:::Bring back the LRRP:::

In December 1967 the Department of the Army authorized the formation of the Long Range Patrol (LRP) companies and detachments who absorbed the personnel of the previously unauthorized Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (Prov) units.

The main mission of LRRP teams during the war in Vietnam was to insert a six-man patrol behind enemy lines, who would stay in their area of operations for six days, following a pre-planned route reconnoitering the area for validating maps, recording any enemy movements and locations, and to sneak out without any enemy contact and pass the gathered information to intelligence. The LRRP who could not avoid enemy contact silently snuffed-out his opponent with a Colt .45 equipped with a sound suppressor. He wore a "tiger-stripe" uniform, and carried a full load of weapons and equipment: both smoke and fragmentation grenades, army survival knife, canteens, flashlight, CAR-15 rifle, and ammo-pouches.

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 which two thirds resulted in enemy sightings. LuRPs also accounted for approx 10,000 enemy KIA through ambushes, sniping, air strikes, and calling in artillery fire. I trained at Ft. Sill with a FDC MOS, and was a LURRP (Long Range Reconnaisance Patrol) in and along the Cambodian border in 1970.