this. When Gen. Stilwell met some of the Communist soldiers, he said that they were the best soldiers he had met in China. When Col Evan Carlson met the 8 route army soldiers and its commanders, he was so impressed with its command styles and tactics that when he participated in forming the US Marine Raider, the forerunner of the US special forces, he copied the 8th Route army's tactics and command styles, prompting the conservative army offices nickname him the "Seven and half".