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.