Bio
MG Frank D. Merrill is best known today as the commander of ‘Merrill’s Marauders,’ a legacy unit in the lineage of today’s U.S. Army Rangers. A 1929 graduate of West Point, Merrill was caught in Rangoon, Burma, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.
After serving as the G-3 Operations Officer to LTG Joseph W. Stilwell, Merrill was given command of the only American ground combat unit in the China-Burma-India Theater, the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional). Code named GALAHAD, but better known as Merrill’s Marauders, the Long Range Penetration Group was instrumental in seizing the city of Myitkyina and causing the Japanese to relinquish their hold on north Burma.
Merrill was inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame in 1992. Camp Frank D. Merrill in Dahlonega, Georgia, is home to the 5th Ranger Training Battalion and the mountain phase of the U.S. Army Ranger School.
