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When I arrived in Vietnam, I had orders to go to the
173rd Airborne Brigade. While I was waiting for travel
orders, a team of Army Rangers visited the soldiers
who had just arrived in Vietnam from the United States.
They were there to recruit volunteers for the 75th
Airborne Ranger Battalion. The Ranger Battalion
had a company of about 150 men attached to each
army division throughout Vietnam, tasked with
providing up to date enemy information. I went along
to listen to what they had to say.

They explained the purpose of Ranger Teams
was to conduct reconnaissance missions.
A Ranger team consisted of six men sent out deep
into enemy territory, in their back yard, usually for four
days and three nights, very quietly exploring an area of
about 4 to 6 square miles.

Each mission had three possible outcomes, different
ways. Ideally, it would be concluded peacefully
and the Rangers would be extracted peacefully at the
end of four days. We could set up an ambush in an
attempt to capture a P. O. W. which would compromise
our location, and we would need to be extracted
immediately. Finally, the most dangerous way to end
a mission would result from a Ranger team being
ambushed. In such a scenario, we would run like crazy
until we could communicate our situation by radio and
request support from F-4 Jet Air-strikes and/or
helicopter gunships so that we could be extracted to
relative safety.

Once a Ranger team’s mission is compromised,
they need to be extracted. They may need any combination
of support and fire power, we just discussed, to get
extracted. Extract means a single helicopter making a
fast approach to an open landing zone swooping to the
ground. The only protection the chopper had for those
long seconds of open exposure while approaching,
hovering and taking back off from an open landing
zone, was two M-60 machine guns, one on each side
of the chopper. The chopper would swoop in (hovering
up and down from 2 to 5 feet from the ground for just
a brief moment) while six Rangers would run and jump
in through the open doors of the chopper, then it would
lift off as fast as possible to avoid being hit by enemy
gunfire.

The most feared end to a mission for a Ranger team
was being ambushed at night while sleeping. To avoid
such a nasty surprise, we always set up trip flares to
warn us of an enemy pursuing us and claymore mines
aimed at covering the area where the flares were set.
When a flare went up, we would detonate the claymore
mines and, as quiet as possible, run using a preplanned
escape route. The rule of engagement at night
was not to use our rifles, as the muzzle flash would
give our location away.