Download Sgt. Reckless: America's Favorite War Horse AudioBook Free
Bought by the participants of the United States Sea Corps in October 1952 when she was three or four years of age from a Korean stable boy named Kim Huk Moon, Sergeant Reckless was a chestnut colored horse with three white stockings and blaze. Ah Chim Hai was the horse's original name which means "Flame of the Morning hours" or "Morning Fire" in Korean. Nicked named "Fire" by its owner Moon, the horse was sold for $250 to Lieutenant Eric Pedersen in order to buy a prosthetic leg for his sister who had stepped on a land mine. Initially the horse's breed was regarded as Mongolian due to condition of its brain which was exactly like horses of the thoroughbred lineage. She weighed 400kg and stood at 56 ins or 142cm. Colonel Eustace P. Smoak offered Pedersen permission to choose the horse for his platoon in October 1952. Pedersen needed an pet animal that could take nine of 24 pound heavy shells to provide recoilless rifles used by the Recoilless Rifle Platoon of the Fifth Sea Regiment who had been based in mountainous ground. On October 26th, 1952, just one day after getting permission, Corporal Phillip Carter, Sergeant Willard Berry and Pedersen drove to the Seoul racetrack in a jeep with a trailer. Pederson used his own money to choose the horse despite Moon being reluctant to sell at first.
