#348 Frank Wright - The Last Living Original Marine Raider From WW2

Frank Wright was 16 years old and building a balsawood Fokker D8 at his dining room table when he heard the news about Pearl Harbor. He didn’t know where Pearl Harbor was, but he knew he wanted to join the Marine Corps—partly because he thought the uniform was “a heck of a lot prettier,” a “chick getter.” The recruiters wouldn’t take him: he was too young and too light. So his aunt filled out a belated, uncertified birth certificate, and Wright stuffed five pounds of bananas into his blouse to make weight. The recruiting sergeant looked the other way. That is how the last living original Marine Raider entered the service.

The Raiders and the Kill Mindset

Wright wanted to be an airplane mechanic, but the Marine Corps had other plans. A senior drill instructor named A.H. Allen recognized something in him and put in a bid for the newly formed 4th Marine Raider Battalion—one of the Corps’ earliest special operations units. Their commanding officer was James Roosevelt, the president’s son. Roosevelt’s first words to the assembled Raiders were simple: “Kill. That’s what I want you to remember. Kill.” He trained them to do exactly that. Wright recalls being able to kill a man with two blows—a strike to break the nose and a cross-hand blow to the throat. He was 17 the first time he used it. “I go to church, thou shalt not kill,” he said. “But not at the colonel.”