Tom T. Chamales

Born in ‪1924, Tom T. Chamales graduated from St. John’s Military Academy in Delafield, Wisconsin, in 1942, at the age of eighteen and immediately joined the army. Chamales attended basic training, Officer Candidates’ School, and the Infantry School at Ft. Benning, Georgia.

He was the youngest officer to serve in Merrill’s Marauders and OSS Detachment 101. (The OSS was the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the US Army Special Forces, commonly known as the “Green Berets,” trace their roots to Merrill’s Marauders.)

At the age of twenty-one, he was a captain and stationed in Burma, where he commanded the 3rd Battalion of American Kachin Rangers. He was also the tactical commander when the main Kachin forces were joined (a force of about two thousand guerilla troops). He served the entire Burma campaign through the Lashio victory, and also took part in the invasion of Rangoon serving nearly two years behind Japanese lines. For his service, the Kachin people bestowed on him the title “Duakaba,” which means “high leader.” Col.Aaron Bank, the founder of Special Forces, wrote a personal inscription to Chamales on the inside cover of his copy of Never So Few, commemorating Chamales’s early contributions to Special Forces.

In civilian life, Chamales had a variety of occupations including hotel manager, horse book operator, fishing guide, and manager of a fashionable restaurant in Newport, Rhode Island. Chamales tragically passed away in a fire on March 20, 1960, at the age of thirty-five.