It has taken nearly 78 years, but a band of soldiers from an Army unit nicknamed "Merrill s Marauders," who undertook one of the most dangerous and pivotal missions of World
Lawmakers on Wednesday awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to Merrill’s Marauders, bestowing the nation’s highest civilian honor to the famed Army unit from World War II.
Robert E. Passanisi, who as a 17-year-old doctored his birth certificate in 1942 so that he could join the Army and ended up in Burma as one of Merrill’s Marauders, died on Tuesday at his home in Lindenhurst, N.Y. He was 97.