# "The Walking Dead"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead/455411>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 5, 2008, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead/455411 "2008-07-05T23:28:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lynwood\_Slim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Lynwood\_Slim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynwood_Slim)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead/455411/1 "2008-07-05T23:28:55Z")

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How did 1st Battalion, 9th Marines come to be called “the Walking Dead” in Viet Nam? I have read that Ho Chi Minh called them that, predicting their destruction, but I doubt that Ho busied himself with one U.S. Marine battalion. I have also read that because of the Battalions’s casualties, extremely high the war, they were named “the walking dead” but if so, by whom, when?

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**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead/455411/2 "2008-07-06T01:36:12Z")

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[Here](http://www.1stbattalion9thmarinesfirebase.net/documents/Story%20-%20The%20Walking%20Dead.pdf) is something labeled as the real story (PDF). And they have their own [website](http://www.thewalkingdead.org/) .

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**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-walking-dead/455411/3 "2008-07-06T11:53:32Z")

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Their website is messed up. History section missing the last 1/2 of the sentence.

> **[1st Battalion, 9th Marines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Battalion_9th_Marines)**
>
> Vietnam War
> Operation Desert StormWar on Terror
> The 1st Battalion 9th Marines (1/9) was an infantry battalion of the United States Marine Corps. Formed during World War I, it served until the mid-2000s when it was deactivated to make room for one of three light armor reconnaissance battalions. During the Vietnam War, 1/9 sustained an especially high casualty rate, such that it received the nickname "The Walking Dead".