Walking Marine Sergeant

The Marine Corps has always said its sergeants are its backbone, and it means it. A Marine officer's authority came with his commission; a sergeant's came the hard way, from years in the ranks and, by 1943, from having already survived a campaign or two. He was the man who turned an officer's order into action, who knew every Marine in the squad and exactly what each could do, and who led from inside the fight rather than behind it. Squad and section leaders often carried the Thompson submachine gun for its close-range firepower — a leader's weapon. This walking sergeant, Thompson in hand, is the Corps' backbone on the move.

K&C sculpts the sergeant striding forward, the M1928 Thompson held across his body and an M1911 holstered at the hip, in regulation fatigues and a camouflage-covered M1 helmet. He is the squad leader in a Pacific diorama: taking his orders from the walking Marine officer, backed by the senior pointing "Gunny", and directing the fire of his squad's Marine with the BAR.

King & Country model USMC069. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.