Russell Hamler was the last of roughly 3,000 original Merrill’s Marauders. (C-SPAN screenshot)
The last surviving member of World War II’s famed Merrill’s Marauders, who endured harsh conditions, malnutrition and relentless tropical disease as they fought behind Japanese enemy lines in Burma, has died.
Russell Hamler died Tuesday at a veterans hospital in Pittsburgh, Pa. He was 99.
His death was confirmed by Jonnie Melillo Clasen, whose father was a Marauder. In recent years, Clasen has served as an informal liaison to the still-living Marauders and their families as the veterans grew too old for reunions.
Hamler had been living with his son Jeffrey in Baldwin Township, Pa., until he was hospitalized, Clasen told Stars and Stripes in an email Tuesday.
Hamler was the last of roughly 3,000 original Marauders who were sent to capture an airfield in Burma, now known as Myanmar, a mission few were expected to survive.
Hamler was born in 1924 and raised in the townships of Mount Lebanon and Baldwin in Pennsylvania, according to a biography published by the Department of Veterans Affairs in January.
As a teenager, he took care of horses on several area farms.
At age 18, Hamler joined the U.S. Army in June 1942, spurred on by the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
He completed basic training in Fort Riley, Kan., and was assigned to the 27th Cavalry Troop and sent to Puerto Rico, the bio states.
Hamler volunteered to join the 5307th Composite Unit Provisional, commanded by Brig. Gen. Frank Merrill. The unit arrived in India in October 1943 and began a 1,000-mile march to and through Burma to seize a Japanese-held airfield in the city of Myitkyina.
Russell Hamler and Merrill’s Marauders endured harsh conditions, malnutrition and relentless tropical disease as they fought behind Japanese enemy lines in Burma. (Department of Veterans Affairs)
Hamler was wounded in the hip by a mortar fragment during the battle of Nhpum Ga in late March 1944, one of the fiercest clashes the beleaguered Marauders faced.
Hamler lay immobile in his foxhole for more than 10 days until rescue forces arrived.
“We were surrounded,” Hamler said in the VA biography. “We accepted it for what it was.”
The Marauders captured the airfield on May 17, 1944, and the 5307th was disbanded in August 1944 after the unit captured Myitkyina.
Roughly 200 of the original 3,000 members remained with the unit at that point.
After his rescue, Hamler was evacuated to a hospital in India, where he recuperated for five months, and then sent back to Pennsylvania. He served as a military policeman until he was discharged in December 1945.
Hamler was awarded a Bronze Star and Purple Heart. He was among the handful of Marauders still living when the original members were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2022.
Hamler will be interred at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies in Pittsburgh, but the date of the funeral has not yet been finalized, Clasen said.
