.

We started out the first morning with a timed mile run. No big thing except for the web gear, M-16, ammo pouches, canteens and a sandbag in our ruck to make it weigh 40lbs. If you didn't finish in the alotted time......you washed out. If you washed out......you'd probably get booted from your unit when you got back. Did I mention the heat? Here I was...one year and a week in the Army...eleven months of which I was in some sort of training......and here we go again! These guys didn't know that I'd already been trained how to run my ass off! The second day it went to two miles, the third day to three, the fourth day to five, and finally the fifth to seven. I'll will never forget those runs. Nobody washed out because of the runs that I remember. I do recall the threat was that something like 30-40% would wash out during the training. I was determined not to washout, and I could see the instructors were on our side for the most part, reasonable even. They were good men. I actually came up a little short on time for the first two runs........but made the 3,5 and 7 mile time requirements. I was never fast, but I could run forever. Five years of football camps...11 months of training in the Army......God I hated running! But the worst was over I thought.......no chance to washout now.........then they took us to the beach! We had a lot of training in areas that were not new for me. The map reading, radio operation,
fire direction,(Arty and Gunship) even some of the rapelling
drills off the jump tower were things I'd done in NCOC school. But when we went to beach.......well this was all new to me. It was fun! Bobbing around in the surf, paddling a rubber raft around, flipping it over, learning to right in again out in the ocean......it was a hoot! We did all that wearing a life vest you could inflate if you needed to. Playing in the water beat those morning runs hands down. The beach was beautiful, I loved it...but then came the most difficult part of the school for me. We had to swim out from the beach 100 yards to a raft, that had a couple of SF instructors in it, and back to the beach. If you blew your vest, or grabbed onto the raft, or drowned..... or couldn't or wouldn't do it, you washed out. I knew I could do everything else required in Recondo School to graduate......but I wasn't sure about this. I am a poor swimmer. I didn't like swimming all that much. I could float and flounder around enough to save myself if I fell in, and that was about the extent on my swimming skills. We had to do it or wash out. I did have the life vest as a back up right?..... No chance of really drowning right?.... I also realized that the salt water was more bouyant than the lakes back home.... So when it came my turn.......I jumped in.
I made it out to the raft, and started back. About a third of the way back, I started to get real tired. So I rolled over on my back and floated for a bit. One of the other rafts bobbing around out there, came over by me, and the instructors asked if I was alright. I told them I was just resting a bit........no penalty for resting right?  just so long as I didn't blow the vest, make it deploy, I was still in it. I rested a couple of minutes, rolled back over and swam to shore. I was dog tired when I got on shore.......but pleased with myself, I knew then I'd finish this course, or die trying..... Oh, it was at this time that I learned salt water will eat the minute and second hands off of a Timex watch. My folks got me one for high school graduation a couple of years earlier. It held up pretty good through all my other Army training......but I'd cracked the lens on it sometime back, and.....one day I looked down at it......and the second and minute hands we gone! I'd have to scrounge up the money for another watch. A lrrp has got to have a watch. Especially a teamleader, and that's why I was up here so soon to Nha Trang, the 71St was going to make a team leader out of me, if I survived Recondo School. I hoped I survived better than my Timex!

I remember there was a lot of classroom time in this school. Like I said earlier, a lot of the instruction was stuff I'd already had in NCO school, map reading, navigation, fire direction, and stuff like that. But they did have a superior grade of first aid training here. Better than anything I had in Basic , AIT or NCO School. In the "lurps", the teams were usually only six men or less, so you had to be your own medic, so this was good training for me. We had to learned to start IV's, so as to administer blood expanders for seriously wounded teammates. How do you learned to do that? By practicing on each other! We paired off during this part of the training.

I paired up with a Marine. I liked this guy, he was one of three different Marines I have distinct memories of at Recondo School. This fellow I teamed up with had an "attitude". You see, he'd been drafted! The Marines are all volunteers right? Well don't believe it. This guy was drafted into the Marines, and he sure as hell didn't like it. He said the Marine drill instructors resented the inducted men in their units and were extra tough with them. He seemed to harbor a grudge about that whole thing, especially when he had a few beers in him. Well, I liked him, and we got buddied up for this IV practice. I remember he had very little trouble "sticking" me. He got the vein the first time. Now I hate needles.....even from a professional, let alone a "jarhead" just practicing. The sweat poured off me like a waterfall. But he got it done real quick like. Like I said, I liked him. Now it was my turn. He had big veins like I did, but his liked to "roll".
He was ok when I stuck him, and he was sweating ever bit as much as I did, but he turned white when his vein rolled. God, I felt sorry for him! I chased that vein around under the skin, turning the needle back and forth for what seemed like 5 minutes! I finally got it. We were both ringing wet when it was over. There was blood all over the classroom, he was a real trooper about it though. We even drank together in the club afterwards. He was crazy, almost got me into big trouble in that club.......I'll tell ya about it later, like I said......I liked the guy.

Well, I wondered what could they have in store for us next?  Well there was lots more!  I don't claim to have the training in order but the thing I recall next is training on Hon Tre Island.  Hon Tre was five miles off shore from Nha Trang.  It was supposed to be secure, but we had security at night just in case.  I remember spending one night there as I recall.  We practiced patrolling techniques there.  Fired a variety of weapons, all kinds.  We had  familiarzation training with just about any type of firearm one could come across in Vietnam.  US, Communist or otherwise.  A couple I remember specifically were the BAR, and the M-1 Carbine,  with full auto selector.  That baby, the carbine, had a high rate of fire!  It could cycle faster than a M-16 if I recall correctly.  I recall the Swedish K too, a little 9mm submachine gun. What I remember about it was how easy it was to hold on target. We fired Thompson's and "grease guns", and one weapon I was really impressed with was the BAR, Browing Automatic Rifle.  The BAR was designed during the 1St World War but never saw much action, the war ended befor many were deployed.  It saw extensive action during WWII and Korea.  We were shooting them because the communists had em.  My platoon Sergeant, Mike Glines in AIT was wounded by one during his tour.  Anyway it was a hell of a weapon.  Fully automatic 20 rd magazine fed, 30-06.  It was heavier than an M-14  and had a unique fire selector, "ast and Very Fast"!  Now I qualified with an almost perfect score with the M-60 in Infantry AIT.  ( Just dropped 2 points from a perfect score)  I qualifed expert with it.  I could slap the trigger quickly enough with the M-60 that I could and did shootit single shot, even though it had no semi auto feature to it.  Neither did the BAR, full auto all the time, just fast or very fast.  I never did figure that one out, the choice I mean.  Anyway, there was no way I could shoot that beast single shot!  I put it on the lower speed, and the best I could do was squeez off two rounds.  It was a handful to hang on to, and if your hand slipped off the small forarm, well you could get burned real bad.  Holding onto the M-60 in rapid fire was a rush, but this Bar had a feeling all its own. There is something about the roar of a 30-06 in full auto that gets your attention.  It was rush to shoot, I really liked it.  It was the only time I ever saw one in Nam.

 

 

 

Since I first started this story I have since acquired the book "A History of the MACV Recondo School 1966-1971" written by Tom Halliwell, it lists the individual graduating members of each class by name.  I believe the Marine I'm talking about was either Lance Corporal Malcom R Hyche or Lance Corporal Jackie L Blankenship.  I say that because there were only two Lance Corporals from the 3rd Marine's in my class.  There were seven Marines  who graduated my class, all PFC's except these two.  And like I said he was one of the leaders of the Marine continguent.  I also remember he wore black rimmed glasses.  It's funny what you remember!  And the First Lieutenant I mentioned early in my story, who I said was the team Leader of my team, has to be either 1LT Clifford B Norris from the 4th Division or 1LT Gerald J Stratton from the 51St Infantry as there were the only two American Officers in the class.  More later