36th Anniversary

I was there:

• On the Saturday before Labor Day (September 1) 1969, when the IMP#1 computer arrived on the loading dock of Boelter Hall.
• On September 2, 1969 when Dr. Leonard Kleinrock's host computer, at UCLA in Room 3400, became the first node of the Internet as bits began moving between the UCLA host computer and the IMP#1.
• When messages began moving between the machines, the ARPANET and the community that was to become the INTERNET was born.
  

I was drafted:

• Boarded a bus for Ft. Ord on the morning of September 23, 1969 after graduating from UCLA in June 1969.
• Became a LRRP in 1970...actually a U.S. Army Ranger in Cambodia in June 1970

Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol - LRRP; pronounced as Lurp.

THE LuRPs BECOME RANGERS:

On the 1st of January 1969 the LuRPs officially became Rangers when the 75th Infantry (Ranger) was reactivated. This was done to strengthen and centralize the long range patrol assets in Vietnam. Although now termed as Rangers, only those men of the 75th Infantry who had completed the Fort Benning Ranger course could wear the Ranger tab.

During the course of the war LuRPs conducted around 23,000 long range patrols, of this amount two thirds resulted in enemy sightings. LuRPs also accounted for approximately 10,000 enemy KIA through ambushes, sniping, air strikes, and calling in artillery fire (my training speciality).