Merrill's Marauders OK'd for Congressional Gold Medal

From the October 14, 2020, Chicago Tribune "Merrill's Marauders of WW II OK'd for congressional medal" by Russ Bynum (AP).

They spent months behind enemy lines, marching hundreds of miles through the tangled jungles and steep mountains of Burma as they battled hunger and disease between firefights with Japanese forces during their secret mission.

In February 1944, the American jungle fighting unit nicknamed Merrill's Marauders set out to capture a Japanese-held airfield and open an Allied supply route between India and China.  Starting with 3,000 soldiers, the Marauders completed their mission five months later with barely 200 men still in the fight.

The journey of roughly 1,000 miles on foot was so grueling that fighting "was the easy part," said Robert Passanisi, who at age 96 is among just nine known Marauders  still known to be alive.

Now the Marauders, officially designated by the Army as the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), have been approved by Congress to be awarded its highest honor: the Congressional Gold Medal.

--GreGen