Company E, 52nd Infantry, (LRP) was a 120 man-sized
long-range reconnaissance patrol
A long-range reconnaissance patrol, or LRRP (pronounced "lurp"), is a small, well-armed reconnaissance team that patrols deep in enemy-held territory.Ankony, Robert C., ''Lurps: A Ranger's Diary of Tet, Khe Sanh, A Shau, and Quang Tri,'' revised ...
unit attached to the
1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile)
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
in Vietnam in 1967-69. Its origin begins on January 1, 1967, as "LRRP Detachment G2," 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). It was then redesignated "Headquarters & Headquarters Company LRRP Detachment" in April 1967, and redesignated "Company E, 52nd Infantry (LRP)" on December 20, 1967.
[Ankony, Robert C., ''Lurps: A Ranger's Diary of Tet, Khe Sanh, A Shau, and Quang Tri,'' revised ed., Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Lanham, MD (2009)]
/ref>
Later, when all LRRP units were folded into the US Army Rangers
United States Army Rangers, according to the US Army's definition, are personnel, past or present, in any unit that has the official designation "Ranger". The term is commonly used to include graduates of the US Army Ranger School, even if t ...
on February 1, 1969, Company E was redesignated, "H Company, 75th Infantry (Ranger).
History
In November 1966 Captain James D. James, a Special Forces-trained officer, and Ranger Staff Sergeant Ronald Christopher, were selected to establish a long-range reconnaissance patrol
A long-range reconnaissance patrol, or LRRP (pronounced "lurp"), is a small, well-armed reconnaissance team that patrols deep in enemy-held territory.Ankony, Robert C., ''Lurps: A Ranger's Diary of Tet, Khe Sanh, A Shau, and Quang Tri,'' revised ...
detachment for the 1st Cavalry Division, designated "LRRP Detachment G2." This company based on other all volunteer LRP units forming in Vietnam; as well as the two already formed in Germany and the one in Italy, respectively: Company D, 17th Infantry
The 17th Infantry (The Loyal Regiment) was an infantry regiment of the Bengal Army, later of the united British Indian Army. It was formed at Phillour in 1858 by Major J. C. Innes from men of the 3rd, 36th and 61st Bengal Native Infantry regiment ...
(LRP) in V Corps, headquartered in Frankfurt; Company C, VII Corps, 58th Infantry, headquartered in Stuttgart, and the Airborne Recon Platoon, 1st Combat Aviation Company (Provisional), headquartered in Verona, Italy, which Captain James previously commanded.[Ankony, Robert C., "Company E 52nd Infantry (LRP) / H Company 75th Infantry (Ranger)," ''Patrolling'' magazine, 75th Ranger Regiment Association, (Fall 2014).]
LRRP Detachment G2 became operational on January 1, 1967, and on December 20, 1967, it was redesignated Company E (LRP), 52nd Infantry (Airborne).[
Company E participated in some of the most notable battles of the ]Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
and as Company H, 75th Infantry, it became the most decorated and longest serving unit in LRP / Ranger history. Company H, 75th Infantry, also lost the last two Rangers of the Vietnam War: Sgt. Elvis Weldon Osborne, Jr
and Cpl. Jeffery Alan Maure
both killed in action June 9, 1972.[ In all, approximately 1,000 men served in this unit of whom 45 were killed in ]Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
and Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...
and approximately 400 were wounded or injured on patrol, a casualty rate of 45 percent.[
Company E was commanded by Captain Michael Gooding and his operations and intelligence section was commanded by Staff Sergeant Thomas Campbell. In January 1968 Operation Jeb Stuart commenced and Company E and the 1st Cavalry Division moved north to ]Camp Evans
Camp Evans Historic District is an area of the Camp Evans Formerly Used Defense Site in Wall Township, New Jersey. The site of the military installation () is noted for a 1914 transatlantic radio receiver and various World War II/Cold War labo ...
, north of Huế
Huế () is the capital of Thừa Thiên Huế province in central Vietnam and was the capital of Đàng Trong from 1738 to 1775 and of Vietnam during the Nguyễn dynasty from 1802 to 1945. The city served as the old Imperial City and admi ...
and up to LZ Sharon and LZ Betty, south of Quảng Trị
Quảng Trị () is a district-level town in Quảng Trị Province in the North Central Coast region of Vietnam. It is second of two municipalities in the province after the provincial capital Đông Hà.
History
The Sino-Vietnamese name Quả ...
City, near the coast in the I Corps Tactical Zone
I Corps () was a corps of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), the army of the nation state of South Vietnam that existed from 1955 to 1975. It was one of four corps of the ARVN. This was the northernmost region of South Vietnam, bordering ...
. Operation Jeb Stuart was conducted as the preliminary phase to relieve the siege of the Khe Sanh combat base
Khe Sanh Combat Base (also known as Ta Con) was a United States Marine Corps outpost south of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) used during the Vietnam War.
History
US Army Special Forces (Detachment A-101, Company C, 5th Special Forces Gr ...
and support the 3rd Marine Division's operations along the DMZ
A demilitarized zone (DMZ or DZ) is an area in which treaties or agreements between nations, military powers or contending groups forbid military installations, activities, or personnel. A DZ often lies along an established frontier or bounda ...
, and to clear enemy Base Areas 101 and 114, respectively in Quang Tri Province and Thua Thien Provinces. As a result, the 1st and 3rd Platoons of Company E, 52nd Infantry (LRP) were based at Camp Evans to support the 2nd and 3rd Brigades in the Thua Thien Province, 1st Cavalry Division, while the 2nd Platoon was stationed at LZ Betty (Headquarters 1st Brigade) in Quang Tri Province.[
]
Tet Offensive
In the early morning hours of January 31, 1968, the largest battle of the Vietnam War, the Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive was a major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War. It was launched on January 30, 1968 by forces of the Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) against the forces o ...
, was launched by 84,000 enemy soldiers across South Vietnam. In the 1st Cavalry Division's area of operation, the People's Army of Vietnam
The People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN; vi, Quân đội nhân dân Việt Nam, QĐNDVN), also recognized as the Vietnam People's Army (VPA) or the Vietnamese Army (), is the military force of the Vietnam, Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the ...
(PAVN) and Vietcong forces struck at Huế, south of Camp Evans. As the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, fought to cut off enemy reinforcements pouring into Huế, at Quảng Trị City, further north, five enemy battalions, most from the PAVN 324th Division, attacked the city and LZ Betty. To stop allied troops from intervening, three other enemy infantry battalions deployed as blocking forces, all supported by a 122mm-rocket battalion and two heavy-weapons companies armed with 82mm mortars and 75mm recoilless rifles. Captain Gooding and his 2nd Platoon, Company E, commanded by Lieutenant Joseph Dilger, directed mortar, artillery, and small arms fire against charging enemy troops from atop the LZ Betty's forty-foot water tower.[
After two days of intense fighting by the 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division and the ]Army of the Republic of Vietnam
The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN; ; french: Armée de la république du Viêt Nam) composed the ground forces of the Republic of Vietnam Military Forces, South Vietnamese military from its inception in 1955 to the Fall of Saigon in April ...
(ARVN) 1st Division, 900 PAVN and Vietcong soldiers were killed in and around Quảng Trị City and LZ Betty. However, across South Vietnam, 1,000 Americans, 2,100 ARVNs, 14,000 civilians, and 32,000 NVA and Vietcong lay dead.[Ankony, Robert C., "No Peace in the Valley," ''Vietnam'' magazine, Oct. 2008, pp. 26–31.]
Operation Pegasus: Relief of the Khe Sanh combat base
In March 1968 the 1st Cavalry Division and Company E moved west to LZ Stud, the staging area for Operation Pegasus
Operation Pegasus was a military operation carried out on the Lower Rhine near the village of Renkum, close to Arnhem in the Netherlands. Overnight on 22–23 October 1944, the Allied military forces, MI9, the British intelligence organization, ...
to break the siege at Khe Sanh. All three brigades participated in this vast airmobile operation, along with a Marine armor thrust from Ca Lu along Route 9. The 1st Cavalry Division deployed Company E long-range reconnaissance teams to flank its airmobile advance as the Division leapfrogged west, seizing key hilltops as fire support bases along Route 9 so the Marines could continue pushing forward. At 08:00 hours April 8, members of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, linked-up with the Marines at the combat base, ending the 77-day siege.[
]
Operation Delaware: Air Assault into A Shau Valley
On April 19, 1968, as the 2nd Brigade continued leapfrogging west to the Laotian border, the 1st and 3rd Brigades (about 11,000 men and 300 helicopters) swung southwest and air assaulted A Shau Valley
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...
, commencing Operation Delaware
Operation Delaware/Operation Lam Son 216 was a joint military operation launched during the Vietnam War. It began on 19 April 1968, with troops from the United States and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) moving into the A Sầu Valley. ...
. Since satellite communications were a thing of the future, a daring long-range penetration
A long-range penetration patrol, group, or force is a special operations unit capable of operating long distances behind enemy lines far away from direct contact with friendly forces as opposed to a Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol, a small group p ...
operation was launched by members of Company E, 52nd Infantry (LRP) against the North Vietnamese Army
The People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN; vi, Quân đội nhân dân Việt Nam, QĐNDVN), also recognized as the Vietnam People's Army (VPA) or the Vietnamese Army (), is the military force of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the armed win ...
when they rappelled from six helicopters and seized "Signal Hill" the name attributed to the peak of Dong Re Lao Mountain, a densely forested 4,879-foot mountain, midway in the valley, so the 1st and 3rd Brigades could communicate with Camp Evans near the coast or with approaching aircraft.[
]
Operation Jeb Stuart III
On May 17, 1968, Operation Jeb Stuart III commenced in Quảng Trị and Thừa Thiên Provinces from Huế City up to the DMZ. By this date the 1st Cavalry Division had completed its mission in A Shau Valley, disrupting the flow of troops and supplies from North Vietnam through Laos, and resumed security operations in the eastern regions of these two provinces. Operation Jeb Stuart III continued until November 3, 1968, when the division moved south near Cambodia in Operation Liberty Canyon.[Lt. Gen. John J. Tolson, ''Vietnam Studies: Airmobility 1961–71'', Department of the Army, Washington, D.C. (1973).]
Aftermath and lineage to 75th Ranger Regiment
The 1st Cavalry Division would end the Vietnam War suffering more casualties than any other army division: 5,444 men killed in action and 26,592 wounded in action.[ Company E (LRP), 52nd Infantry Regiment, redesignated Company H (Ranger), 75th Infantry, participated in the two largest battles of the Vietnam War—the Tet Offensive and the siege of Khe Sanh—and air-assaulted into A Shau Valley, the most formidable enemy-held territory in South Vietnam.][ It became the most decorated and longest-serving unit in LRP/Ranger history. Company H also fought in Cambodia, and it lost the last two Rangers of the Vietnam War, Sgt]
Elvis Weldon Osborne
Jr., and Cpl
Jeffery Alan Maurer
on June 9, 1972.["Last Days of the Infantry in Vietnam, 1972", ''VFW'' magazine, (Aug. 2012):36-42.]
Sgt. Osborne and Cpl. Maurer were on a reconnaissance mission near Tan Uyen in the Binh Duong Province about 20 miles northwest of Saigon. Led by Osborne, Team 76, was doing bomb damage assessment after an airstrike when either a rocket or command-detonated device claimed their lives. Sgt. Osborne and Cpl. Maurer were among the last US Army infantrymen killed by enemy action in the war.[
H Company ceased combat operations by mid-July 1972. A month later, on August 15, it was inactivated, the last US Ranger unit to serve in Vietnam. Over 1,000 men served in the First Cav LRRP/Rangers in Vietnam. More than half were wounded yet only 35 were killed in action. It is credited with the longest continuous combat tenure of any Ranger outfit in US military history.][Ankony, Robert C., "They Saw Us First," ''Patrolling'' magazine, 75th Ranger Regiment Association, Winter 2014, vol 28. issue 1.]
In 1974 Company H (Ranger), 75th Infantry colors and lineage was passed to the 2nd Ranger Battalion
The 2nd Ranger Battalion, currently based at Joint Base Lewis–McChord south of Seattle, Washington, United States, is the second of three ranger battalions belonging to the United States Army's 75th Ranger Regiment.
History
World War II
For ...
, 75th Ranger Regiment
The 75th Ranger Regiment, also known as Army Rangers, is the U.S. Army's premier light infantry unit and special operations force within the United States Army Special Operations Command. The regiment is headquartered at Fort Benning, Georgi ...
.
Company E in film
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Stone won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay as writer of '' Midnight Express'' (1978), and wrote the gangster film remake '' Sc ...
's movie ''Platoon'' (1986) was based partially on his experiences in the unit. Stone served as a rifleman in both the 25th Infantry Division and the 1st Cavalry Division. In March 1968 Oliver Stone and Gair Anderson volunteered for the 1st Cavalry Division's Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol training, but Stone was dropped from the unit after completing the course. ''Platoon'' depicts two soldiers from 2nd Platoon, Company E, 52nd Infantry (LRP), specifically, S/Sgt. John Barnes portrayed by Tom Berenger and Sgt. Juan Angel Elias portrayed by Willem Dafoe. Stone melds his experience as an infantryman and the characters of Barnes and Elias through the eyes of a green young soldier, Charlie Sheen. The film shows troops of Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment in 1967/1968.[Kenneth White, "Company H, 75th Infantry (Ranger)" ''Saber'', 1st Cavalry Division Association, Jul.Aug. 2012, 15-17.]
Sgt. Barnes honorably retired from the US Army as a Sergeant Major. Sgt. Elia
was killed in action in Quang Tri Province on May 29, 1968, when a grenade he and his team were rigging as a booby trap on an enemy trail accidentally exploded causing the loss of his life and that of Cpl. Donald Robert Mille
and fellow team member, Sgt. Larry Curtis, to lose an eye.[
]
See also
*Air assault
Air assault is the movement of ground-based military forces by vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft—such as the helicopter—to seize and hold key terrain which has not been fully secured, and to directly engage enemy forces behind e ...
*Battle of Signal Hill (Vietnam)
The Battle of Signal Hill was a company size engagement between members of Company E, 52nd Infantry (LRP) long-range reconnaissance patrol of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) and the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) from 19–21 April 1968 du ...
*1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile)
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
*Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol
A long-range reconnaissance patrol, or LRRP (pronounced "lurp"), is a small, well-armed reconnaissance team that patrols deep in enemy-held territory.Ankony, Robert C., ''Lurps: A Ranger's Diary of Tet, Khe Sanh, A Shau, and Quang Tri,'' revised ...
*Operation Delaware
Operation Delaware/Operation Lam Son 216 was a joint military operation launched during the Vietnam War. It began on 19 April 1968, with troops from the United States and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) moving into the A Sầu Valley. ...
* Recondo School
*2nd Ranger Battalion
The 2nd Ranger Battalion, currently based at Joint Base Lewis–McChord south of Seattle, Washington, United States, is the second of three ranger battalions belonging to the United States Army's 75th Ranger Regiment.
History
World War II
For ...
--Company E lineage passed to
*75th Ranger Regiment
The 75th Ranger Regiment, also known as Army Rangers, is the U.S. Army's premier light infantry unit and special operations force within the United States Army Special Operations Command. The regiment is headquartered at Fort Benning, Georgi ...
*US Army Rangers
United States Army Rangers, according to the US Army's definition, are personnel, past or present, in any unit that has the official designation "Ranger". The term is commonly used to include graduates of the US Army Ranger School, even if t ...
* US Army Reconnaissance and Surveillance Leaders Course
References
{{Reflist
Further reading
* ''Inside the LRRPs: Rangers in Vietnam'', Michael Lee Lanning, Presidio Press (1988).
* ''Rangers at War'', Shelby L. Stanton, Ivy Books: New York (1992).
External links
1st Cavalry Division LRRP Rangers of the Vietnam War webpage
First Casualties: First Cav LRRPs
Photographic history of 1st Cav LRRP Rangers in Vietnam
Tribute to Our Fallen Brothers of Company E
1967 establishments in the United States
Ranger companies of the United States Army
Military units and formations of the United States Army in the Vietnam War