The Few, The Proud …

Submarines ferried them to Makin Island for a hit-and-run night raid.

At Guadalcanal, they fought their way 150 miles through a steamy jungle deep behind enemy lines. The real estate they held during a marathon, all-out Japanese attack was named Edson’s Ridge in honor of their valor.

Now they’ve landed in Spokane.

Open your history books, class. We’re going to learn something about some of the most steel-nerved warriors the world has known.

Men like Lyle Brandt, who lost his legs to a land mine. And Bob Baldwin, shot to pieces taking a beach. And all their comrades, many of whom never came home.

We’re talking about the few, the proud and the largely forgotten Marine Raiders of World War II.

These guys were the toughest of the tough, an elite band put together in the early days of the war and well-trained in guerrilla tactics.

Forerunners to “special-ops” forces such as the Green Berets and Navy Seals, the Raiders irritated the hell out of old leathernecks who believed just being a Marine was by-gawd special enough.

The acrimony contributed to the Raiders being dismantled in 1944 after just two years of fighting. But during their time, the four Raider battalions proved themselves in some of the fierce turning-point battles of the South Pacific.

“You look at some of the older guys like myself, and you wonder how we did what we did,” says Baldwin, 80, a Spokane resident who helped organize a Raiders Association convention this week at the downtown Doubletree Hotel. The convention began Tuesday and runs through Sunday.

As a Raider, Baldwin was shot in 1943 on Bougainville, the largest of the Solomon Islands. He stayed in the Marines, however, and retired as a colonel after 30 years.

It’s grim to see the ranks of such brave men growing thinner every year. Maybe a third of the original 8,000 Raiders are left. The Raiders Association has 1,150 active members and perhaps 200 will attend this gathering.

But the real tragedy is how the Raiders’ contributions have faded with time.

“It makes me very sad to think of the history not taught in our schools,” Baldwin says. “I have a grandson now in the Marine Corps. After his graduation from boot camp, I asked him what history he’d been taught about the Raiders. He told me none.”

The Marine Raiders were formed in 1942 at the simultaneous suggestions of two men who had precious little in common. One was Col. Merritt “Red Mike” Edson, who took over the 1st Raider Battalion (Edson’s Raiders). The other was Lt. Col. Evans Carlson, who led the 2nd Raider Battalion (Carlson’s Raiders).

Edson was a no-nonsense, by-the-book Marine.

Carlson was another bird entirely. A long tour of duty in China left him fascinated with the Red Army. In his battalion he carried out many ideas about “democratic leadership” that he borrowed from the Communists.

Carlson’s Raiders, for example, didn’t do much saluting. They ate and slept with their officers. The battle cry Carlson gave them was not “Semper Fi,” but “Gung Ho,” which means “work together” in Chinese.

Despite vast doctrinal differences, the Raider battalions were tenaciously united in battle. During the battle of Edson’s Ridge, which marks its 55th anniversary this weekend, 2,100 Japanese soldiers were killed in a horrific attack that lasted from sunset to well past sunrise.

“It’s a great thing to be a part of,” says John Sweeney, 78, the president of the Marine Raiders Association and a retired colonel who also served in Vietnam. For his valiant command of Company B during the attack on Edson’s Ridge, Sweeney was awarded the Navy Cross.

“The Raiders came along at a point in history when we were losing the war with Japan. At Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands, we stopped losing the war. We started winning it.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo