Travel back in time to the gripping narratives of six daring Reconnaissance Specialists amidst the tumult of the Vietnam War. Experience firsthand the challenges faced by these pioneers, from the early days of First Generation Recon soldiers in 1966 to the intense missions undertaken by the Long Range Reconnaissance Teams in 1967.
Introducing the Recon Squad, a group of young skilled individuals trained to search and destroy the enemy. Our team consisted of 6 members all under the age of 20, we all had different personalities and religious beliefs between us but we found a way to get along and support one another through the hard times to come.
The team came together in the winter of 1966 in the province of Kon Tum in the Central Highlands of Vietnam.
Everyone was nervous about the unknown and the possibility of never returning home again. Because we were a small unit, we were able to sneak and maneuver the thick jungle foliage undetected giving us the element of surprise. The first loss of one of our own hit everyone hard, it gave us a new found awareness of our circumstances and made our bond stronger in the days ahead. The brutal heat, dehydration and always being wet was a constant battle to stay physically fit. 12 months, 365 days and counting, make it through today alive and you'll be one more day closer to going home.
That was your thought process, that gave you hope everyday you woke up until finally you got the word that you were on the next chopper heading home for good! The war changed a lot of us for ever more, killing and seeing death and destruction is a traumatic experience and for some hard to accept, it was never something you got used to but had to as a matter of survival.
What we learned from our experience is that war will never solve any disputes it will only create more animosity and hate for those countries and people involved. The impact of the war between the years of 1965 to 1975 created a loss of 1,141.000 individuals of which 58,220 were young Americans.
The devastation created by that war has forever changed every aspect of our lives since those days and for generations to come.
The war in Vietnam has been over for 50 years, but not for everyone. Not for the ones that came home with missing limbs, cancer, PTSD, diabetes, and kidney disease. They're still fighting, fighting for their lives, and for them the war will never be over.
They fight everyday, and not with guns, tanks or helicopters, but they fight with medicine, therapy and chemo. For them, the war will never be over until they die. These men and women, mostly drafted, didn't run to Canada, they fought and died for a country that wasn't even ours.
It was a war we should not have been in and in a country we had never even heard of.
