Recon Insertion

Early in the morning we headed to Camp Reasoner, headquarters of the 1st Recon Battalion, to pick up a recon team for an insertion on a distant mountain top. This was my first exposure to reconnaissance marines.

All 7 of them quickly came aboard our aircraft and I noted how coolly they conducted themselves, how they were dressed and what they were carrying. They all wore camouflage bush hats, faces were painted, camouflage jungle utilities and no flak jackets. They carried M-16s, an M-79 grenade launcher and many other accessories e.g. 3 or 4 canteens per person, ropes, binoculars, radio, ammunition, grenades etc. It appeared to me that they would be in the field for at least several days.

Very quickly we lifted off and at some point became accompanied by 2 Cobra gunships. As we approached a mountain top that was going to be the insertion site one of the Cobras began firing its 40 millimeter cannon to ensure the LZ was not booby trapped. The hilltop was about 50 to 70 meters wide with very little vegetation. After several moments, with no secondary explosions, we swooped in lowered our ramp and the team disembarked and quickly moved down the mountain. The drop off took less than a minute and we were back in the air.

We were less than 2 or 3 kilometers from the drop off when we received a call from the team's radio man that the team was heavily engaged and needed to be extracted immediately. Our pilot quickly turned around and we returned to the LZ in just minutes. The pilot approached the LZ from a different direction in case the VC had prepared an ambush for our bird. He also hovered on the opposite side of the hilltop from where we dropped the team to avoid unnecessary contact with the enemy. I noted that the team leader had already sent several reconners back up the mountain to ensure the LZ was secure. The team quickly re-boarded our aircraft and we flew off in a different direction.

Afterwards we were told that the team had barely started down the mountain when they were engaged by a sizable force of VC and had expended nearly half their ammo in just getting back to the LZ.

I vividly remember this extraction and how casual and professional the reconners were as they came back board our ship. Most of them lit a cigarette, said nothing and acted very calm.

We then returned them to Camp Reasoner.