Edson's Star

By any Marine's book, chill-eyed, cool-blooded Colonel Merritt Edson is the Corps's ideal fighting man, full of military judgment, cold nerve and a complete devotion to his troops. He is the classic professional.

On the Solomons, where he commanded a now famed battalion of raiders, 46-year-old Colonel Edson directed his troops with never a flicker of his eyelashes, never a rise in his impersonal voice. Men under fire were braced by his characteristic battle pose: arms folded easily over his lower chest, feet wide apart, eyes darting from under his steel helmet.

For what he did on Guadalcanal, Merritt Edson, one of the Corps's great small-arms experts, won the Congressional Medal of Honor and the British D.S.O. to add to a string of ribbons already long.

In the lashing fire of Tarawa marines saw him again. His arms were still folded and his voice was as calm as if he had been sitting at a desk in Washington.

Last week marines learned that Merritt Edson had scored again. To the Senate for confirmation went his appointment as a brigadier general. For most leathernecks' money, it was about time.

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