Our team chose a name that had a great deal of history. In 1942, under the code name Galahad, the 5307th composite group was created for the sole purpose of operating behind enemy lines in Burma. Led by Brigadier General Frank Merrill, they became known as “Merrill’s Marauders. These 3,000 men were expected to receive 85% casualties with the survivors requiring three months of hospitalization and rest before being fit to return to duty. The outfit included many veterans of jungle combat in the Pacific but also had its fair share of drunks, misfits, and violence-prone characters intimately familiar with the inside of the guardhouse. Their behavior was at best unpredictable. In its short life, the 5307th was to engage in uncommon exploits, suffer uncommon ordeals, get into inordinate amounts of trouble and stir up an exceptional fuss. They were “the most beat upon, most misunderstood, most mishandled, most written about, most heroic and yet the most unrewarded regimental size unit of World War II”.- Lieut. Colonel Charles N. Hunter*
Marauders 1st Division is established – Now the Marauders are a recreational paint ball team. We’re the ones you’ll never see. We’re fighting it out in the hills of the Sierra Nevada at night. We’re in the rain, crawling on our bellies in the shadows, hunting our prey. We play in the river bottom jungles along the San Joaquin River in the searing heat, making assault after assault on an old concrete bridge that collapsed in a flood back in ’69. We play is the rain forests of the coastal mountains and defend the hills along the cliffs of the Pacific Ocean.
Maj. D. Saster and PacMan were trained at Jurassic Park by Predator who had returned to the Coast from the Central Valley. He had started the Marauders as a five man team in Fresno, Ca. All three were involved in tactical studies for close to 20 years before they picked up paintball guns. Together the three of them formed the core of the team and the training principles still in use today. “The Major” designed and manufactured all the Marauder awards. PacMan made all the early maps and the graphics for the awards plus developed other Marauder Documents. Predator maintained the web site.
Marauders 2nd Division is established – It took 3 months of two on one playing before both PacMan and the Maj. could win consistently against two players. This gave them the skills it takes to be a paintball sniper and more than enough of those skills to play in squad action. Wizard Joined the team when there was only about 5 players. His zeal for the game attracted numerous players; especially after he went to work for J&S Surplus, the local paintball store. He supplied paintballs for players to buy on the field and was the team air smith. Within a short time Marauders would field up to 60 players on any given paintball Sunday.