Silencers?

hobbit · Post by **hobbit** » December 13th, 2004, 11:33 am

Dan Roberts, L Company Ranger with silencer-equipped M16 on prisoner snatch mission in the Khe Sahn, 1970.

Dan Roberts photo

BadMuther · Post by **BadMuther** » December 13th, 2004, 12:27 pm

Nice Pic!

CAL · Post by **CAL** » December 13th, 2004, 3:13 pm

I love old photos like that!

hobbit · Post by **hobbit** » December 13th, 2004, 3:52 pm

A tip of the boot to BadMuther and Cal

Ronnie Edwards photo

CAL · Post by **CAL** » December 13th, 2004, 4:23 pm

I notice that the 101st patch has the scroll over it instead of the tab. Could you give me a bit of history on that if you don't mind. I didn't realize that it used to be like that.

BadMuther · Post by **BadMuther** » December 13th, 2004, 6:07 pm

CAL wrote:I notice that the 101st patch has the scroll over it instead of the tab. Could you give me a bit of history on that if you don't mind. I didn't realize that it used to be like that.

Combat patch/scroll bro.

BadMuther · Post by **BadMuther** » December 13th, 2004, 6:08 pm

Hobbit,

That boot pic was awesome! I read about that in Charlie Rangers and was talking to Slowpoke about it at the reunion.

hobbit · Post by **hobbit** » December 13th, 2004, 6:16 pm

"I notice that the 101st patch has the scroll over it instead of the tab. Could you give me a bit of history on that if you don't mind. I didn't realize that it used to be like that."

Well, being the coolest Ranger Company that ever existed, you might understand that it was important we L Company warriors look cool too.

That's why we took the "Airborne" scroll off the 101st patch and used just the "Airborne Ranger" scroll instead. It seemed a little silly (not to mention redundant) to have a unit patch that said Airborne, Airborne, when just one Airborne was more than sufficient. Actually, of all the Ranger companies in Vietnam, only L, P, and K used the Airborne Ranger exclusively while dropping the Airborne scroll. Look here and you'll see what I mean:

http://www.lcompanyranger.com/links.html

BTW CAL, here's an animated gif just for you

:

CAL · Post by **CAL** » December 14th, 2004, 4:24 am

BadMuther wrote:Combat patch/scroll bro.

Roger that Ranger BM, I wasn't sure if it was something that was done back then by specific elements of the 101st or how it worked.

hobbit wrote: Well, being the coolest Ranger Company that ever existed, you might understand that it was important we L Company warriors look cool too.

That's why we took the "Airborne" scroll off the 101st patch and used just the "Airborne Ranger" scroll instead. It seemed a little silly (not to mention redundant) to have a unit patch that said Airborne, Airborne, when just one Airborne was more than sufficient. Actually, of all the Ranger companies in Vietnam, only L, P, and K used the Airborne Ranger exclusively while dropping the Airborne scroll. Look here and you'll see what I mean:

http://www.lcompanyranger.com/links.html

BTW CAL, here's an animated gif just for you :

Thanks for the info (and the gif) Ranger Hobbit! Keep throwing those pics up if you got 'em. I love them.

Steadfast · Post by **Steadfast** » December 14th, 2004, 8:13 am

hobbit wrote:"I notice that the 101st patch has the scroll over it instead of the tab. Could you give me a bit of history on that if you don't mind. I didn't realize that it used to be like that."

Well, being the coolest Ranger Company that ever existed, you might understand that it was important we L Company warriors look cool too.

That's why we took the "Airborne" scroll off the 101st patch and used just the "Airborne Ranger" scroll instead. It seemed a little silly (not to mention redundant) to have a unit patch that said Airborne, Airborne, when just one Airborne was more than sufficient. Actually, of all the Ranger companies in Vietnam, only L, P, and K used the Airborne Ranger exclusively while dropping the Airborne scroll. Look here and you'll see what I mean:

http://www.lcompanyranger.com/links.html

BTW CAL, here's an animated gif just for you :

The reason K co did it was because the 4th Inf Div was a leg unit. I was in the 4th I.D. as a LRRP for the 2nd Brigade, All Brigades merged into Company K which was only as big as a Platoon prior to the merge. 3 Brigades and Div LRRP's made us into a company of 220 Strong. So in effect I was at 1st in (Leg) 4th Div, then out of the 4th and into K co and and then attached to the 4th Div. A lot of our guys used the LRRP Tab above the 4th patch and below the scroll. Of course the LRRP Tab was unauthorized but no one ever told us to remove it from our uniforms. I was wondering and thinking, remembering that we wore no patches on our fatigues that we wore to the bush. I had separate tops for the rear with patches. We didn't even wear name tags or the U.S. Army either in the bush.

Note: Because I was in a leg unit, my jump pay stopped 2 months after I arrived in Nam. It started again when I was put into co K. I sent Spartan a copy of my orders to restart my jump pay. The orders list was originally from a friend of mine who noticed my name on his list and sent me a copy.

.

Parabellum · Post by **Parabellum** » December 14th, 2004, 11:33 am

Cool pics bro.

hobbit · Post by **hobbit** » December 14th, 2004, 4:30 pm

"Ive spent a few hours browsing through all the pics. Im also currently reading one of Gary Linderer's books. Good stuff"

We've got less than 1/2 the photo archive posted. More to come. I wish we could find some I Corps photos taken by cadre from the 5th, 6th, and several other NVA Regiments. That'd really round things out. Tough bastards the NVA. Probably the best....wait a minute....probably the second best army on earth.

Gary had a tough job trying to take an empirical approach to writing LRRP/Ranger history. Talk to a team of five after a major contact, and you're going to get 5 different stories about what happened. Ad the fact that division and the Pentagon were notorious for fudging the facts in after action reports, and you have a historian's nightmare when trying to deal with original source material. It is impossible for anyone writing Vietnam LRRP/Ranger history to keep everyone happy.

The 1986 101st Airborne Division LRRP/Ranger reunion was Gary's inspiration to begin writing. That reunion was held only ten years after the war ended and was so significant an event that it made USA Today. It was significant not only because it was one of the first Vietnam veteran reunions ever, but also because of the per capita attendance by former LRRP/Rangers. Remember this was a single company that changed names a few times, that never had more than 90 active team personnel at any one time, that existed for roughly 5 years. Most casualties were sustained May 1970 - April 1971 after the scope of Ranger operations in I Corps was greatly expanded.

About 450 men served in the company at one time or another over that five-year period. Many served two, three, and even four tours. Nearly 175 of this number showed up at the Ft. Campbell reunion. That's a remarkable attendance when one considers the pall of stigma still predominant in America at the time, regarding the Vietnam War. Many could only stay a day or two, so probably half or more who showed up are missing from the reunion shot taken on the last day.

We all owe a great debt of gratitude to Billy Nix for making the reunion the success that it was. He's the Southeastern regional officer for DAV who started a search using DAV and VA computer databases for former 101st LRRP/Rangers. He found more than 125 by virtue of the fact that that many had sustained serious enough wounds to be evacuated from Vietnam or to be admitted to in-country Mash units. No John Kerry Purple Hearts in our Ranger Company. Add our 60 KIA and you have a small company where one stood a 40% chance of going home dead or with a literal pound of flesh missing. That's how Billy Nix found so many former 101st LRRP/Rangers. That's why so many showed up at the reunion.

Serving in a combat Ranger company was absolutely, unequivocally the defining experience in every one of our lives. It certainly was in mine. â€œYou know whatâ€™s going to kill us when we get home donâ€™t you Sweetnam?â€

Spartan · Post by **Spartan** » December 14th, 2004, 4:37 pm

Great photos Ranger Hobbit - Thanks for sharing!