In early 1944, the US Army sent out a call for volunteers for "a dangerous and hazardous mission". Approximately 3,000 men were then selected and Merrill’s Marauders were organized as an elite light infantry assault unit. These men were sent into Burma on a 1000 mile march to confront the previously undefeated Japanese Imperial Army. My father was one of these men.

The unit became famous for its long-range penetration missions behind Japanese lines, often engaging Imperial Japanese forces superior in number. A prototype for Army Ranger operations, the Marauders eventually spent six grueling months in the jungles fighting the Japanese in numerous battles all the while being ravaged by typhus and malaria. By the time the airfield and town of Myitkyina was taken, only about 200 surviving members of the original Marauders were present. Of the 2,750 to enter Burma, only two were left alive who had never been hospitalized with wounds or major illness. Somehow, my dad, who had suffered wounds and disease, was one of those men still standing when reinforcements finally arrived.

Near the end of his life my dad finally decided to attend a reunion and he asked me to take him. At last I would meet some of these ordinary men who held legendary status as US Army Rangers as well as in my mind. Only a handful of these men remained.