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American Commando: Evans Carlson, His WW II Marine Raiders, and America's First Special Forces Mission
 
 
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American Commando: Evans Carlson, His WW II Marine Raiders, and America's First Special Forces Mission [Hardcover]

John Wukovits (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)


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Book Description

June 2, 2009
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.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Wukovits is the author of One Square Mile of Hell and Pacific Alamo, as well as several military biographies and articles.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 352 pages
  • Publisher: NAL Hardcover; First Printing edition (June 2, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0451226925
  • ISBN-13: 978-0451226921
  • Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #719,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

14 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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53 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars American Commando, July 8, 2009
This review is from: American Commando: Evans Carlson, His WW II Marine Raiders, and America's First Special Forces Mission (Hardcover)
American Commando
By John Wukovitz
The "Big Yankee" Evans Fordyce Carlson lives again,
he converts a battalion of marines volunteers to Marine
Raiders, by training, equipping and indoctrinating them
with the philosophy of Nicaraguan jungle fighting and
the Japanese terrorizing Chinese 8th Route Army.
Follow Carlson from a high school dropout, enlisting
in the Army, the Marines, a guerrilla fighter in Nicaragua,
to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's personal
intelligence officer in China. A predictor of the Jap-
anese war he resigns his commission to warn the nation.
Comes the war, finding a crippled navy and Japan
occupying twenty million square miles of the Pacific.
FDR demands commandos and a reluctant Marine
Corps succumbs. The Marine Raiders are born,
the first special force in the United States military.
The 2nd Raiders led by Carlson and Jimmy Roosevelt
are trained to a well honed killing machine. The infantry
squad is reorganizes into massive fire power by three
fire groups each equipped with an M1 rifle a Browning
automatic rifle and a Thompson sub machine gun,
eventually adapted by the entire Marine Corps. They
participated in the defense of Midway; a raid by sub-
marines to Makin Island, where the Raiders can not
leave the island as their rubber boats are toppled
by the raging surf. Carlson is confronted with 120
men ashore, the wounded, 20 armed raiders all other
arms lost in the surf and the Presidents son on the
island. Spearheading a failed airfield site on Guadal-
canal2nd Raiders are ordered to plunge into the back-
waters of the Island. They decimated an enemy
force of superior size. After thirty days in a jungle
hell they emerge victorious from behind enemy lines
having killed 488 Japanese and losing 16 killed in
action. Not the darling of the Marine Corps, Carlson
looses his command, he die at 51 following wars end.
The Raiders participated in every assault in the Solo-
mon Islands as Raiders and as 4th Marines and indi-
viduals in all island hopping events in the Pacific. The
Raiders were disbanded in February 1944 after two
years of existence. They were the forerunner of the
Special Forces now found in every branch of the U.
S. military.

I can verify the accuracy of this book as I served as
a 2nd Marine Raider for the duration of the battalion
and of the 266 who made the original landing was one
of the 57 who completed the long patrol. This book is
incredible well documented. Many surviving Raiders
were interviewed and their 65year old memories stim-
ulated. the actions of dead raiders was culled from
numerous sources. Perhaps this is the best books
of many about the Raiders.

Ervin Kaplan MD
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Simply amazing, June 16, 2009
This review is from: American Commando: Evans Carlson, His WW II Marine Raiders, and America's First Special Forces Mission (Hardcover)
"American Commando" delivers what it promises: a thorough telling of the story of Carlson's Raiders. In fact, it delivers more than I expected, with a complete narrative starting prior to the inception of the Raiders, their training, then with their first mission to Makin Island, and through their extraordinary ordeal on Guadalcanal. For one who had only the Hollywood movie "Gung Ho" to go by, this book was truly an eye-opener; the film has a long way to go to match the reality. The story is obviously expertly researched and has a good collection of photos.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book. Well written, objective and through., September 12, 2009
By 
This review is from: American Commando: Evans Carlson, His WW II Marine Raiders, and America's First Special Forces Mission (Hardcover)
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.
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