Jump to content

Recondo V patch - what is it?


Bob Hudson
 Share

Recommended Posts

I've spent the last few days appraising non-military things for an upcoming estate sale for a guy who was in Special Forces in Vietnam (he's still alive - this is a downsizing and moving sale).

 

He no longer lives in the house, but has come by a couple times and we chatted about his Army days and his 38 years in law enforcement after that. He has his Purple Heart, Bronze Star and a couple of other artifacts from his service, but said that was about it.

 

As I was leaving the house tonight, I came across this in a stack of items to be sold. The estate sale operator gave it to me, but I'm a bit unsure about these, were they something worn stateside in a training school?

 

1.jpg

 

2.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's a MACV Recondo School pocket patch. Awarded to Recondo School graduates. The School was run by 5th Group in Nha Trang from about Sept '66-Dec '70--or somewhere close to those dates.

 

Worn in-country but not authorized stateside, as far as I know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Niner Alpha

Here we go again! :(

 

 

As long as the guy wasn't in the 1st Brigade of the 9th..... I'll believe the Recondo School. No argument.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not having much left I'm sure he will be exited to get it.

 

No, he doesn't care: he's got the medals and that's all he cares about. He's even getting rid of some cool badges from his four decades in law enforcement.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

As long as the guy wasn't in the 1st Brigade of the 9th..... I'll believe the Recondo School. No argument.

 

At first we thought it was related to RE/MAX, the real estate company, with RE/CONDO being their branch that specializes in condos, but then we realized olive drab was not a good color for real estate agents - subdued they are not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As others have stated prior, Recondo School was established by Westmoreland in 1966. It was staffed by 5 officers and 41 enlisted Special Forces. The school focused on the training of Free World Military Forces in the techniques of Long Range Reconnaissance. Therefore, any unit stationed in Vietnam could send soldiers it deemed worthy to the Recondo school. However, the course itself was not easy. In Stanton's Vietnam Order of Battle book he gives the statistics of how many attempted the course and how many finished. In the period of May -July 1968 354 soldiers started Recondo school, by the end of the 286.5 hours of the course only 197 had graduated.

 

It has been said by those LRRPs who went that Recondo was "the greatest school" and "trained you for everything you needed to know".

 

Sources:

-5th Special Forces Group, Operational Reports for Period Ending July 31st. National Archives and Records Administration. College Park, Md. Record Group 472: Records of the U.S. Forces in Southeast Asia, 1950-1976.

-Stanton, Shelby. Vietnam Order of Battle. Mechanicsburg: Stackpole Book, 2003.

-The History Channel. Secrets of the Vietnam War: Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol, DVD. Directed by David Callip. North Hills, CA: Brentwood Communications International Inc., 2001.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As others have stated prior, Recondo School was established by Westmoreland in 1966. It was staffed by 5 officers and 41 enlisted Special Forces. The school focused on the training of Free World Military Forces in the techniques of Long Range Reconnaissance.

 

This guy did LRRP with 5th SFG. He later spent 38 years as a law enforcement officer for a federal agency that worked in a vast wilderness area adjacent to Los Angeles: it was a popular area for the LA gangs to dump bodies, practice with their weapons, set up bobby-trapped pot farms, etc. His RECONDO training came in handy then too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a L Co jacket to a Ranger in the 101st.There is a black and red MACV RECONDO patch on the pocket.There were others who attended the school as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

vintageproductions

Here's some more variants.

Two from the school, two from the 101st and one from the 25th.

recondo.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Recondo School is one of my favorite subjects to study. As Doyler said, if you look at lists of graduates, you'll find Marines, SEALs, and PJ's plus Thais, Koreans, Filipinos and Aussies. Some FWMAF countries had instructors at the school as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks like my last response was deleted. It didn't follow the mantra I guess.

 

There were couple of post that seemed like a re-hash of arguments started elsewhere.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...