From:
Karenlovin@AOL.COM | Block address | Add to Address
Book
Date:
Wed, 21 Feb 2001 18:08:17 EST
Subject:
Marine Raiders Secret....
To:
GunnyG@retired.usmc.net
Dear Dick, I found this in a book I was browsing
through. Would you post
this on your site? The author, Raymond Gram
Swing was a well known news
commentator in the 40's. Thanks, Karen
Armistice Day: Carlson's Raiders: November 11,
1942
an excerpt from "Preview of History" by Raymond
Gram Swing, published by
Country Life Press, Garden City, New York, 1943
Raymond Gram Swing, News Analyst and radio
commentator
This is Armistice Day. The very mention of the
word armistice is a reminder
of great joy that swept the world twenty-four
years ago today, and a reminder
that joy was a delusion, since the world today
fights, groans, and hungers
for another armistice day one that will bring joy
that will not be a
delusion...We are fighting away, and to win the
war is our first task. But
we are fighting this war because peace broke down
and we had not thought
through the problems of maintaining peace. What
we are fighting for then, is
not only to bring the war to an end but to bring
it to an end which does not
confront us with its early recurrence...In a
sense we must reverse the song
"Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition," so
that we pass the ammunition and
don't forget to praise the Lord. And by praising
the Lord I mean
understanding the inadequacy of our wisdom in the
past, so as to add to it,
as well as the evil against which we are
fighting.
If you think there is any contradiction in this
listen to the story of Evans
Carlson. He is a marine. The marines are tough,
but there is a special
branch of the marines which is especially tough.
These men are called
Carlson's Raiders I wonder how many of you met
their commander, Evans
Carlson, a year or two before the war. He
addressed man y meetings around
the country about d conditions in China. He had
learned about China the hard
way, having trudged thousands of miles of it on
foot when he was Marine
Intelligence Officer there. He was no great
shakes as a speaker. He was
rather ungainly. His clothes hung awkwardly on
hi. Wheedling audiences
wasn't his line. He was unpolished; he hadn't a
mote of histrionic talent.
All he had was a personality so sincere that it
filled a room, so that he
awoke confidence, and made friends, not by his
gifts but with his character
Evans Carlson knew something about guerilla
fighting from having watched the
Chinese at it. And when we got into the war he
disappeared from the roster
of speakers on behalf of China, and his friends
heard from him in southern
California, where he was assigned to the
organization of his raiders, only he
couldn't tell his friends what he was doing. The
first that most of them
heard was when Lieutenant Colonel Evans Carlson
led the marines who made the
Makin Island landing, for which they have been
since decorated Now they are
on Guadalcanal. Carlson's raiders have learned
to combine guerilla fighting,
as perfected by the Chinese, with the Indian
fighting of our own history and
to conduct it on the two dimensions of amphibious
warfare. They are a
peculiarly American brand of commandos, and I
repeat that they are tougher
than marines, if there can be such a thing.
Tillman Durdin, in last Sunday's
New York Times, wrote from the South Pacific
about Carlson's Raiders. And I
want to quote a few sentences "Carlson's aim," he
states, "was to build a
thoroughly American and thoroughly democratic
organization. He wanted to
develop the utmost individual initiative and
responsibility. He abolished
officer privilege. There is no officers' mess
among the raiders. The
officers wear the same clothes and carry the same
equipment as the men and
live exactly like them. Discipline is firm but
informal, based on knowledge,
reason, and individual volition. Carlson
especially wants his men to know
why they are fighting and what they are fighting
for. This is threshed out in
group meetings at which he frequently makes a
short talk emphasizing American
ideals of democracy, freedom of speech, freedom
of the press, and freedom of
religion. Meetings are often forums at which
everything from the world
strategy of the war to the limitation of
individual incomes is discussed.
His forums are often devoted to free discussion
of problems affecting the
whole unit, and his men bring forward a good many
ideas. Problems are
threshed out too; orders are explained. These
meetings usually include
entertainment programs with amateur dramatics,
orchestra performances, and
group singing. The raiders have a number of
songs of their own, some lustily
ribald. One is a march tune called 'Carlson's
Raiders' ".
So it can be done. War can be fought by
sharpening the intelligence, by
increasing, rather than diminishing the
democratic fellowship with human
beings. And while there are many other groups
here and abroad sincerely and
faithfully serving with all their enthusiasm to
bring into being a better
America and a peaceful world, there is none more
inspiring than these tough
raiders under Evan's Carlson. They are going to
whip the craftiest and
sturdiest of the enemy, and do it all the more
ably by knowing why they are
fighting and the kind of world they want. They
are a steady invitation to
all civilian Americans to think as hard and live
as hard for true democracy
as they are doing it in Guadalcanal. Such men
will win us a genuine
armistice day if the civilians back home don't
lag behind in their thinking.
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Dick Gaines
Old Salt Marines Forum
