Last member of Merrill’s Marauders WWII unit dies at 99

(27 Dec 2023) RESTRICTION SUMMARY: 4:3 ASPECT RATIO BRITISH MOVIETONE British Movietone is an historical collection. Any views and expressions within either the video or metadata of the collection are reproduced for historical accuracy and do not represent the opinions or editorial policies of the Associated Press. ARCHIVE: Burma - 21 July 1944 1. Various shots of camp, where air personnel live, various signs about camp HEADLINE: LAST OF MERRILL’S MARAUDERS WWII UNIT DIES AT 99 ANNOTATION: The reputed last member of the famed American jungle fighting unit in World War II nicknamed the Merrill’s Marauders has died. ANNOTATION: Russell Hamler, 99, died on Tuesday, his son Jeffrey said. He did not give a cause of death. 2. Wide of carrier transport plane crash lands ANNOTATION: Hamler was the last living Marauder, the daughter of a late former Marauder, Jonnie Melillo Clasen, told Stars and Stripes. ANNOTATION: In 2022, the Marauders received the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress’ highest honor. 3. Various shots of Stinson planes, taking wounded ANNOTATION: The soldiers spent months behind enemy lines, marching through the tangled jungles and steep mountains of Burma to capture a Japanese-held airfield. 4. Various of American graves tended by comrades ANNOTATION: Starting with 3,000 soldiers, the Marauders completed their mission five months later with barely 200 men still in the fight. STORYLINE: The reputed last member of the famed American jungle fighting unit in World War II nicknamed the Merrill’s Marauders has died. Russell Hamler, 99, died on Tuesday, his son Jeffrey said. He did not give a cause of death. Hamler was the last living Marauder, according to a biography published by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in January. Hamler had been living in the Pittsburgh area, where he was born in 1924, and enlisted in the Army at 18, according to the department’s biography. In 2022, the Marauders received the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress’ highest honor. The Marauders inspired a 1962 movie called “Merrill’s Marauders,“ and dozens of Marauders were awarded individual decorations after the war, from the Distinguished Service Cross to the Silver Star. The Army also awarded the Bronze Star to every soldier in the unit. The soldiers spent months behind enemy lines, marching hundreds of miles through the tangled jungles and steep mountains of Burma to capture a Japanese-held airfield and open an Allied supply route between India and China. They battled hunger and disease between firefights with Japanese forces during their secret mission, a grueling journey of roughly 1,000 miles (1,610 kilometers) on foot that killed almost all of them. In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt agreed to have the Army assemble a ground unit for a long-range mission behind enemy lines into Japanese-occupied Burma, now Myanmar. Seasoned infantrymen and newly enlisted soldiers alike volunteered for the mission, deemed so secret they weren’t told where they were going. Merrill’s Marauders — nicknamed for the unit’s commander, Brig. Gen. Frank Merrill — were tasked with cutting off Japanese communications and supply lines along their long march to the airfield at the occupied town of Myitkyina. Often outnumbered, they successfully fought Japanese troops in five major engagements, plus 30 minor ones, between February and August 1944. Hamler was awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. He became an aircraft mechanic for Trans World Airlines and retired from it in 1985, the department said. =========================================================== Find out more about AP Archive: Twitter: Facebook: ​​ Instagram: You can license this story through AP Archive: