpages, e-mail, etc., that I would like to contact old-time Marines themselves with first hand knowledge of M/GySgt Leland Diamond, USMC. There too I have met with very limited success.

Those I have heard from have been mostly WW II Marines who had gone through boot camp at Parris Island when Diamond was an instructor there in the last year of the war, e,g., see Tom Dowlearn's Story, on Gunny G's... Of course, most of these had a "recruit-to-god" relationship, and a brief one at that; therefore their remembrances of him were as might be expected. Many of these, and others too, had a less than sterling view of this Marine, and some expressing such opinions of him requested they not be named or quoted in anything I might write concerning Diamond.

And, I have received some information on him via those who knew of him, or knew others who knew him, and this information I have retained and selectively posted to my sites in one form or another.

More than one of my correspondents who had crossed paths with Diamond remarked that he had been the victim of his ire resulting in a non-gentle "kick in the ass." Among the few questions regarding Diamond that I have received as a result of my webpages on him, is the foremost question as to why he was allowed to wear a goatee. This I cannot answer,  I assume it was not permitted by Marine Corps regulations at that time, and I invite factual responses from viewers on this, and other information as well. As can be seen from the few first-hand accounts on this webpage, personal opinions on Diamond vary somewhat from one Marine to another. Lou Diamond was a product of the Old Corps, and he was one of  the "Old Breed" of the 1st Marine Division in the early days of the road back in the Pacific. Few Marines became a legend as did Lou Diamond.

It has been a long time in coming, but recently, I did meet a WW II Marine who  both knew and served with Lou Diamond. That Marine is Fred Hyden of the American Legion, Post #69 in Avon Park, Florida. Fred was a Pfc in the same battalion as Lou, at New River, N.C. in 1941, and at Guadalcanal in 1942, and Australia, etc. Lou Diamond was the mortar chief of H-2-5, and Fred was a mortarman in G-2-5.

Fred says that, in those days, the mortars (60mm and 81mm) were frequently employed together with the mortars from several, or all, companies within the battalion, under one command; thus, Fred was often in contact with Diamond on a daily basis, both in training and combat. Fred was present during the ocassion from which the legend arose regarding Diamond having lobbed a mortar down the smokestack of a Japanese ship off Guadalcanal.

Fred proudly told me he regarded Lou Diamond as one of the real heroes of the Corps. And his bond with the man stemmed from the mutual high regard Diamond had for his men, and, likewise, the men for their leader. Loyalty works up, down, and laterally, as I have quoted Chesty Puller having pointed out. Fred recalls Diamond returning to Australia, falling out for the parade wearing his dungarees to receive his award from the General. Diamond was told, Fred says, that the Marine Corps wished Diamond to return to the U.S. to train new Marines, where his extensive experience and knowledge was needed most.

I mentioned to Fred, that back during my own days in the Corps (1952-72) I had heard of Diamond raising chickens behind his quarters at Quantico--just one of the numerous stories about the man in my boot days in the Corps. Fred responded that Diamond loved animals, and always had them around.

Above all, Fred emphasized that Diamond always "took care of his men." And that he was only hard on those Marines who needed it. He also mentioned that he thought that Diamond had a hand in the designing of the new (new in 1942) Marine HBT dungarees (utilty uniform to today's Marines). Between the world wars, Diamond had been assigned duties in Philadelphia on a project to design a new pack/782 gear; but I had not heard this one regarding his involvement w/the dungaree uniform.

My thanks to Fred  Hyden for his input regarding Lou Diamond
--Dick Gaines

---