“Red” Edson’s Vermont roots shaped Guadalcanal hero and state police founder

As the U.S. Marine Corps celebrates its 250th birthday this month, few Vermonters know about the legacy of Vermonter “Red Mike” Edson, one of Vermont’s most decorated military heroes and a pivotal figure in the founding of the Vermont State Police.

RELATED STORY: Vermont Veterans Home’s celebration commemorating the U.S.M.C.’s 250th Anniversary. The organizer of the November 10 event, Don Keelan of Arlington, a retired Marine, will be a guest of WDEV’s Hot Off The Press Wednesday, November 5 at about 11:35 AM. Former Gov. Jim Douglas is scheduled to speak at the event.

Edson was born in Rutland in 1897 and grew up in Chester, where the values of small-town Vermont would guide his life of discipline, public duty, and quiet resolve. He graduated from Chester High School in 1915 and attended UVM for two years, enlisting in the Marine Corps as the U.S. entered World War I. He went to France with the USMC but a case of the mumps kept him out of combat in WWI.

After the war, he rose to prominence as a fearless commander in the jungles of Central America and was named commander of the First Marine Raider Battalion. His leadership in World War II earned him the Medal of Honor for his defense of “Edson’s Ridge” during the Guadalcanal campaign.

But while Edson’s military exploits drew national attention, his commitment to Vermont shaped the state far beyond his battlefield record.

Following his retirement from the Marine Corps in 1947 as a major general, Edson returned to Vermont and quickly became central to statewide public safety reforms. In the mid-1940s, after the high-profile St. Albans mail truck robbery exposed major gaps in law enforcement coordination, Gov. Mortimer Proctor tapped Edson to help build a unified state police force. Drawing on his decades of command experience, Edson served as the first commissioner of the newly created Vermont Department of Public Safety and was instrumental in structuring what became the Vermont State Police.

He introduced professional training standards, strengthened investigative practices, and insisted that the new force reflect Vermont values of integrity and community service. Many of the systems he implemented—centralized communications, coordinated patrol regions, and merit-based advancement—remain the backbone of the department today.

Though widely known for his Marine Corps heroism, Edson never viewed his Vermont service as secondary. “This is home,” he often said, describing his work in public safety as simply another form of duty.

He died on August 14, 1955, in Washington, D.C., by his own hand, having committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in the garage next to his Washington, D.C. home while serving in the NRA post. At the time of his death, in addition to his duties at the NRA, he was the navy representative on the Defense Advisory Committee on Prisoner of War Problems. This group recommended the standards of conduct for American prisoners of war that were later adopted and issued as the Code of Conduct for all American servicemen.

He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.