2 NY vets of Edson's Raiders recall WWII battles (1st and 2nd Raider battalions)

newsday.com ^ | May 26, 2013 11:48 AM | CHRIS CAROLA

[virgil283]

"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." ......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.....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." ... Veterans- we salute you...

[virgil283]

The Marine Raiders might have been forgotten but for W.E.B Griffins series of novels. These raiders were highly trained and uncommonly brave men who turned the tide of the Japanese assault on Guadalcanal....GOD bless them...

[hinckley buzzard]

For the record: James Roosevelt, oldest son of FDR, was an officer in a Marine Raider Battalion and led numerous actions behind enemy lines. He was well decorated and ended up a Brigadier General. Back in the day everyone had skin in the game, as our metrosexual alien usurper might say.

[oh8eleven]

The Marine Raiders might have been forgotten but for W.E.B Griffins series of novels.
Forgotten by the public perhaps, but we were taught about Edson's Raiders at Parris Island during boot camp (1966).
I'm sure they still teach Marine Corps history at PI.

Semper Fi ...

[NormsRevenge]

I agree on Griffin’s works being true to what went down back then.. i have a number of his books and the complete Corps series.

I am proud to honor many of my former high school teachers who served in WW2 and Korea ,, one of my gym teachers was a Raider, I think he was Edson but may have been Carlson.. he was a shorter barrelchested ‘tough guy’.. My vice principal was also a Marine.. small world.

Everybody loved him. Him and the one armed Civics/Ethics teacher.. I skipped his class with a vengeance. Maybe going straight into the Marines in ‘72 was my payback.. ;-]

I salute them all and all those who served with them and kept this nation free.. ‘til today.

[imardmd1]

One 1st Marine Raider, Grover "Don" Penn, a direct descendant of William Penn, was a native of Delaware, and made me his friend -- always welcome in his home. Another of his Marine veteran friends and myself attended the last annual meeting of the 1st Raider Bn Association at Quantico the year after Don passed on.

I have some photos from that, but they're not on photobucket at this moment. The Quantico Base Commander visited our table, sat and chatted with us for a while. I was quite overcome to be in the presence of so many glorious saviors of our culture at the bloody Edson's Ridge, just inland from the Lunga Point landing zone. Very, very humbling.

In one night, they made history for a hundred years, maybe a thousand. Certainly literally very much like Leonidas at the pass of Thermopylae. Intrepid, tenacious, stalwart all; and yet so today in their post WWII lives. Living heroes, every one. And one of them made me a part of his family. What an unsought-for honor.

[imardmd1]

Ah, while I was at the last 1st Raider association meeting, I had supper with Ken Champlin, of Auburn, NY. We discovered we had some mutual friends and acquaintances when I lived in that area 1973-78. We had a great chat. I just looked him up on whitepages, but it looks as though Ken passed away 3 years ago at 87 (19 in ‘42 at the bloody ridge). He had remained in the Marine Reserves for many years after the war — a tank battalion in Syracuse. Even the youngest of them would now be about 87. I’m afraid we won’t have any of them much longer, now. Rest in peace, heroes!