Recondo - LRRPs in the 101st

Zusatztext “I made this book mandatory reading for my Rangers. . . . We went from the worst platoon in the regiment to the best platoon in six months. In training we’d get to the objective so fast they had to hold us back.” —US Army Master Sergeant H. "Max" Mullen Ret. 75th Ranger Regiment Informationen zum Autor Larry Chambers Klappentext For firefights in the swamps, ambushes in the jungle, or just facing the enemy dead-on, Recondo trained LRRPs to win. They will never be able to duplicate the 5th Special Forces Recondo School and the training that gave its grads something they desperately needed-the skills to survive Long Range Patrol missions in the jungle that NVA considered its own. Vietman veteran Larry Chambers vividly describes the grit and courage it took to pass the tough volunteer-only training program in Nha Trang and the harrowing graduation mission to scout out, locate, and out-guerrilla the NVA. Here is an unforgettable account that follows Chambers and the Rangers every step of the way-from joining, going through Recondo, and finally leading his own team on white-knuckle missions through the deadly jungles of Vietnam. "I made this book mandatory reading for my Rangers. . . . We went from the worst platoon in the regiment to the best platoon in six months. In training we'd get to the objective so fast they had to hold us back."-U.S. Army Master Sergeant H. "Max" Mullen Ret. 75th Ranger Regiment 1 Preserve, Protect and Defend February 1968 The highway to Fort Lewis from the Sea-Tac Airport was covered with a thin film of water that reflected the lights from the oncoming cars. I leaned my head against the cold window. The air smelled clean, like fresh-cut wood. The bus ride was long, and I sat in silence. Once we arrived at the base, we were greeted in the parking lot with friendly words from a well-starched drill instructor. “Now get your sorry butts off my bus. Get down and give me push-ups until I get tired!” George Ellis, my high-school buddy, muttered something obscene my way. The fort was quiet except for the echo of the fifty of us counting out push-ups in the rain. The next morning we shed our civilian clothes for olive-drab fatigues. The pants were too big, and the shirts were too stiff—and then to the barbershop, where zip zip, off came the hair. The next few weeks of basic training were pretty rough. After the first week, our DI finally started to lighten up, even joked around a bit, although he never smiled. We had a theory that the drill instructors never slept. They had a nasty habit of pulling surprise inspections in the middle of the night. We were all sitting in the corner of the large open bay of the 1st Platoon, A Company, 1st Battalion, 2d Brigade, building. Dave Smith had just punched Dumpy Drivold in the arm as our drill instructor, Sergeant Koffman, began his instructions on night watch. Koffman said, “One of these nights you’re going to be walking on fire watch, you’ll walk into the latrine, and you might find someone masturbating.” Everyone started laughing. “Don’t turn the poor guy in. It will embarrass him, it will embarrass you, and it will embarrass the sergeant you turn him into.” Everyone was really laughing by now. I raised my hand—then grabbed Ellis and shouted, “Sergeant Koffman, what if you already caught someone?” Ellis and I had played sports together all through high school and college; we were always playing jokes on each other. “What? Not me!” Ellis struggled to get free of my grasp. The more Ellis tried to explain, the harder everyone laughed. After basic training, Ellis got a thirty-day leave and truck-driving school in Fort Ord, California. I couldn’t believe it! My orders were to leave immediately for AIT. “I thought you volunteered for infantry school, like we...

Product details

• Authors: Larry Chambers
• Publisher: Presidio Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 30.12.2003
• EAN: 9780891418405
• ISBN: 978-0-89141-840-5
• No. of pages: 304
• Dimensions: 105 mm x 174 mm x 20 mm
• Series: Random House Publishing Group
• Subject: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous