"The 1st and 2nd Marine Raider Battalions were a tough, hand-picked volunteer force, trained in jungle warfare, honed in the arts of Chinese and Japanese close combat and sent to the Pacific to beat the enemy at his own deadly game. A controversial elite that became the forerunners of the Army's Green Berets and the Marine Force Recon Units, the Raiders were in action only one and a half years, from 1941-42. But during that time they became known as the toughest commandos in the world, famed for their amphibious raids, recon missions and jungle warfare. They battled their way through the Gilbert Islands, Guadalcanal, Makin, New Georgia, Guam and Okinawa, led by Lt. Col. "Red Mike" Edson, of the 1st Raider Battalion, and Lt. Col. Evan F. Carlson, whose Communist-inspired "Gung-Ho" style helped the 2nd Raider Battalion turn the war around in the Solomon Islands."-- From the back cover.