F National Archives photo
February 2012 is the 70th anniversary of the Marine Raider Battalions, a brief but glorious episode in the long history of the Corps. Because they existed only two years, one might downplay their influence on the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) U.S. special operations forces (SOF). However, as we look back on the Marine Raiders seven decades later, one can see that they were simply a good idea whose time had not yet come. Their story is a compelling one that deserves to be told. In the months following Pearl Harbor, there was enormous political pressure to somehow strike back at the Japanese, but resources in the Pacific theater were few. Facing similar pressure after Dunkirk, Winston Churchill had ordered the creation of the British Commandos, elite volunteer units designed to conduct coastal raids on Nazioccupied Europe, and which were the origin of the British Royal Marine Commandos, the Parachute Regiment, the Special Air Service, and the Special Boat Service. The senior leadership of the U.S. Marine Corps was initially skeptical of the idea of creating similar units, feeling that all Marines were already elite volunteers. They were reluctant to see their best riflemen, senior NCOs and junior officers pulled out of regular USMC rifle units for high-risk adventures. Nevertheless, the idea of Marine commando units found supporters in the United States. Among those intrigued by the idea of forming an American version of commandos were President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his eldest son, Capt. James Roosevelt, USMC Reserve. One serious proposal was to appoint William J. Donovan, a prominent Republican, Army colonel and World War I hero, as a Marine brigadier general to lead the new units.
U.S. Marine Raiders gathered in front of a Japanese dugout in January 1944 on Cape Torokina, Bougainville, Solomon Islands, which they helped to take.
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