Frank Dow Merrill was born on December 4, 1903. He enlisted
in the Regular Army in 1922 and graduated from West Point in
1929. He obtained his B.S. degree in military engineering
from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1938, Merrill
studied Japanese and Chinese while working as the assistant
military attaché at the United States Embassy in Tokyo. By
October 1941 he was promoted to major and assigned to Manila as
General Douglas MacArthur's intelligence
officer.
When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Merrill was
in Rangoon, Burma on a flying mission for MacArthur. He
remained there to become General Joseph W.
Stilwell's aid in the China-Burma-India Theater.
In the Spring of 1942 Merrill was promoted to lieutenant
colonel. In July he was awarded the Order of the Purple
Heart for his meritorious actions in Burma between March and
May 1942. In October 1943 Merrill prepared a long-range
penetration group of about 3000 U.S. infantrymen, for a
hazardous mission in Burma. After intensive training in jungle
warfare, Merrill's Marauders became the first American infantrymen to fight on
the Asiatic mainland.
In March 1944, after a 100-mile march, they surprised the enemy
by blocking the only Japanese supply line in the Hukawng Valley.
In September of 1944, Merrill was promoted to major general.
Towards the end of his active military career, he suffered
from heart problems, as a result of which he was relieved of
his command. In 1945 he served as General Stilwell's Chief of
Staff and later as commander of the Sixth Army at San Francisco.
After retirement from the Army, Merrill moved back to New
Hampshire with his wife and two sons to become New Hampshire's
Highway Commissioner. He died December 12, 1955 of a heart
attack after attending a meeting of the American Association
of State Highway Officials in New Orleans, where he had just
been elected president of that organization.