United States Army Rangers - Vietnam War

Vietnam War

Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) and Long Range Patrol companies (also known as Lurps) were formed in the mid-1960s as a "reactive necessity to the US Army's lack of units capable of reconnaissance behind enemy lines". On 1 January 1969, under the new U.S. Army Combat Arms Regimental System (CARS), these units were "redesignated as Rangers" in South Vietnam within the 75th Infantry Regiment (Ranger). Fifteen companies of Rangers were raised from "Lurp" units—which had been performing missions in Europe since the late 1950s and in Vietnam since 1966. The genealogy of this new Regiment was linked to Merrill's Marauders.

In Vietnam, the Rangers were organized as independent companies: C, D, E, F, G, H, I, K, L, M, N, O and P (With one notable WWII exception, since 1816, U.S. Army regiments have not included a Juliet or "J" company

In addition to scouting and reconnoitering roles for their parent formations, ranger units provided terrain-assessment and tactical or special security missions; undertook recovery operations to locate and retrieve friendly prisoners of war; captured enemy soldiers for interrogation and intelligence-gathering purposes; tapped North Vietnam Army and Viet Cong wire communications lines in their established base areas along the Ho Chi Minh trail, and mined enemy trails as well as motor-vehicle transport routes.