More than 40 million Americans have served in the U.S. military during wartime. Only 3500 have been awarded the Medal of Honor. Of these, three have received the medal twice. One was recommended for it a third time. Marine Corps Sergeant Major Daniel J. Daly was an unlikely hero at five feet, six inches tall and 132 pounds. What he lacked in size he made up for in grit. He received his first Medal of Honor for single-handedly holding off enemy attacks during China's Boxer Rebellion of 1900, the second for his daring, one-man action during an ambush in Haiti in 1915. He was nominated for (but not awarded) an unprecedented third medal in World War I for his valor at Belleau Wood, where he led a charge against the German stronghold with the battle cry, "Come on you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?" This first full-length biography presents a detailed examination of a Marine Corps legend.

Charles Sweeny was the heir to a fortune, but instead of a life of comfort, he became a warrior for causes he believed in. Twice kicked out of West Point, he fought in revolts against three Latin American dictators, became a highly decorated officer in the French Foreign Legion and the U.S. Army in World War I, a brigadier general in the Polish-Soviet War, a military advisor in the Greco-Turkish War, the leader of a flying squadron in Morocco's Rif War, a military advisor to the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War, and a spy for French intelligence. Before America entered World War II, he dodged FBI agents and U.S. neutrality laws to recruit American pilots to fight the Nazis and became a group captain in the R.A.F.'s Eagle Squadron. After Pearl Harbor, he worked with "Wild Bill" Donovan to devise guerilla campaigns in North Africa and Eastern Europe. This richly detailed book uses Sweeny's personal papers, historical documents and photos to tell the amazing true story of America's most celebrated soldier of fortune, who was a life-long friend of Ernest Hemingway and a role model for the novelist's fictional manly heroes.