Units

Since Covid-19 caused 2020 Best Ranger Competition to be cancelled at Ft. Benning, GA, contestants for the 2021 BRC are probably eager to get started on their non-stop, grueling, three-day race April 16 to 18 to determine the best two-man Ranger team. For information and a history of the 37^th David E. Grange Jr. Best Ranger Competition, please click this link:

Best Ranger Competition

The last Best Ranger Competition in 2019 honored the 75^th anniversaries of WW II Rangers and D-Day plus the 75^th anniversary of the Merrill’s Marauder mission in Burma. In the top-left photo are WW II Ranger Rudy Huereque (L) and Merrill’s Marauder “Bob” Passanisi.  Both veterans fired the pistols sometime between 4 and 5 AM that set the two-man buddy teams off on their 2019 three-day obstacle course.  Bottom Left is the 2019 challenge coin created by Ted Burzynski that honored both WW II groups.  It has the WW II Ranger insignia and three Merrill’s Marauder muleskinners: (L-R) Raymond Tuggle, Robert Jackson and Darwin Lee.  The right image shows the 2019 winning, two-man team; CPT John Bergman and CPT Michael Rose, 101^st Airborne Division, crossing the finish line at Ft. Benning’s Airborne Ranger Training Brigade.  Rose is the first Ranger to win three times. Rose and Bergman are the first team to win together twice.

Above: Tennessee Marauder James Richardson, (R) wasn’t the only China Burma India (CBI) veteran whose prized possession was a green John Deere tractor. Signal Corps photographer Daniel Novak (L), a Minnesota native, is seen riding his green machine. Both men died in 2020.

Judy Robinson, daughter of Tennessee’s last Merrill’s Marauder, James Richardson, who died Dec. 27, 2020, at age 99, said her family has been gathering photos of her Dad taken with some of his buddies during the Marauder campaign. Judy wanted to share them so other descendants might recognize their Marauders from the snapshots.

Please click to see Richardson’s photo

Ranger Karl Monger, executive director of the Gallant Few, visits during 2019 Ranger Rendezvous with Marauders (L-R) Gilbert Howland, from New Jersey, the late James Richardson, from Tennessee, and “Bob” Passanisi, from New York at the National Infantry Museum following the 2019 Darby Awards presentation by Ranger Tony Mayne.

Merrill’s Marauders Gilbert “Gil” Howland from New Jersey, who turns 98 on April 12, and “Bob” Passanisi, 96, from New York plan to attend this year’s week-long Ft. Benning Ranger Rendezvous July 19 to 23.   Passanisi and Howland want to support the RHOF induction for their Marauder buddy, Dave Richardson, believed to be the most highly decorated WW II correspondent in uniform. Shooting both his camera and gun, Richardson documented the Marauder mission for “Yank” magazine. Richardson was scheduled for 2020 induction, which was cancelled because of Covid 19.  The 2021 RHOF inductees have not yet been announced.  RHOF induction ceremonies for both years will be held the same day — one in the morning and the other year in the afternoon.  If you plan to attend, now is the time to make hotel reservations – you can always cancel. Merrill’s Marauder families and friends will receive the discounted rate for either the U.S. Army Ranger Association or the 75^th Ranger Regiment Association.  If you plan to attend the air drop at Fryar Field on Monday, July 19, please make your arrival day no later than July 18.

Hotel reservations are available at the DoubleTree by Hilton from July 17 – July 25 in Columbus, Georgia. 

The USARA block of rooms is filling up quickly, so please make your reservations by calling the hotel at (706) 327-6868 or by using this link. 

Please refer to the group name “USARA” when making your reservationns.
 

Registration through the 75^th Ranger Regiment Association

Courtyard Phenix City/Riverfront for $114 USD per night:  Contact Link

AC Hotel Columbus Downtown for $124 USD per night:  Contact Link

The phone number for reservations is:  1-888-236-2427

If you call in mention the group name: 75th Ranger Regiment Association

Decades ago, a small group of marching Merrill’s Marauders are about to pass in front of the National Ranger Monument, which would be to their left.  Ft. Benning’s headquarters building, McGinnis-Wickam Hall, can be seen in the background, when it was called “Building 4,” and looked like an old “computer card.” Merrill’s Marauders I’m able to identify are (Front Row-Center & Right) Bob Passanisi and Roy Matsumoto.  The Marauder in the last row (Far Right) wearing light blue trousers is my Dad, Vincent Melillo.

Merrill’s Marauders have been part of the Ranger Hall of Fame (RHOF) and the National Ranger Monument (NRM) since both came into existence. Thanks to a friendship between MG Ken Leuer, who spearheaded creation of the NRM, and Phil Piazza, who started the Merrill’s Marauders Association shortly after WW II ended, Marauders were among the first Rangers to purchase stones at the NRM.  Today there are hundreds – perhaps thousands – of Marauders whose names rest with their” battle buddies” on the monument’s walkway. Marauders were among the first Rangers selected for the inaugural Ranger Hall of Fame inductions. There are 30 Merrill’s Marauders and one 5307^th Composite Unit Provisional replacement who have been selected for RHOF since the first 1992 class through 2020. Out of those 31 RHOF inductees from the 5307^th CUP, five are triple Combat Infantryman Badge recipients, meaning they fought in WW II, Korea and Vietnam. There are only several hundred triple CIBs who have been identified. Three RHOF Marauders are double CIB recipients for fighting in WW II and Korea.  Although he was not a Marauder, there is one Mars Task Force veteran from the China Burma India Theater whose name needs to be mentioned. Medal of Honor recipient 1^st LT Jack L. Knight, who fought with the 124^th Cavalry, Mars Task Force, which succeeded the Marauders in Burma, was inducted into RHOF in 2005.

For an alphabetized list of ALL RHOF inductees, please click the U.S. Army Association website, then click programs and finally click Ranger Hall of Fame:

https://ranger.org/About-USARA

 To see photos and citations of RHOF inductees per year, please click the link below:

https://www.benning.army.mil/infantry/ARTB/RHOF/index.html

PLEASE NOTE:  Triple CIB Marauder Gilbert “Gil” Howland’s photo and citation have accidentally been left off the MCOE list since he was inducted in 2017. You can click the small image below to see a page I created with Howland’s photo and citation.

 NOTE: Unfortunately, some citations have errors, like my Dad’s, Vincent Melillo, which should read that he volunteered for the “hazardous and dangerous” mission in Puerto Rico with his buddies and NOT in Trinidad.  Citations for several years are written in ALL CAPS, which can be difficult to read.

Above: Rangers Art “Doc” Attaway and Steve Caldwell, with OnPoint 1-1, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit, collaborated with the National Ranger Foundation to repair and restore Ft. Benning’s National Ranger Monument to “Ranger standards.” The monument is located next to the post’s headquarters, “Building 4,” now called McGinnis-Wickam-Hall.

“After 30 years of ‘wear and tear’ and a shifting foundation that has suffered from the effects of weather and erosion, the National Ranger Monument had many broken and cracked stones, an uneven foundation where ‘expansion joints’ have moved many times, and fading from the effects of time,” explained Art Attaway.  “We needed to act quickly to bring this well-visited site back to an acceptable condition that represents and upholds the ‘prestige, honor, and esprit de corps’ of Rangers. The first step was leveling the foundation so new damage would stop or be greatly reduced before we began replacing stones.  With approval of BG ‘Joe’ Stringham, chairman of the National Ranger Foundation which manages care of the landmark, we hired a professional leveling company, Aquaguard, out of Atlanta GA.  Their efforts have paid off, and the monument’s foundation is as level as a 30-year-old structure can be.”  Attaway said the year-long process, which is still underway, involved solving “the complexity of gathering information and coordinating work complicated by on-post restrictions due to Covid-19.  It required close coordination with Blair Brown, executive director of the NRF, and Ken Leuer, grandson of MG Ken Leuer, our very first battalion commander at Ft. Stewart in 1974 when 1^st Battalion of the 75^th Ranger Regiment was formed.  Our goal has been to restore the monument so Rangers, their families, friends and other visitors can enjoy this special site, where over 7,000 Rangers have their personal legacy permanently ‘etched in stone.’ All stone repair and replacement will be completed before the July 2021 Ranger Rendezvous.”

NRM stones can be purchased at the National Ranger Foundation website: rangermemorial.com.

Friends of Rangers donations may also be made at the same site.

Please click here for NRM restoration images.

“When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.”
That saying by Alexis de Tocqueville is part of Pacheco’s signature block.

Orlando Pacheco, a historian with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in Washington, DC, has been increasing knowledge of the agency’s fifth director, retired LTG Sam Wilson, during his time as a young lieutenant with Merrill’s Marauders in Burma. The DIA, along with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA,) grew out of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS,) created June 13, 1942, “as a wartime intelligence agency to organize espionage activities behind enemy lines.”  Members of the OSS were attached to the Marauder campaign. Pacheco has been collecting stories from Marauders Gabriel Kinney, Bob Passanisi, Gilbert Howland and others about their association with Wilson. Affectionately called “General Sam” by his friends, Wilson had the longest Army service of any Marauder, 37 years.  He became the highest-ranking officer from the unit. Pacheco communicates frequently with Ryan Pemberton, director of the Wilson Center for Leadership in the Public Interest at Virginia’s Hampden-Sydney College. The center is named for Wilson, a former president of Hampden-Sydney College. All of “General Sam’s” memorabilia was donated to the Wilson Center by his widow, Susie. The 81-year-old trumpet Pacheco is holding (above) is on loan from the college’s Bortz Library.

Archivist Colin Woodward is organizing “General Sam’s” memorabilia for the library.  The trumpet was used by Wilson as a 16-year-old company bugler. It and other Wilson items on loan will be part of the DIA’s “Heroes Exhibit,” which will also honor Vice Admiral Vernon “Rebel” Lowrance, WW II commander of Submarine Force Atlantic who then served as DIA deputy director.  British author Gavin Mortimer, who wrote a 2013 book about Merrill’s Marauders, said Wilson “represented all that is great about the United States.” In a 2020 support letter for the Marauder Congressional Gold Medal campaign, Mortimer said, “Sam Wilson was 16 years old when he sent Winston Churchill a poem in the summer of 1940 expressing his fellowship with the British fight against fascism. He later lied about his age to enlist and subsequently served with distinction as a lieutenant in the Marauders. Post war, Wilson rose to become a three-star general and one of the most respected soldiers of his generation, whose counsel was sought by four presidents. When I last spoke to ‘General Sam’, shortly before his death in 2017, he expressed his regret at the treatment of the Marauders in late 1944. ‘I did have a feeling of sadness, and still have a feeling of sadness, and some bitterness,’ he told me. ‘We could not have been conceived at a higher level – by Churchill, Roosevelt and Marshall at the Quebec Conference in August 1943 – but then at the end, with probably a little over 100 combat effective still standing, the unit was disbanded and disappeared without a whimper’.”

NOTE: The huge collection of Merrill’s Marauder memorabilia that historian Hansel Haycox, who died earlier this year, set up for decades at the unit’s annual reunions was donated last year to the Wilson Center.  Although hampered by Covid-19, most of the memorabilia has been delivered. 

Please click on the following link for an interview with LTG Sam Wilson by Ranger Karl Monger, Gallant Few, for his 2014 radio program. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTzYEEiVufE

Historian Vaneesa Cook, University of Wisconsin in Madison, studies a Wisconsin MIA case summary from the battle of Myitkyina.

Vaneesa M. Cook with the Missing in Action Recovery Project at the University of Wisconsin in Madison has completed more than 50 case summaries of soldiers considered MIA from the 1944 battle for the town of Myitkyina, Burma.  Cook was selected in March 2020 as a Historian in Residence for the UW-MIA Project. “I have been aided in my research and writing of these Wisconsin case summaries by the morning reports from the 5307th that Hansel Haycox kindly shared with me last October,” said Cook, who received her PhD in history from the UW-Madison in 2015. Haycox, a Vietnam veteran who died earlier this year, served as one of two Marauder historians in honor of his Marauder uncle, Russell G. Wellman, a Distinguished Service Cross recipient. Most of the MIAs were replacements to the 5307th Composite Unit Provisional flown into the Myitkyina airfield from late May into July after only about 200 emaciated Merrill’s Marauders (nickname for the 5307^th CUP) still capable of combat completed their objective of seizing the airfield May 17, 1944. The enemy’s subsequent quick fortification of the town of Myitkyina and the fight to hold the airfield led to heavy American losses, many of whom are still MIA. Today they are the focus of Cook’s research in Wisconsin. Alongwith Haycox, Cook conferred with Merrill’s Marauder historian “Bob” Passanisi, 96, one of the small number of Marauders healthy enough to continue fighting with the replacements. She communicated with British author, Gavin Mortimer, whose book, “Merrill’s Marauders – the untold story of Unit Galahad and the toughest special forces mission of WW II,” was published in 2013. Mortimer wrote that the town of Myitkyina was taken Aug. 3, 1944, “by American and Chinese troops, including the last remnants of the Marauders.” One of those “last remnants,” Gabriel Kinney, also a veteran of South Pacific battles, turned 100 in February.  He and Passanisi are two of only seven Merrill’s Marauders still living. Kinney’s last sibling, Patrick, also a veteran of the China Burma India Theater, died in 2020 at age 107. The number of living 5307^th CUP replacements – although unknown – is expected to be more than the number of living Marauders.

Next to Nolan “Andy” Watson with the Army Medical Department’s Center of History and Heritage in Texas is the regimental coat of arms.  Designed in 1863, the insignia is one of the Army’s oldest.

Nolan A. “Andy” Watson, chief of the Army Medical Department’s (AMEDD) Center of History and Heritage at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio,Texas recently shared a short, illustrated article he wrote for last fall’s electronic, quarterly newsletter, the “AMEDD.” It covers high disease rates that plagued Merrill’s Marauders and casualties suffered by Mars Task Force, the unit that succeeded the 5307^th Composite Unit Provisional in Burma. For another publication, Watson has written an article focusing on the supporting veterinarian services.

Please click link below to read the “AMEDD” story on page 7.

https://history.amedd.army.mil/newsletters/2020/AMEDD_history_newsletter_31_fall2020.pdf 

Your donations have made it possible for filmmaker Tim Gray to purchase much of the high-definition archival film required for the Merrill’s Marauder documentary.  However donations are needed to purchase the remaining reels.  Tim continues to seek corporate sponsors. Total cost for producing a WW II Foundation documentary is around $200,000 – a daunting sum. Tim has been able to use some foundation funds to keep the Marauder project moving forward so production will be finished by late 2021.  Only seven Marauders remain alive.  

Tim recently shared, “I’m happy to announce that ‘Surrender on the USS Missouri’ narrated by country music superstar Luke Bryan has been picked up by 277 Public Television/PBS stations around the nation for airing this Spring. Roughly 87 per cent of the country will be seeing this amazing story about this great battleship and the men who witnessed history on September 2, 1945. Thank you to everyone for your support of ALL our important educational efforts!!”

Let’s help Tim take the Merrill’s Marauder story to 87 percent of the nation’s PBS viewers!!

Click this link for the March WW II Foundation newsletter.

https://conta.cc/3cQrfst

Click the image below for detailed donation instructions:

Patience continues to be the key word as we move forward on the Merrill’s Marauder Congressional Gold Medal journey. About a month ago, Russell Evans, program specialist with the U.S. Mint’s Office of Design Management, said, “We are still in early stages in terms of the development of the medal. Even though the legislation was passed last year … the process of making and presenting a Congressional Gold Medal takes time.”  Once designed, the medal will be unveiled during an official ceremony hosted by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in Washington, DC. The official ceremony will be free and by invitation only.  A second Merrill’s Marauder ceremony open to everyone – a reception or banquet at a Washington hotel/facility — will also be planned.  Jerrie Daly, daughter of 5307^th CUP replacement Francis Ponder and manager of the Marauder facebook site, is compiling the invitation list.  Her email is: mmpdtreas@gmail.com.  Please provide her with the following information:

• Your name
• Marauder name and relationship – can be a friend
• email address 
• Number ONLY (no names necessary) of attendees for ceremony
• Number ONLY of attendees for banquet/reception

 When the time is right, Jerrie will negotiate for a hotel to hold the reception-banquet. Attendees will make their own accommodations – there will not be a host hotel. Jerrie, who negotiated hotels in cities where Merrill’s Marauders Proud Descendants held reunions until disbanding in 2016, will work with Merrill’s Marauder Gilbert Howland’s son, Bob, who will be planning the program for the reception-banquet.  Representative Sanford Bishop is the only member of Congress still serving out of the three who introduced — and reintroduced — the House and Senate CGM bills through three, two-year Congressional sessions. Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson stepped down for health reasons at the end of 2019, and Congressman Peter King from New York retired at the end of 2020.  Bishop was major cosponsor through all three sessions for the Marauder CGM bill. 

Georgia Congressman Sanford Bishop met with Marauders (L–R) Gilbert Howland and Bob Passanisi during a Washington, DC reception in February 2020 after the two veterans had spent a long day seeking support in the House of Representatives for the Marauder CGM.   

The good news is there will be a future ceremony when the Marauder CGM is unveiled.  For those not familiar with CGM designs, below is a photo page I created to share with members of the design committee when I was still a committee member. It shows several medals designed by the U.S. Mint, including one for the Office of Strategic Services and the Military Intelligence Service. The OSS and MIS medals have already honored two tiny groups within Merrill’s Marauders – the Nisei and OSS attached to the unit.  I also created five pages of collected design ideas which included the verbal ideas from all living Marauders I canvassed at that time.  Ideas from graphic designers Tom Walker, who created the Marauder honor plaques, and Ted Burzynski, who has created several Marauder challenge coins were also included.

Please click for CGM examples.

When Covid-19 restrictions began to loosen at the Georgia State Capitol, Sen. Ed Harbison and Roger Wise, often referred to as “Georgia’s Mr. Facilitator – The Go to Guy,” showed their continued support for Merrill’s Marauders by having their photo taken with a Marauder sign in the State Capital halls.  With assistance from Wise, Harbison in 2019 introduced a resolution passed by the Georgia legislature urging Congress and the President to support the Marauder Congressional Gold Medal Act.  Georgia was the second state behind California to introduce a resolution.  Both men are in the Georgia Military Veterans Hall of Fame.  Photos of Georgia Military Veterans Hall of Fame inductees are displayed at the Capitol, and include many Rangers and Georgia’s last Merrill’s Marauder, Vincent Melillo. 

Easter Sunday 1944 is a day most Marauders never forgot.  It was one of the few times all three battalions, which operated independently, were together. That was the day 2^nd Battalion was rescued by 3rd and 1^st Battalions after being surrounded by the Japanese for almost two weeks. Four of the seven still-living Merrill’s Marauders were with the 2^nd Battalion at Nphum ga; Russell Hamler, 96, from Pennsylvania, Rocco Deluca, 98, from Connecticut, Gabriel Kinney,100, from Alabama, and Gilbert Howland, 98 on April 12, from New Jersey.  

Called “Maggot Hill,” Nphum ga was enveloped in an overpowering stench that caused some 3^rd and 1^st Battalion men to vomit as they fought their way up the hill to rescue 2^nd Battalion. Water holes had been polluted by dead mules and supplies had fallen outside the perimeter. The Marauders were heavily outnumbered and had no heavy artillery. Hamler had been pinned in his foxhole by a dead body. Men from the 2^nd Battalion looked like dazed, walking skeletons when rescued. Merrill’s Marauder Bob Passanisi, 96, from New York was with 1^st Battalion, and said, “That 1944 rescue was an unbelievable event, and everybody attended mass that day, regardless of their religion.” 

Please look at the attachments below that provide a window into the horror of that battle. Read the poignant letter written by Lt. Logan Weston, 3^rd Battalion, to the mother of one of his men, Dan Carrigan, killed fighting his way up the hill to rescue 2^nd BN.

To commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the end of WW I in 2018, I created “The Courageous Women of WW I and the 1910 Decade,” which consists of more than 100 slides that were modified for presentations at Ft. Benning, the WW II Round Table, FDR’s Little White House, the Currahee Military Museum and other locations. I’ve selected four for Women’s History Month 2021.  I hope you enjoy the four I’ve chosen. Click on individual images for full view.