Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
7:22 | After his basic training, James Richardson was sent to Trinidad, where there was concern about a possible German refueling station in the Caribbean. That didn't pan out but the word went through his unit that volunteers were being sought for an unspecified "rugged mission." Single men only.
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As soon as James Richardson was drafted in 1942, he was being singled out and given tests for various things. They must have seen something special in him because he would go on to be a member of Merrill's Marauders, famed for their brave actions in Burma.
Why volunteer for an unknown "rugged mission" in an unknown location? James Richardson thought he might get an overdue furlough. That didn't happen and he wound up in India, where the people and the wildlife were unlike anything he'd ever seen. As he marched toward the Himalayas, he was told to drop something he'd carried every day in the Army.
When James Richardson got to the jungles of Burma, he was tapped to be a messenger. He got a little nervous about approaching the lines in the dark, but the communication was good and he was OK on his own in the dark with his Thompson ready to go. The shadowy unit finally found themselves cut off by the Japanese and trapped in the village of Napumga.
He didn't hear or see the source, but a piece of shrapnel hit James Richardson in the shoulder. He begged a reluctant buddy to dig it out with a knife, then got it dressed by a medic. He was told he could be evacuated, but that wasn't the way the way men thought in this particular unit.
When the city of Myitkyina and it's air strip was captured by Merrill's Marauders, it was the end of the mission for the famed unit. James Richardson had been in the field so long surviving on meager rations that he could hardly eat his victory dinner when he got back to India.
