Marine Raiders US Flag

  The Marine Raiders are special operations forces originally established by the United States Marine Corps during World War II to conduct amphibious light infantry warfare. "Edson's" Raiders of 1st Marine Raider Battalion and "Carlson's" Raiders of 2nd Marine Raider Battalion are said to have been the first United States special operations forces to form and see combat during World War II. Despite the original intent for Raiders to serve in a special operations capacity, most combat operations saw the Raiders employed as conventional infantry. This, combined with the resentment within the rest of the Marine Corps that the Raiders were an "elite force within an elite force", led to the original Raider units being disbanded. Four Raider battalions served operationally but all were disbanded on 8 January 1944, when the Marine Corps made the doctrinal decision that the Raiders had outlived their original mission. The changing nature of the war in the Pacific, with many large-scale amphibi