Read an Excerpt
The Beginning
On May 7, 1965, the Headquarters of the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion landed in Vietnam. Several platoons from the battalion had preceded it as attachments to the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, which had landed on March 8. During the next four and one-half years, Marines of the 3rd Recon Battalion conducted reconnaissance operations in Vietnam; the battalion was withdrawn in November 1969. In that time period, approximately 2,800 Marines served as part of the battalion. Colonel Patrick G. Collins (Ret.), who was one of the first Recon Marines in Vietnam, has researched the records and found that, while on duty with the 3rd Recon Battalion, four of those Marines received the Medal of Honor, thirteen received the Navy Cross, and seventy-three the Silver Star. Because of those men, the countless others who received awards, and the even greater number who were better honored by the respect of their peers, the battalion itself was awarded one Presidential Unit Citation, two Navy Unit Citations, one Meritorious Unit Citation, and eleven battle stars for Vietnamese service. Not noted in that list are the unit awards that elements of the battalion received when attached to other commands. But statistics are devoid of life. Behind each award were human emotions, and quite often blood.
The anxiety that did not show on the faces of Recon Marines but stirred their stomachs as they sat waiting for the “birds” to come can be understood a little better by examining the substantial odds they faced while in action against enemy units. During their time in Vietnam, 1,121 Marines and 12 Navy Corpsmen from the battalion were killed, wounded, or missing in action. Encountering enemy forces far superior in number, confronting them in jungles, mountains, valleys, and villages miles distant from friendly faces, resulted in countless moments of personal crisis. In spite of swearing never to be taken alive, a few Marines were captured, usually after being wounded.* During those four and one-half years, seven Recon Marines and one corpsman were missing in action although two of the MIAs escaped back to the battalion and the bodies of two others were recovered.
The casualty figures show that approximately 40 percent of the Marines and U.S. Navy Corpsmen who served in the 3rd Recon Battalion during the Vietnam conflict were wounded or killed in action. Unmentioned is the fact that all the others from time to time had excellent reason to fear death. The acts of courage that are the foundation for those facts and figures are, for the most part, an as yet untold story, remaining in the memories of men who served. Recon Marine or Navy Corpsman, all were united by a unique and extraordinary psyche that fused allegiance, vitality, and resolve into a fighting spirit that enabled individuals to overcome personal fears and unexpected odds. Floyd Nagler, a veteran of the battalion in 1969, states:
Those of us who left ’Nam and the experience of being a Recon team member also left a piece of our souls somewhat disconnected. While none of us can ever regain the adrenaline high or unbelievably close social bond we experienced, an understanding of the slight pain we all feel from that vacuum in our souls, resulting from the team separation, is a need we all equally share.
The unit command chronologies held in the U.S. Marine Corps Historical Center at the Washington Navy Yard indicate that battalion recon teams sighted a total of 37,049 enemy and accounted for 2,534 enemy killed in action (KIA), 2,712 either wounded or suspected KIA, and 76 individuals captured who were either known enemy or suspected to be so.
Not accounted for in this data is the additional effect of responses by infantry or air units in support of a recon patrol but not observed by the patrol. Neither do the patrol reports include numbers that were not recorded in the battalion records because they were submitted to infantry units by Recon teams attached to them.
In spite of the battalion’s accomplishments, the Recon Marine’s worth in Vietnam has not yet truly been acknowledged. But the words of Bill Buhl, a respected “mustang” lieutenant in the battalion in 1965–66, are perhaps most appropriate: “Those fine young Recon Marines who performed so well, before, during, and after our respective tours, need look only to their peers for the recognition they genuinely deserve.”
The 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion did not simply appear for the first time in Vietnam. The lineage of the battalion begins with Company E (Scouts) 3rd Tank Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, which was created in 1942. In April 1944, it was redesignated the Amphibious Reconnaissance Company, Headquarters Battalion, 3rd Marine Division. During World War II, the unit participated in the Bougainville, Solomon Islands, Guam, and Iwo Jima campaigns. Then it was deactivated until the Korean War. In 1956, it was again deactivated, but on April 15, 1958, it was reactivated as the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division. It remained an active unit in the Fleet Marine Force, headquartered in Okinawa, until recently, when it was deactivated and its mission assumed by Scout companies assigned to infantry units.
Most of the publicity surrounding the special elite units of the Marine Corps during World War II has been devoted to the Raider battalions, but a little bit of history will tell us something about the forerunner of the Recon Battalion, the Scout companies. In August 1942, the United States took the offensive against the Japanese war machine, and Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands was first on the hit list. Just twenty miles across Iron Bottom Sound from “The Canal” was the smaller island of Tulagi, and that’s where the Raiders hit the beach. However, the unsung heroes that were the Scout companies received orders for the main battle on the ninety-mile-long island of Guadalcanal. They were the units that evolved into the reconnaissance battalions that served in Vietnam.
George Neville, Sr., was a Marine Scout in the early days of World War II. Neville states that his unit had been conducting cold weather exercises in Iceland when Pearl Harbor was attacked. He describes how they trained using motorcycles and lightly armored vehicles sporting .50-caliber and .30-caliber machine guns. Before long the units were aboard a ship and sailing into the “Slot,” shown on the maps as Sea Lark Channel, a charming name for a body of water later to be known as Iron Bottom Sound. The channel was given this nickname in grim tribute to the work of the skilled and deadly Rear Admiral Gunichi Mikawa and his 25th Air Flotilla. In the early morning of August 10, 1942, Mikawa’s eight-ship task force sank four American cruisers and one destroyer, and severely damaged a fifth cruiser, in the channel—thus, Iron Bottom Sound. This battle occurred within sight of Mr. Neville and his Marines, fighting on Guadalcanal with Japanese to their front, and now with a good portion of the American navy sunk in the waters behind them.
The Scouts had landed on August 7, 1942, but had gone ashore without their vehicles. They returned to the ship on August 9, intending to bring the armored vehicles off the next day. But that night they were rushed over the side because the enemy navy had been sighted entering the Slot. The Marines got to the shore safely but their scout cars were made into fish houses by the Japanese. The real battle lasted only forty-six minutes and sent 1,024 Allied seamen to their deaths. With 5,000 Japanese troops on the island ready to do battle, the Marines couldn’t spend too much time worrying about who controlled the seas behind them.
Mr. Neville relates:
During the battle for Guadalcanal the recon scouts were used basically according to the dictates of the infantry commander we were attached to. Our patrol size varied from small groups (three to four) to platoon size, depending on the mission. We scouted ahead of the infantry, but we were not able to go too far in front of our lines because the enemy was hiding in the jungles not far away. In fact, those front lines got mixed up quite often—with us in the middle of it.
The platoon was constantly moved around and separated into small groups. Our mission was never very clear, nor was it uniform. It all depended on the infantry officer who was using us. We carried ’03 Springfields, Thompsons, and light, air-cooled machine guns. Those, however, didn’t do a hell of a lot of good when we were being shelled by the enemy cruisers from the Slot.
One particular mission we were given was to counter the Japanese who were sneaking through our lines at night. They would hide in trees inside our lines and snipe at us during the day. We were told to lay in knee-high grass inside our lines, at night, and wait for them to try to get through. Our orders were to engage them with bayonets and hand-to-hand combat for fear of shooting our own men. Remember, this was in the dark. Doesn’t that sound like John Wayne for you. Hell, I was scared to death. My platoon left the “Canal” in December, and I was proud of my time in the Corps, but I was glad to survive.
Recon Marines have been on foot ever since those scout cars reached the bottom of Sea Lark Channel. However, after the war, two basic types of Marine reconnaissance units evolved.
Assigned to conduct preassault and distant postassault reconnaissance in support of the landing force are the Force Reconnaissance companies. There were four active duty Force Recon companies in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, although the 3rd and the 5th were later deactivated. In the 1980s Force Recon companies began the highly specialized training designed to prepare them for such missions as the capture or rescue of oil rigs, aircraft, and other point targets. In theory, Force Recon units are to be attached to the Amphibious or Expeditionary Force, which is a superior command to the division; therefore, they are designed to operate over a wider and deeper battlefield than the Recon battalions and should not be attached to the division or infantry regiment or battalion. Each of those companies had six platoons. Scuba and jump schools were mandatory.
