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| In this Wednesday, May 22, 2013 photo, World War II veterans Bob Addison, left, and Jerry West pose for a photo, in Glens Falls, N.Y. Addison and West share more than a longtime friendship. They share some of the same memories of bloody battles fought on Pacific islands while serving with an elite Marine Corps unit that was the forerunnner of today's U.S. Special Forces. Living just miles apart, the two men are among the last surviving members of the original Marine Raider battalions that were the first American ground troops to attack Japanese-held territory. |
GLENS FALLS, N.Y.
(AP) -- Gerald West held the laminated sheet of paper fellow World
War II combat veteran Robert Addison pulled from an old briefcase and
perused the 300-plus names listed under the words, "Lest We Forget."
"I
knew quite a few of those guys," said West, 93, who made the short
drive to Addison's home 45 miles north of Albany recently to reminisce
about their wartime service with the legendary Edson's Raiders, an elite
Marine Corps unit that was the forerunnner of today's U.S. Special
Forces.
The document Addison keeps among his
wartime mementos and literature lists the names of members of the 1st
Marine Raider Battalion who died while fighting the Japanese in the
South Pacific. Addison and West are among the dwindling number of
Edson's Raiders still alive. Out of an original roster of about 900 men,
fewer than 150 are believed to survive, according to Bruce Burlingham,
historian for U.S. Marine Raider Association.
Dubbed
Edson's Raiders after their colorful, red-haired commander, Col.
Merritt "Red Mike" Edson, the unit was the first U.S. ground force to
attack Japan-held territory after Pearl Harbor. Landing on Tulagi in the
Solomon Islands in August 1942, they beat the larger 1st Marine
Division's arrival on nearby Guadalcanal by an hour.
The
1st and 2nd Raider battalions, formed just days apart in February 1942,
were the first commando-style units in the American military, predating
the creation of the U.S. Army Rangers by four months. Trained in jungle
warfare and hand-to-hand combat, the Raiders' leatherneck pride paired
with a pirate's attitude was reflected in their distinctive battalion
patch: a white death's head skull in a red diamond, set against a blue
background with five white stars representing the Southern Cross
constellation.
Addison, an Alliance, Ohio,
native, and West, who grew up outside Glens Falls, both fought at Tulagi
and later on Guadalcanal, where Edson's Raiders earned their vaunted
place in American military lore for anchoring the thinly stretched
Marine defenses that decimated Japanese forces during successive
nighttime assaults in September 1942.
Fighting
from positions separated by a few hundred yards along high ground near
the island's airfield, Addison and West helped defend what became known
as Bloody Ridge - but that the Marines called "Edson's Ridge." They
wouldn't learn until much later that the fight was considered a turning
point that started the U.S. on its island-hopping road to victory in the
Pacific.
"In combat, you only know what's going on in your little world," West said.
Edson
was awarded the Medal of Honor for his front-line leadership during the
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 historian with the U.S. Marine Corps
History Division.
"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 know about
the Battle of Edson's Ridge," she said.
After
the Raiders' next campaign on the island of New Georgia in the summer of
1943, Addison and West were sent back to the U.S. Addison was attending
college as part of an officers program, and West was in Guam preparing
for the invasion of Japan when the war ended.
They
went their separate ways and didn't get reacquainted until the early
1960s, when Addison moved to Glens Falls to become athletic director at a
new community college. He ran into West at a Sears store where West was
working, and they've remained close friends ever since.
"They
were America's first elite force unit and showed future units like the
U.S. Army Special Forces what could be done with a handful of
determined, well-trained, well-armed troops against a determined enemy,"
said Robert A. Buerlein, co-author of "Our Kind of War: Illustrated
Saga of the U.S. Marine Raiders of World War II.
