“Always Faithful, Always Forward”
The Early History of the 1st Marine Raider Battalion
The year was 1942, and a new type of unit was born in the US Marine Corps. Edson’s 1st Raider Battalion was designated, and several days later, Carlson’s 2d Raider Battalion was named. Later in the year, Liversedge’s 3rd Raider Battalion and Roosevelt’s 4th Raider Battalion were created. One hundred seventy-five members of Marines TWS are part of the United States Marine Raiders Association as members of one or more of the four Marine Raider Battalions during their respective periods of existence between 16 Feb 1942 and 31 Jan 1944 based on the Master U.S. Marine Raider Roster which contains about 7,710 Marine and 368 Navy personnel. As of 2023, a USMC battalion strength was about 900. Also, 127 current MTWS members had been assigned to the 1st Marine Raider Bn. A special TWS forum dedicated entirely to the late Raymond Louis Merrell (Sgt. USMC) titled “Raider Ray’s Remembrances” includes eleven full pages of his threads about the Raiders written over an eighteen-month period 2017-18. Seventeen women have attempted Marine Raider training. The Association additionally summarizes these units’ early days in a comprehensive manner, “Beginning in the mid-1930s the Marine Corps began experimenting with amphibious landings… In June 1941, he [General Holland M. Smith] personally picked Lieutenant Colonel Merritt A. ” ed Mike” Edson to command a battalion in the First Marine Division and designated it to serve permanently with the Navy’s APD [i.e., high-speed transport, “AP” = transport, “D” = destroyer] squadron. Smith began to refer to Edson’s outfit as the “light battalion” or the “APD battalion.” When the 5th Marines and the other elements of the 1st Marine Division moved down to New River that fall, the 1st Battalion remained behind in Quantico with Force headquarters… He [Edson] believed that the APD battalion would focus primarily on reconnaissance, raids, and other special operations. In his mind, it was a waterborne version of the parachutists.
Similarly, the battalion would rely on speed and mobility, not firepower, as its tactical mainstay… At the beginning of 1942, with the United States now at war and recruits pouring into the Corps, Smith wrote the Major General Commandant and asked him to redesignate the battalion. On 7 January, Edson received word that he headed the 1st Separate Battalion.
The Raider battalions soon received priority in the Marine Corps on men and equipment. Edson and [Colonel Evans F.] Carlson combed their respective divisions’ ranks and siphoned off many of the best men pouring forth from the recruit depots. They had no difficulty attracting volunteers with the promise that they would be the first to fight the Japanese. On 16 Feb 1942, predating the creation of the U.S. Army Rangers by four months, Edson received word that the 1st Separate Battalion had been officially designated the 1st Raider Battalion.” In 2006, almost 65 years later, under the direction of the late SECDEF Donald Rumsfeld, the United States Marine Forces Special Operations Command activated at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Marines from the 1st and 2nd Force Reconnaissance Companies folded into the command. In 2015, the command rejoined its Second World War roots and became the present-day Marine Raiders comprised today of 1st and 2nd Marine Raider Bn.
Pivotal Role in the Pacific Campaign
Interestingly, the artificial intelligence version of the unit’s formation reads, “The battalion was formed in response to a request from Admiral Chester Nimitz, the new commander of the Pacific Fleet, for ‘commando units’ to raid Japanese-held islands… The battalion was based in part on British Commandos and Chinese communist guerrillas…” General Thomas Holcomb (1879-1965) was famously reluctant to create the Raiders. He believed any “… standard Marine infantry battalion could execute any mission associated with British Commandos or Chinese guerrillas.” Edson was awarded the Medal of Honor for his front-line leadership in a battle during which his Raiders suffered more than 250 killed and wounded. Bigger, bloodier battles awaited, but Edson’s Ridge and the Raiders hold a special place among leathernecks of all generations, according to Beth Crumley, a U.S. Marine Corps History Division historian. “Anybody who has taken an interest in the history of the corps, they’re going to know the story about Edson, and they’re going to know about the Raiders and the Battle of Edson’s Ridge,” she said. They were the only ground units to participate in every island assault in the Solomon Islands. Raiders, as individuals or units, were in virtually every island-hopping event in the Pacific War and made the first landing in Japan after its announced surrender.
1st Marine Raider Battalion: Honors and Insignia
The 1st Marine Raider Battalion and its three sister battalions became famous for their fighting prowess in World War II. The battalion’s inception, growth, and eventual end also revealed a lot about the development of amphibious operations during the war, as well as the challenges the Corps faced as it expanded from 19,000 men to nearly half a million. “Eight months after Pearl Harbor to the day, the Marines landed in combat. To secure Guadalcanal, the Raiders were assigned to take the neighboring island of Tulagi, where they would be up against the best of the Japanese combat forces, the Rikusentai or Japanese “Special Naval Landing Forces.” Coming in on Higgins Boats in the morning hours of 7 Aug 1942, the Raiders would clash for three days in vicious fighting, encountering hitherto unknown Japanese cave bunkers plus their enemies’ sniper actions, night-fighting, and willingness to fight to the death. On 14 Sep 1942, the first light at Guadalcanal revealed over a thousand Japanese dead on the ridge. Outnumbered five to one for two nights, the Raiders held on against Japanese shelling by sea and Imperial troops, and the battle became legendary in Marine Corps history.” After two years of action, the four Raider battalions were disbanded. The Marine Raider Regiment (MRR), formerly known as the Marine Special Operations Regiment (MSOR), is a special operations force of the U.S. Marine Corps that is part of the Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC). The 1st Marine Raider Battalion was reactivated on 26 Oct 2006 and was headquartered at Camp Pendleton, CA, until moving to Camp Lejeune, NC, between 2019-2022.
“The Battalions’ organization was finalized in 2006 and is one of three battalions of the Marine Raider Regiment. The 1st and 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalions and the Marine Special Operations Advisor Group (MSOAG, the predecessor of the 3rd Marine Special Operations Battalion) were created. Most of the combat personnel assigned to the battalion were drawn from the Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance. The battalion consists of four companies, each company consisting of 4 fourteen-man Marine Special Operations Teams (MSOT). The Marine Corps Special Operations proof of concept consisted of Det One deploying to Iraq with Navy SEALs from Naval Special Warfare Group 1 in 2004. The initial force structure for the Marine Special Operations Battalions were the 1st and 2nd Force Reconnaissance Companies, which then deployed elements to Afghanistan in 2007. In September 2009, the 1st Raider Battalion returned to Afghanistan in command of a joint special operations task force in the northwest of the country.”
Following General Petraeus’s take over of command in Afghanistan in 2010, in support of the ALP/VSO program (Afghan Local Police/Village Stability Operations), SOF in Afghanistan was task-organized into battalion-level SOTF (Special Operations Task Forces), each with a geographic area of responsibility; for MARSOC in western Afghanistan and Helmand Province. In March 2012, Marine Raiders suffered several casualties to Green on Blue attacks. The Marine Raiders were deployed to support the Global War on Terrorism in December 2013 alongside the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable). They conducted various missions, ranging from direct action to surveillance and other missions. In 2014, it was announced that the Marine Special Operations Regiment and its subordinate units would be renamed Marine Raiders. However, the renaming was not official until 19 June 2015 due to administrative delays. In February 2019, Marine Corps Times reported that since the formation of MARSOC 13 years before, it had conducted 300 operational deployments across 13 countries, awarded more than 300 valor awards, and that 43 Raiders, including two multipurpose canines, had been killed in training and combat operations.
“Even though the large-scale counter-terrorism campaigns of previous years have slowed down, Marine Raiders continue to deploy all across the globe, enhancing partnerships and setting the conditions to defeat adversaries if called upon. Marine Raiders are constantly deployed overseas. At any given time, a Marine Special Operations Team could be in Africa, Europe, South America, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific. As the United States military pivots toward Great Power Competition with geopolitical rivals like China in the Indo-Pacific, Marine Raiders find themselves in familiar territory.”
“Since standing up in May of 2012, the Marine Raider Foundation has funded the Raider Legacy Preservation Program. This support includes:
• Funding to bring WWII Marine Raiders to their annual U.S. Marine Raider Association Reunion (all travel and reunion fees are covered)
• Funding for the construction of memorials honoring fallen Marine Raiders, including the Memorial Wall at MARSOC Headquarters, the Jonathan Gifford statue at Gifford Hall, the K9 Statue and Dog Handler Memorial Stone at the Corporal David M. Sonka Multipurpose Canine Facility, the memorial at 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, and memorial displays at Military Entrance Processing Stations
• Funding to bring WWII Marine Raiders to modern-day Raider ceremonies and commemorative events, linking together these two generations to help preserve the legacy that originated with WWII Marine Raiders and is carried on today by modern-day Raiders
• Funding for ceremonies that celebrate excellence within the Marine Raider community, including Marine Raider symposiums, Individual Training Course Graduation, awards ceremonies, and Celebration of Life ceremonies.”
The 1st Marine Raider Bn insignia white stars featured on the night-sky blue (and other colored) background are in the arrangement of the Southern Cross constellation, under which the Guadalcanal fighting took place. The edged weapon depicted centrally on their SSI is a Marine Raider Stiletto (facsimile of the British Commando FS fighting knife) made by Camillus Cutlery during WWII, with only 15,000 manufactured. The U.S. military has traditionally avoided incorporating darker heraldry images into its patches and insignia. The main exception, however, is the World War II Marine Raiders and their use of the skull. Col Evans Carlson’s 2nd Raider Battalion first used a skull with crossed cutlasses as its unofficial battalion logo and calling card. It was influential in the adaptation of the Marine Raider Regiment shoulder patch. The design is still used in various ways by Marines in the U.S. Special Operations Command (MARSOC) today. Since then, lesser-known units have also appropriated skulls for insignia in other units and service branches. Reportedly, nearly 87,000 marines were casualties during World War II (including almost 20,000 KIA), and 82 were awarded the Medal of Honor. Marine GWOT casualties from 1991-2016 were 1,257 KIA and 13,704 WIA, with two receiving the MOH.
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This history was outstanding information and I will make sure it will be sent to — my son * Captain Matthew f. Buelow ./ J.A.G. Camp Pendleton, California.— Semper Fidelis****
Outstanding information / History !! Semper Fidelis — MARINES