Under the fiery leadership of Merritt Red Mike Edson, the 1st Marine Raider Battalion provided the vanguard of a strategic experiment with seaborne commando units in the Pacific. From 1942 to 1943 Edson's Raiders fought seven critical battles in Tulagi, Guadalcanal, and New Georgia against some of Japan's most experienced jungle fighters. Twenty-four Raiders had ships named in their honor. Col. Joseph Alexander's book presents abundant first-person accounts of the conflicts, from Edson himself to such hard-nosed NCOs as Angus Goss, Walter Burak, and Anthony Palonis.