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Their primary
missions were to conduct
pre-assault reconnaissance for
amphibious landing forces, this
included conducting hydro graphic
surveys of
proposed landing sites and
including hinterland recon to
determine ability
of egress from the beach head
inland for troops and equipment.
The other
primary mission was to conduct
deep reconnaissance into hostile
territory
and report on enemy locations,
routes of communication,
strength, equipment,
etc.
Their secondary
missions included direct action
activities such as combat
patrols,
search and destroy, demolition
and operations with other units.
The 1st Force
Reconnaissance Company at Camp Delmar,
and Camp Pendleton California and
consisted of 6 reconnaissance
platoons.
One platoon every 13 months was rotated
to Okinawa
to support the 3rd Marine
Division and
to provide pre-assault beach
reconnaissance and post assault
deep recon
missions.
A Force
Recon Platoons consisted of 16
Marines,
1 officer,
1 senior NCO,
1 parachute rigger,
1 dive NCO,
3 reconnaissance teams of
4 Marines each
Cpl Les Herring was a Team
leader with Sub Unit
1, 1st. Force Reconnaissance
Co,
back in the mid 60's.
My
platoon, Sub Unit 1 arrived in Okinawa in November
1964 and conducted training
operations until December 1964
when we boarded a
small destroyer specifically
designed to carry Marine Recon and Navy UDT/SEAL
teams to areas of operation.
After spending Christmas day in Subic Bay,
in the Philippines we sailed to
southern Thailand to conduct recon patrols.
Each of
our 4 man teams had 1 Thai
Marine attached as interpreter. After completing
those operations we arrived in
Vietnam and began conducting operations for
the planned Marine amphibious
landings that would beginning in March 1965.
We began attachments to SF
A-Teams in May 1965 and
conducted recon and combat
patrols in the I Corps. We operated
mainly from Da Nang,
Phu Bai, Chu Lai, Gia Vuc and
Kham Duc
May 1965: Sub Unit 1
platoon attached to Gia Vuc
November 1965: 2nd platoon
attached to A-106 at Ba To.
A combine patrol from Ba
To was attacked on the night of
the 16 December, with catastrophic
result, three Marines a
SF Sgt and 10 CIDG were killed.
The three Marines were
Cpl. R.S. Joy, Moore and
R. Sisson. The aftermath was
recorded in the I
CTZ MOBILE STRIKE FORCE -
MOPSUMS DECEMBER 1965
"The
third Nung Company conducted
refresher training from 1
through
15 December and was committed on
a reaction mission at Camp Bato
on 16 December. At
0430 17 December the company
departed Camp Bato to retrieve
the bodies of American andCIDG
dead located approximately 6
kilometers east of Camp Bato.
This operation was aborted
just
short of the objective area on
the basis of new intelligence on
the situation in the objective
area.
On 21 December 2 Nung platoons
reinforced with elements of the
weapons platoon acted as
security for the force of CIDG,
USSF and USMC personnel in to
the objective area and secured
the
area while the combined force
retrieved the bodies of CIDG and
US personnel. The Nung
Force then acted as security for
the combined force and returned
it to Camp Bato." courtesy
of Steve Sherman from
Radix Press, After Action
reports are available for the I,
II, III, IV Mike Force,
use link
December 1965: 3rd platoon
attached to A-107 at Tra Bong
The rest of the Force Recon
Company (5 platoons) arrived in
RVN in June '65.
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