Merrill's Marauders

When the airfield was finally taken three months later, only 130 able-bodied soldiers remained of the 2,600 who had crossed into Burma in 1944 with Merrill’s Marauders, a fabled unit that was one of the forerunners of the Army’s Special Operations elite, the 75th Ranger Regiment.

On Dec. 29, Russell Hamler, the last survivor of Merrill’s Marauders, died at a veterans’ hospital in Pittsburgh.

Originally sent to Puerto Rico, he volunteered, like all of the men in Merrill’s Marauders, for a secretive mission with anticipated casualties of up to 85 percent.

George McGee, by name, according to a 2013 history, “Merrill’s Marauders” by Gavin Mortimer.

A 1962 movie, “Merrill’s Marauders,” directed by Samuel Fuller, made General Merrill the hero, but it appalled many veterans of the unit, including some who considered Colonel Hunter their true leader, according to Mr. Mortimer’s book.