War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its size,

and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Thank you. your host, James Early. Hi, everybody.

James here.

I wanted to make a special announcement.

I'm very excited to let you know about this.

I've had several people already ask me how they can support the podcast.

And because of that, I decided to go ahead and do what a lot of other podcasters are doing these days,

and I set up a Patreon page. If you would like to support the podcast financially, if you'd like to

help me reach more people, help me to cover

the costs of things like books and other expensive expenses associated with the podcast,

then I've got you covered. What I've decided to do is similar to what Scott Rank does in history

unplugged. I've set up an organization or unofficial organization called Early's Raiders.

I'm naming it in honor of Carlson's Raiders, the World War II Special Marine Unit that my father

served in from 1941 to 1943.

And this unit, of course, if you've listened to the World War II series or if you're going to listen to the World War II series, you'll know that it, the Second Raider Battalion played a special role in the Battle of Guadalcanal in a mission called, commonly known as the Long Patrol or Carson's Patrol in which they went behind Japanese lines, doing reconnaissance,

search and destroy, blowing up supplies, capturing small groups of Japanese soldiers and so on.

At any rate, if you'd like to be a member of Early's Raiders, I've set up a Patreon page,

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