Colonel Edson Duncan Raff (November 15, 1907 – March 11, 2003) was a United States Army officer and writer of a book on paratroopers.

He served as Commanding Officer (CO) of the first American paratroop unit to jump into combat, the 2nd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, near Oran as part of Operation Torch during World War II.

By the time the United States entered World War II in December 1941, Raff had transferred to the army's fledgling airborne forces.

[4][5] He first saw combat in November 1942 in Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of French North Africa, as the commander of the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion:[6] ...the main force with Lieutenant Colonel Raff also jumped early some 35 miles east of the objective airfields.

After a full day and a night forced march, a company of weary paratroopers reached the airfield at Tafaraoui on the morning of November 9.

On 17 November, Raff led a small reconnaissance patrol that captured Gafsa, Tunisia and made contact with the friendly French Chasseurs d'Afrique Regiment and defenses were prepared around the airfield there.

After the war, in 1954, Raff would command the 77th Special Forces Group and the Psychological Warfare Center and School, based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and is credited by Lieutenant General William Yarborough (who had served under Raff with the 509th in North Africa)[14] as the "father" of the then-controversial green beret now routinely worn by U.S. Army Special Forces.