Evans Carlson

United States Marine Corps general

Evans Fordyce Carlson (February 26, 1896 – May 27, 1947) was a decorated and retired United States Marine Corps general officer who was the leader of "Carlson's Raiders" during World War II. Many credit Carlson with developing the tactics and attitude that would later come to define America's special operations forces. He is renowned for the "Makin Island raid" in 1942, and his raiders' "Long Patrol" (aka Carlson's patrol) behind Japanese lines on Guadalcanal, in which 488 Japanese were killed. Carlson popularized the phrase "gung ho".

Evans Carlson was born on February 26, 1896, in Sidney, New York, the son of a Congregationalist minister. He ran away from his home in Vermont in 1910 and two years later disguised his age to enter the United States Army. Carlson often had leftwing political views, prompting General David M. Shoup to say of him, "He may be red, but he's not yellow." When Carlson left China in 1938, he was commended by the commander in chief of the Asiatic Fleet for his services. Carlson was so impressed with the danger of Japanese aggression in the Far East that in 1939, he resigned his commission as a captain in order to be free to write and lecture on that subject. When the danger he foresaw neared reality in 1941, Carlson applied to be recommissioned in the Marine Corps and was accepted with the rank of major.

In 1942, he was placed in command of the Second Marine Raider Battalion with the rank of lieutenant colonel, a new combat organization whose creation he influenced. Because of his relationship with President Roosevelt and the president's son, Captain James Roosevelt, a Marine reserve captain who authored a letter to the Commandant of the Marine Corps proposing the creation of the Raiders, the Marine Corps authorized the creation of the Raiders despite misgivings about Carlson's philosophy. In the United States military there was a sharp caste system divide between officers and enlisted personnel, and even experienced noncommissioned officers were expected to be subservient to even the newest, greenest second lieutenant. Drawing on his time in China and his experience in having gone back and forth between officer and enlisted status in both the Army and the Marine Corps that this was not in the best interests of the service, Carlson radically reformed the raider battalion along much more egalitarian lines. Of more lasting importance to the Marine Corps, Carlson also changed the organization of his squads, eschewing an eight man squad dictated by the Marines in favor of a 10 man squad composed of a squad leader and three 3 man "fireteams", each containing a BAR, a Thompson, and an M1 rifle.

Carlson was soon ordered back to the United States for medical treatment of malaria and jaundice, and served as a technical advisor to Walter Wanger's Gung Ho! : The Story of Carlson's Makin Island Raiders (released December 1943). He subsequently returned to the Pacific campaign and participated in the Battle of Tarawa in November 1943, as an observer, and was cited for volunteering to carry vital information through enemy fire from an advanced post to division headquarters. During the Battle of Saipan in 1944, he was wounded while attempting to rescue a wounded enlisted radioman from a front line observation post, and was awarded a second Purple Heart (5/16 inch gold star in lieu of second Purple Heart).

Physical disability resulting from the wounds received on Saipan caused Carlson's retirement on July 1, 1946. He was advanced to the rank of brigadier general on the retired list at that time for having been specially commended for the performance of duty in actual combat. On May 27, 1947, at age 51, Carlson died as the result of a cardiac ailment at Emanuel Hospital in Portland, Oregon. He had been living in Brightwood, Oregon, since his retirement. He was survived by his wife, Mrs. Peggy Tatum Carlson, and a son by a previous marriage, Evans C. Carlson. General Carlson is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.