By @InfantryDort on X, active duty Army Major
Tortured Warrior XLIII: Smedley Butler
The Torment
Smedley Darlington Butler was the son of a Quaker family who believed in peace, yet he chose the path of war. Commissioned as a Marine at 17, he fought from the Boxer Rebellion in China to Nicaragua, Haiti, Mexico, and the trenches of World War I. Twice awarded the Medal of Honor, he became one of America’s most decorated warriors. But his torment was born not just in firefights, but in what those wars meant. He saw his Marines used again and again as muscle for bankers, corporations, and political power. Behind the medals and parades, he carried the gnawing knowledge that he had spent much of his life fighting not for liberty, but for profit.
The Breaking Point
Butler was blunt, outspoken, and impossible to cage. He embarrassed politicians and generals by speaking uncomfortable truths. In 1933, he exposed a conspiracy of powerful businessmen who tried to recruit him to lead a coup against President Roosevelt—the infamous “Business Plot.” Instead of joining them, he blew the whistle, testifying before Congress and saving the Republic from treachery. Yet in doing so, he made powerful enemies. The system that had decorated him as a hero now treated him as a nuisance. He was pushed into retirement, his uniform stripped away, his voice derided as dangerous.
The Transcendence
But Butler did not retreat. He used his scars as a weapon. He wrote War Is a Racket, condemning the profiteers who had sent men like him to kill and die for their balance sheets. He became one of the loudest voices warning Americans not to be seduced by the false glory of empire. Time has vindicated him. His words echo today, sharper than ever, a warning carved in the fire of his own torment.
The tortured warrior is not always destroyed by bullets. Sometimes he is destroyed by truth. Smedley Butler was a Marine’s Marine, scarred in battle and revered by his men. Yet he turned against the machine that had used him, proving that the deepest loyalty is not to war itself, but to the truth that outlives it.
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This one is written by @johnkonrad
Tortured Warrior: Leonard LaRue
The Torment
A devout Catholic from the tough streets of Philadelphia, Leonard LaRue entered the Pennsylvania Nautical School in 1934. He became a US Merchant Mariner and was forged in the seas of the Great Depression and WWII convoys where thousands of ships vanished in fire and silence. Many sailors quit after seeing war’s horror at sea. But he stayed and in 1950 was ordered by Douglas MacArthur to sail his Victory Ship straight into the besieged port of Hungnam, North Korea, to deliver life-saving humanitarian supplies. The chances of making the delivery were low. The chances of escape near impossible.
The Breaking Point
December 1950 he arrived and in the shadow of combat, tens of thousands of refugees crowded the docks, fleeing the Chinese advance. His ship had berths for 12 passengers. Before him stood 14,000 desperate souls. To take them was madness but Communists were killing, raping and torturing civilians so to refuse was inhumane. He gave the order to load every single one. In the freezing dark, every space filled: holds, decks, passageways. No heat, no food, no doctors, no sanitation facilities. The only weapon on board was a colt revolver LaRue carried in his pocket. A single torpedo, a single mine, and all would die. For three days, the Meredith Victory carried a human tide south through mined waters. LaRue paced his decks, refusing to sleep, a captain of an ark.
The Transcendence
On Christmas Day, 1950, the Meredith Victory reached Geoje Island. Not one soul was lost. Five more were born. Larue still holds the Guinness World Records ship rescue in history. It was a true miracle. For ten years the Pentagon refused to award him a medal and when they finally did in 1960 he had no uniform to pin it on for he had become Benedictine monk and spent the next half century devoted to the tradition of ora et labora—prayer and work—to thank God for guiding his hand to safety on that cold and dangerous voyage in 1950. But LaRue never claimed glory for himself, rather he gave all glory to God. The tortured warrior does not measure himself by odds or orders. He measures himself by the lives entrusted to him. Leonard LaRue bore 14,000 souls through fire and ice via sleepless determination, education skill and trust in the Lord.
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Tortured Warrior XLIV: Lieutenant Ted Macie @ted_macie
The Torment
Ted Macie began his career as a Navy Seabee, serving 13 years building, repairing, and fighting alongside the fleet. The construction battalions gave him grit and grounded him in the warrior culture of doing hard things with little praise. Later, he commissioned into the Medical Service Corps, taking on roles in health administration, manpower and supply, medevac coordination, legal officer duties, and public affairs. For two decades he poured himself into the mission. But his torment began when he discovered what others wanted buried: irregularities in the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED) and Defense Medical Surveillance System (DMSS). He saw spikes in myocarditis, cancers, and heart conditions — numbers too large to ignore.
The Breaking Point
He did what his oath demanded. He raised the alarm through his chain of command. He took the data to Congress. He presented it directly to the Chief of Naval Operations and the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy at an all-hands in October 2023, facing them in front of the entire base. Instead of correction, the hammer fell: retaliation, revoked access, investigations. He became a plaintiff in Bongiovani v. Austin, suing the Secretary of Defense to hold leadership accountable for the damage done to the force. And all the while, his wife Mara bore the weight at his side. Twice she put her own life on hold to run for Congress, giving a voice to service members who had been silenced. Her courage became his shield, their family’s fire, and proof that the warrior spirit is not bound by rank or even the uniform.
The Transcendence
Macie’s scars did not silence him. His testimony became part of the Congressional record, his data acknowledged even by those who tried to suppress it. He remained relentless in defense of truth, his fight amplifying the stories of those still trapped inside the machine. And behind him, Mara never wavered. Together they turned torment into testimony and sacrifice into purpose.
The tortured warrior is not always alone in his suffering. Sometimes the fight is carried by a family, by a wife who refuses to let betrayal have the final word. Ted and Mara Macie together prove that the warrior spirit extends beyond the battlefield and beyond the service — unbowed, unbroken, and unwilling to let silence win.
He and his wife @MaraMacie continue to fight for justice to this day.
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