Product Description Before the Green Berets...Before the Navy SEALs...Before the Army Rangers...There was the Long Patrol.
November 1942: in the hellish combat zone of Guadalcanal, one man would make history.
Lieutenant Colonel Evans Carlson was considered a maverick by many of his comrades-and seen as a traitor by some. He spent years observing guerrilla tactics all over the world, and knew that those tactics could be adapted effectively by the Marines.
Carlson and an elite fighting force-the 2nd Raider Battalion-embarked upon a thirty-day mission behind enemy lines where they disrupted Japanese supplies, inflicted a string of defeats on the enemy in open combat, and gathered invaluable intelligence on Japanese operations on Guadalcanal. And in the process they helped lay the foundation for Special Forces in the modern military.
Here for the first time is a riveting account of one man, one battalion, and one mission that would resonate through the annals of military history.
Outstanding Book On The Marine RaidersMay 12, 2010 J. Williams(Lubbock TX) 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
John Wukovits has done an outstanding job in bringing the story of the 2nd Raider Battalion to his readers. The book is very well researched and contains a fantastic collection of photos, both of the Makin Island Raid and of the Long Patrol on Guadalcanal.
It is not a biography of Evans Carlson. The reader does not learn that Carlson's wife's name was Peggy until page 270. This is more the story of the unit than of the man. But, this high school dropout who lied about his age and joined the army at 16 completely dominates the pages with his will and his almost unbelieveable qualities of personal leadership.
The book is well balanced, neither idolizing Carlson, nor cutting him down. It objectively reports his failures as well as his successes. The reader does come away with the impression that Carlson was a truly great American who did his duty as he saw it, loved the men who served in his battalion, but who did have flaws.
"American Commando" clearly addresses the controversy of the nine raiders who did not get off Makin Island and were later captured and executed by the Japanese. Wukovits cites Raiders McCullough and Quirk to solve the mystery as to how the nine men never got to the waiting submarines.
I recommend that "American Commando" be read first and then followed by reading Tripp Wiles 2007 book, "Forgotten Raiders of 42," which focuses strictly on what happened to the nine men who were left behind.
"GET SOME", RAIDERS.... You are "Good Ta Go"!December 18, 2009 Max E. Roark 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I found this book to be very informative about the origin of the Raiders. I have always heard that they were one tough S.O.B.'s when I was growing up, and they may have been part of the reason I later joined the Corps. I worked around present day "Raiders" some, now called "Force Recon" and if Recon Marines are anything at all like the Raiders were, then all of you Seals, Green Berets, etc... can kiss old "Chesty's" a**! (Wherever he is).
All in all, A good read by an author who does some really good research and doesn't "sugar-coat" some of the things that may have tarnished Carlson's image just a tad. Noticed that I said, "may have". Carlson had been targeted by alot of Marine officers with many unkind rumors, so I am giving him the benefit of the doubt, and I'm pretty sure if you read this book, you'll be siding with him also.
NOT THE FORUNNER!October 26, 2009 G. Sydnor 1 out of 4 found this review helpful
AS a former hospital corpsman(medic) with the seal teams, I was caught by the title page........the raiders were not the grandaddy of special ops as is suggested. The army rangers, oss og's(real foreruneer of green berets) and navy scout raiders and UDT( organization from which the seal teams came) were created on the same timeline. ww2 was a test tank of special ops, and what is really telling with the marine corps, is that they did away with raiders and parachute marines as quickly as they could.
All of the regular services disliked special ops and got rid of units when the war ended and it was several years before they returned. The rangers, oss, etc were all done away with. The only service that kept any unit intact was the navy with UDT, which thought small and poorly funded managed to hang on. Green berets appeared in 1950"s, The ranger batt.s were not recreated till the 1980s, and the marines came out with force recon in the 50"s. Raiders can claim parentage of force recon and the current marine soc meu if anything
Outstanding, a Must ReadSeptember 15, 2009 G. E. Kugler(Big Arm, Montana United States) 7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I have read a lot of military books and this one is just outstanding. The author has done a remarkable job documenting a group of WW II Marines who were the forerunner of todays popular Spec Ops. Only when you read about their leader, Evans Carlson, and his commitment and leadership style in spite of directions to the contrary, it is one remarkable story. And it isnt just a story, it is a true story of some remarkable men who laid it all on the line for this country and then some. And I learned the origin of the Marine phrase line Gung Ho; and I learned where Marine organization at the squad level into Fire Teams came from ... and did the maverick Carlson get credit, you'll learn after his group nearly single handedly saved the airstrip on Guadalcanal, he was drummed from the Corps in a wave of politics. A unique man, a unique group of men and an unbelievable story of real leadership and human triumph and real war.
Great book. Well written, objective and through.September 12, 2009 David McClure(San Francisco) 7 out of 7 found this review helpful
This book is extremely well written and thorough. It covers Evan Carlson's life, the genesis, birth and history of Carlson's Raiders including their two most famous actions: The Makin Raid and the Long Patrol. It details Carlson's history with the Chinese Communists studying their tactics against the Japanese and his long, close relationship with President Roosevelt as well as the critical reception his unorthodox methods received from many of his contemporaries in the Marine Corps.
