On June 2, 1918, during Germany’s spring offensive offensive on the Western Front, the enemy encountered a newly arrived company of Marines — and they, unlike a French unit pulling back to more defensible ground, were marching straight toward the enemy.

The outcome was a grim introduction to modern warfare and an act of extraordinary heroism from another segment of the Corps that has since found its own way into Marine tradition: the U.S. Navy Hospital Corps.

Among the Marines marching towards the Germans was corpsman Joel Boone who was assigned as the surgeon for the 6th Marine Regiment. Boone was present during the 25-day confrontation between the Marines and Germans at Belleau Wood in June 1918.

Born in St. Clair, Pennsylvania, on Aug. 29, 1889, Joel Thompson Boone was a cousin s

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