pagesofhistory Raiders Again
Marine Corps special operations units will take a page from history and train and fight under the name Marine Raiders, evoking the legacy of their World War II-era predecessors.
T
he capable fighting units that fall under Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command
(MARSOC) are taking a page from his- tory and bringing back a famous name from the service’s World War II past: Marine Raiders.
The formation of the first Raider
units grew out of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s desire to create within the Marine Corps a unit similar to the Brit- ish Commandos. The first two Raider battalions (out of the eventual four) were stood up in early 1942. They were designed to be light, nimble units that could respond rapidly to any threat, perform amphibious attacks to secure beachheads ahead of larger invasion forces, and harass Japanese troops at every opportunity. Raider units first saw combat on the island of Tulagi in August 1942 and went on to fight in some of the fiercest battles of the Pacific, including Guadalcanal and Bougainville. But as the Allies began to prevail, there was less need for commando units in the fight, and the Raiders were disbanded in February 1944. On June 19, in a ceremony at Camp
Lejeune, N.C., three of the original Raiders watched as the Raiders name was formally reestablished as the official Marine Corps special operations moniker. “The Marine Raiders have highlighted their strong de- sire for their legacy to not be forgotten,” says Capt. Barry Morris, MARSOC public
PHOTO: NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION
affairs officer. “We feel we owe it to them to make every effort to do so.”
— Mark Cantrell T
Doolittle Raiders Donate Medal to Ohio Museum he two surviving members of the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders pre- sented the group’s Congressional
Gold Medal for display at the Na- tional Museum of the U.S. Air Force near Dayton, Ohio, during a special ceremony April 18.
Of the 80 air- men of the U.S. Army Air Forces in the surprise air attack April 18, 1942, only retired Lt. Col. Richard Cole, 99, and former Staff Sgt. David Thatcher, 93, remain. Cole was Lt. Col. James Doolittle’s copilot, and Thatcher was an engineer-gunner on another plane. The bombing raid on Japan involved 16
B-25 bombers. Though the mission inflict- ed minimal damage, it boosted U.S. morale and forced the Japanese to recall combat forces for home defense.
MO
— Don Vaughan, a North Carolina-based free- lance writer, authors this monthly column.
OCTOBER 2015 MILITARY OFFICER 75
History Lesson On Oct. 5, 1986, Nicara- guan Sandinistas shot down a plane with supplies intend- ed for Nicaraguan Contras and captured a former U.S. Marine. The incident set off the Iran-Contra controversy.
Marine Raiders gather in front of a captured Japanese dugout on Bougainville Island, Solo- mon Islands, in January 1944.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88