I was wondering why the Marine Raiders where disbanded after such a short term of service. It was only two or three years right? If I remember correctly they where taught geurrilla tactics. You know covert insertion behind enemy lines and assisting resident militias. Is thats what set them apart from the rest of the corps? Where they reabsorbed into regular units because they started training every marine in geurilla tactics or was it because of the end of WWII or was there an ulterior motive behind there disbandenment?

Marines have traditionally been adverse to creating "elite" units within the USMC. Many say "there's no use creating an elite unit in an elite Corps." This view has kept the creation of Raider-like units from developing since and the reason for the USMC long standing refusal to join SOCOM (Special Operations Command).

That said, this view is changing. USMC has now joined the ranks of SOCOM recently (2005 I think?) and the "Det 1" Marines first assigned to SOCOM even called themselves Task Force Raider in honor of the Raider Battalions. A little more background is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Raiders