George Van Orden
From the beginning, one thing characterized the career of George Van Orden: marksmanship. His natural abilities with a rifle were well known prior to his entrance to the military. As the son of a Marine Colonel, his choice over which branch of service to join had already been decided. In his first eight years, Lieutenant “Bang Bang” Van Orden won shooting matches at every duty station. He easily achieved the coveted badge of a Distinguished Shooter. He attended advanced weapons courses in Quantico and spent months at sea learning naval gunnery and antiaircraft fire. As a Range Chief Range Officer, Van Orden taught marksmanship fundamentals to thousands.
“Accuracy is the one thing we are looking for and there is no easy way to get it” he said. “If we do slack work on the rifle range they’ll get slack results on the battlefield, which is bad business in a gun fight.”
Van Orden assumed command of the rifle range at Quantico in December of 1939. The primitive scout sniper school fell under his purview. Van Orden and Marine Gunner Calvin Lloyd undertook formalizing the program. After extensive research, they published “Equipment of the American Sniper.” This expert treatise defined sniper usage and made specific recommendations for their armament. After testing hundreds of rifle/scope combinations, Van Orden picked his perfect match: a Winchester Model 70 bolt action with the 8-power Unertl scope. The USMC purchased limited quantities, but opted against the rifle’s adoption. The scope, however, was selected. Attached to the Model 1903 Springfield, the long slender scope entered WWII and became an icon of early Marine snipers. Van Orden and Lloyd saw their vision of a formal sniper program energize. Small schools opened in different locations, teaching the skills their treatise outlined. Graduates were promptly dispatched to the Pacific.
Advertisement for Van Orden's gun shop in Quantico, "Evaluators Limited." Courtesy George Van Orden.
As Chief Range Officer at the training hub of the Marines for two years prior to America’s entrance into the war, Van Orden had an incredible opportunity to directly affect combat performance in the Pacific. For his trainees, the affect went beyond skillful manipulation of the trigger. He developed a reputation. They caught his passion and flare and would remember him for it.
“His ambidexterity with the 45 caliber service pistol had amazed us all," recounted one Marine Raider training under him. "Once after a spectacular demonstration of pistoling, one of the candidates asked him if he could also fire the rifle left-handed. Van Orden’s immediate response was to dress down the candidate for daring even to suggest that left-handed shooters might be tolerated in the Corps, all the while brandishing his pistol in his left hand.”
Van Orden’s turn to fight came in 1942. He reached the front as the 3rd Marine Regiment Executive Officer. The unit’s first trial came in November 1943 on the island of Bougainville.
As the 3rd Marines motored toward the beach, the Japanese opened fire. Artillery hit home, destroying six landing craft and scattering the rest. Marines hit the beach and sprinted through the bullets into the tree line. Confusion ensued as they realized the boats landed opposite of the order planned. No unit larger than squad size landed together. Recognizing the chaos and impending disaster, Van Orden climbed aboard a landing craft and headed for the beach. The boat grounded after taking several hits, and Van Orden reestablished control. He moved throughout the fire-swept area forming new units, appointing leaders, and directing the attack. One Marine witnessed him, “blazing away in the direction of the enemy with his pistol… After emptying a magazine at the invisible (at least to me) target, Van Orden stepped back from the rear wall of the bunker, cleared, reloaded, and holstered his pistol… with a self-satisfied grin on his face as if he had just completed a successful string of rapid fire.” As the shore party arrived with supplies after the initial assault waves, Japanese machine guns halted their unloading. Van Orden returned to the exposed beach and personally directed the Marines under fire, while they offloaded the supplies and rushed them to the Marines at the front.
For his heroics, Marines nicknamed their XO “The Beast.” He continued earning this reputation on the battlefields of Bougainville and on Guam in 1944. Despising the safety of the command post, Van Orden was always found “hunting for battle,” as one front line correspondent commented, “with his own private arsenal of pistol, carbine and Johnson light machine gun in order to get ‘one last crack at the Japs.’” His reckless, inspiring leadership earned a Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Navy Cross.
George Van Orden (far left, closest to camera) being awarded the Navy Cross. Courtesy George Van Orden.
After the war ended in the Pacific, Van Orden remained on Guam to lead the mopping up and post-war organization of the island. Stories continued to abound, apocryphal or true, furthering his legend. One such story placed Van Orden in a midnight gun battle wearing nothing but his skivvies, having been roused from sleep by Japanese soldiers emerging from their jungle hideouts.
Van Orden retired as a Brigadier General in 1949. Establishing a gun shop near Quantico, his reputation in the firearms industry continued to grow. His innovations in sniping and marksmanship set the foundation for the future of Marine Corps sniper schools and tactics.
Life on Guam. Van Orden's wife joined him on the island following the war, despite the continued threat. Here she is pictured outside their "home" of an armored landing vehicle. Courtesy George Van Orden.
