Initially, Tsubota and the other men thought the firing was part of the maneuvers, but quickly learned it wasn't. 7, 1941, Tsubota was on maneuvers with G Company of the Hawaii National Guard's 298th Infantry Regiment. Tsubota, born in Honolulu in 1915, is now the oldest Merrill's Marauder and is also the only one of the Marauders' Japanese-American interpreters - or Nisei - who is still living. Jones of Greeneville, Tennessee, that prompted a reader, Brian Yamamoto, to share that another 101-year-old original Marauder, Thomas Tsubota, lives in Hawaii. It was a Fort Benning "Bayonet and Saber" story a few weeks ago about the funeral of 101-year-old Marauder John M. That three elderly Marauders from that "impossible mission" have reached 101 years old and a fourth lived to 100 is a testament to the Army's 1943 stipulation that all the Marauders "will be of a high state of physical ruggedness." They were the first American ground troops to fight the Japanese in Asia. With only what they could carry on their backs or pack on mules, the Marauders walked farther than any other WW II fighting force. Those steps turned into an almost 1,000-mile, history-making march through the enemy-held Himalayan foothills into the jungles of Burma. Taking that next step is what kept the outfit together to the bitter end." They leaned forward and took one more step and then another. "These Soldiers, (who did) not even expected to survive, did survive by forcing themselves to take the next step. "It was hard to keep going as we wore down, became debilitated and our numbers began to decrease," said Wilson recently from his home in Rice, Virginia.
Marshall, then Army chief of staff, said the Burma mission "was one of the most difficult of the war." Marshall also said that mission against "large numbers of the enemy with few resources was unmatched in any theater." Winston Churchill, British prime minister at the time, described Burma as "the most forbidding fighting country imaginable." Gen. 10, 1944, in Burma, slightly more than 100 of the original Marauders remained. Wilson said that when the remaining elements of the unit were disbanded on Aug. Yet those extraordinary volunteers achieved their final objective on May 17, 1944, of capturing north Burma's only all-weather Myitkyina airstrip by defeating the much larger elite 18th Japanese Imperial Guards Division in five major battles and 30 minor engagements.
The retired Army lieutenant general, who helped start Delta Force and still contributes to military publications, explained, "A plan existed on paper to get us into Burma, but no plan existed to get us out." "We were expendable," said Merrill's Marauder Sam V. What is even more remarkable is that those Infantry jungle fighters, who have been called everything from "misfits" to "magnificent," weren't even expected to survive. Living to be a centenarian is remarkable. Three Merrill's Marauders, 1944 survivors of the secret mission of almost 3,000 presidential volunteers who fought through the disease-ridden "forgotten theater" of World War II, the China-Burma-India Theater, have lived to the age of 101. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL 2 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – (Photo Credit: U.S. 1 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – (Photo Credit: U.S.
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