About
The History of F Co (LRP), 52nd Infantry/ I Co Company 75th Rangers
The Republic of South Vietnam
Officially on 20 December 1967 (but actually in late
January 1968) the Long Range Patrol Detachment, HHC, 1st Infantry,
became F Company, 52nd Infantry (LRP) with CPT Jack Price remaining as
Commander.
The new year found a change of address along with an influx of new
personnel that just happened to coincide with the enemy's 33rd
Division's attempt to encircle Lai Khe. The new volunteers faced a
rigorous on the job training routine, and Captain Price had a revolving
door for people who couldn't cut it for one reason or another. There
were numerous contacts and many close calls. Rick Chase and Ron Maynard
will never forget the night a gun ship let go with a volley of its mini
guns, which went between them and took some of the heel of Maynard's
boot. Tom McMahon fell in a spider hole one knight and watched
helplessly as an enemy soldier emptied his rifle at his body which was
jammed in the hole because ha had the radio. It was Perkins who came
back for Tom and killed the enemy soldier and calmly stated, "Well boy
you gonna get up" as he offered his hand.
Vaughn Issacs will never forget the night when he laid with his body
wedged tight against a paddy dike while enemy soldiers walked on it.
Sergeant First Class John Tapia still talks of the night the enemy was
in close proximity mortaring Lai Khe. When asked if he should attack
permission was denied. There may be too many of the enemy. When asked if
he could direct counter battery fire he was denied. Too close they said.
When he asked if could pull back to call in artillery, he was denied and
the area was bombarded with aloud barrage of expletives. Franklin Jones
will never forget the night a large enemy element searched for us in the
night and one of them nearly stepped on him. By the end of the month the
build up would peak, Bill Cohn was the first to see what he termed funny
trees growing on the berm at the village of An My. Team leader Ron Luse
took the starlight scope and observed a line of enemy soldiers moving on
Phu Loi. It was the opening volley of Tet, which to the men in the
company was no surprise.
The contacts continued throughout February. Mike Wise remembers well the
night his team (lead by Mike Sharp) and Jack Leisure's team where
supposed to run two coordinated long missions around Lai Khe. Contact by
Sharp's team prompted Leisure's team to go assist them, so Leisure's
team who were already settled in for the night popped their claymores
and went to assit Sharp's team, but Leisure's team ran into enemy
soldiers who were going to help the people that Sharp's team had
contacted. Both teams made it back to Lai Khe. The mission was modified
by combining the two teams but when they left Lai Khe at the north gate
they soon got into another contact where Charley Hartsoe was wounded by
a grenade thrown by a VC and who was allowed to run away , because Sharp
and Leisure's whereabouts weren't known to the rest of the team. It
didn't take Dave Hill long to realize his dog Rex was not gonna be Rex
the LRRP dog, but they both stayed with the company. Fortunately for Rex
because a couple of months later Dave and the rest of Paul Elsner's team
took a ride on the skids of Larry Taylor's Cobra gunship and there
wasn't any room for Rex. Mike was wounded a month later while waiting
for Dave Hughes to exit a bunker. Hughes heard the shots and went out
another way. When he left the other end of the bunker he came across a
pair of VC who were too stunned to shoot him. He tumbled down the 300
foot banks of the Song Be river where he was later picked up by a line
unit. Richard Gamez and another guy from the company decided to go on a
two man mission and spent the day playing hide and go seek with a group
of enemy soldiers intent on getting prisoners. They secretly thanked SFC
Morton for thinking the company was made up of marathon runners as we
were required to run those days you were not on a mission. Then there
was the incident of a team of men with painted faces who collected tolls
along Highway 13. Mill's is probably still laughing about the night the
new guy fell asleep and he woke him to put a grenade under him and told
him not to move until morning. It's not clear whether or not the pin was
pulled. Bill Faulkner defied the laws of physics when exited the tower
at Lai Khe on the morning he was due to process out. It seems his
partner in the tower had angered the VC and they responded with an RPG
that nearly hit the tower. One thing the company had in abundance was
friends. We knew this because of all the "friendly fire" we received.
Despite numerous contacts casualties were extremely low. Jim Boyle who
was on his third tour was killed on 17 April 1968 when a snipers bullet
hit the starlight scope he was carrying and a piece of the shattered
lens severed his renal artery. Jack Leisure, who was ending his second
tour, was killed while trying to take a high ranking enemy officer
prisoner. Another five months and numerous contacts would pass before
Bill Cohn's team was lost when the chopper that extracted his team was
shot down along the Cambodian border. James Boot was killed on November
13th. On the 21st a team would be lost because rear superiors issued
severely flawed orders, which also caused some good men to opt out of
the company. As the year ended the company was again getting ready for
another address change to "I Company 75th Rangers" Reynaldo Arenas was
killed. While seriously wounded Bill Goshen and Larry Wenzel, two
survivors of a six man team, were surrounded by a few hundred enemy and
clung onto their lives waiting for the New Year to arrive.
A conversation was held between the First Brigade Commander and the
Third Brigade Commander shortly before F Company 52nd Infantry (Long
Range Patrol) was transformed into I Company (Ranger), 75th Infantry.
The conversation concerned the Big Red One LRRP's loss of SGT Cohn's
team (the first team) and SGT Washington's team (second team) at Quan
Loi. At that time the LRRP's numbered only 25-30 personnel. The First
Brigade Commander complained that LRRP intelligence was not very
reliable prior to the overrun of his perimeter. However, it was only a
matter of his listening to the "eyes and ears" of the First Division
since SGT Barry Crabtree's LRRP team had warned him in advance that the
enemy were heavily infiltrating the area and that they were in danger.
The Third Brigade Commander replied: What do you mean that these LRRP's
don't have the proper attitude or appearance, and that they rejected
your assessment? Don't you know that this small group's enemy KIA's
exceed any battalion in your Brigade." By early 1969, F Company (LRP),
52d Infantry had shut down without practically realizing that it had
become a new company with a slightly different Ranger mission. CPT Allen
A. Lindman led these LRRP's into Rangerhood and F Company 52d Infanty
disappeared along with other LURP units in Vietnam..