Marine Corps Base Quantico -- On Dec. 13, 1955, four months and one day after the death of the legendary Maj. Gen. Merritt Austin Edson, Edson Hall was dedicated aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico. The building is located on the current Marine Corps University campus and housed Marine Corps Officer Communications School from 1955 through Sept. 2014. During that period, thousands of lieutenants, captains, majors and warrant officers trained at Edson Hall in the Basic, Advanced and Warrant Officer Communications Courses and Command and Control Systems Course.
However, according to Kirk Nelson, assistant chief of staff for Installations and Environment Division, in September 2014, “the facility was vacated as the school moved to 29 Palms, consolidating officer and enlisted communication training in one location.” Edson Hall has essentially sat vacant since and will soon be torn down. Demolition operations began Nov. 30 and will be complete in the spring.
Despite the loss of Edson Hall, the legend of “Red Mike” Edson lives on, as does his impact on the Marine Corps. As the bronze dedication plaque affixed to Edson Hall read, “Aviator and infantryman; meticulous in training, perfectionist in plans, audacious in combat, his leadership added luster to the battle honors of the Corps in Nicaragua, Tulagi, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan and Tinian … He kept burnished his high ideals of service.”
Edson was a highly decorated Marine, having earned the Medal of Honor, two Navy Crosses, the Silver Star, two Legions of Merit with a Combat Distinguishing Device, Distinguished Marksman status and numerous other honors. Edson earned the MOH while serving as the commanding officer of 1st Marine Raider Battalion—known in the hearts of his men and to history as “Edson’s Raiders”— during the defense of Lunga Ridge on Guadalcanal in World War II. His citation reads, in part, “When the enemy, in a subsequent series of violent assaults, engaged our force in desperate hand-to-hand combat with bayonets, rifles, pistols, grenades, and knives, Col. Edson, although continuously exposed to hostile fire throughout the night, personally directed defense of the reserve position against a fanatical foe of greatly superior numbers.” Ultimately, the Marines triumphed and were able to retain the recently seized airfield they had renamed Henderson Field.
Regarding Edson’s Raiders, “they would have gone to hell and back for Dad,” said Edson’s son, retired Maj. Herbert R. Edson.
General Edson “actually enlisted in 1917 in Boston when President Wilson declared war” and even started boot camp, but when the instructors found out that he had over a year of college education, “they commissioned him a second lieutenant,” said his son.
General Edson served on active duty from 1917 through 1947, a tradition carried on by his sons, Herbert and the late Merritt Austin Edson, Jr., and grandson, Col. David W. Edson, who currently serves as the deputy director of the Brute Krulak Center for Applied Creativity aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico.
Colonel Edson has had the literal opportunity to walk in his grandfather’s footsteps at Quantico, as Gen. Edson was assigned here on a number of occasions throughout his career. Edson said his grandfather participated in “officer training and basic artillery training here during WWI and was part of the fledgling staff of MCI [Marine Corps Installations] here following WWI. He was also one of the early designated naval aviators flying out of Brown field—now OCS—during the 1920s.
“My grandfather was assigned to Quantico prior to WWII and deeply involved in the evolution of amphibious doctrine and the development of the Raider Battalion purpose, mission and structure, culminating in the standup of the 1st Marine Raider Battalion here prior to embarking for the Pacific Theater in 1942. Following WWII, there was no doubt he was present here to work the policy issues that informed the Corps’ fight during the Congressional unification debates, ultimately preserving the Corps as a separate service.”
At the time of his father’s death in 1955, Gen. Edson was working as a consultant on the Secretary of Defense’s Advisory Committee on Prisoners of War Maj. Edson said. The committee helped to develop the Code of Conduct that has guided American service members in war for the last sixty years.
In addition to Edson Hall, Gen. Edson’s service was commemorated with the dedication of the USS Edson, a U.S. Navy destroyer that was in active service from 1958 through 1988 and is now the principal display of the Saginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum located in Bay City, Michigan.
On August 21, 1964, in recognition of Edson’s significant contributions to combat marksmanship throughout his career, Edson Range was dedicated at Camp Pendleton, California, now home to Weapons and Field Training Battalion, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego.
Though demolition has only recently begun on Edson Hall, MCU already has plans for the site on which it sits. According to Ronald Reese, director of Facilities and Logistics for MCU, the “MCU Facilities Master Plan identifies a continuation of a future running path that will encircle the campus and an outdoor teaching space. The amphitheater will be a simple feature that takes advantage of the green space and provides a venue for subjects that are best taught outdoors.” There is no word yet on when the path and structure would be complete.
— Writer: ebaker@quanticosentryonline.com