19 Newspaper Stories About Us
If you have ANY articles you would like to add, please send them the Mike Lapolla, 2819 South Cincinnati Avenue, Tulsa, OK 74114 or email them to mike@lapolla.com. If possible please include the source and date of the story. We have provided a short introduction to each story. Use "click here for full story" to see complete article.

March 8, 1967
Peekskill (NY) Evening Star
Letter to the Editor/Mike Lapolla

Local Viet Commander Praises Ability and Stamina of GIs
Pleidjerang, Central Highlands, Vietnam

To The Editor:
... At the present time I am Detachment Commander of a select group of soldiers. They are all volunteers for dangerous and lonely missions in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Our missions are classified, but I can tell you about the men They are ...

... Out of this cruel and dirty war will come men the United States can rely upon. These men will get things done. They are men of decision and action. With them the United States will grow, prosper and remain the world's bastion of freedom. ... click here for full story.

June 12, 1967
Memphis (TN) Commercial Appeal

A Patrol Hides From 'Dinks' In Hostile Jungle
By Thomas Corpora, Landing Zone Regulars, Vietnam, June 11 - (UPI) - Monsoon rains are for cursing. I cursed one for two days. Now every breath begged for a deluge. We were half a dozen Americans trapped by North Vietnamese soldiers 2,500 meters from the Cambodian border. The thick brush jungle in which we lay protected us from their eyes. But the jungle also was our jail. If we tried to crawl away, the deadfall on the jungle floor would sound like popcorn gone mad. Our only hope was the monsoon. In the jungle, its driving rains would drown the sounds of even the clumsiest ... click here for full story.

IVY Leaf, June 18, 1967, 2nd Brigade

LRRP Observes Enemy Mortar Crew In Action
By Capt. Ed Ciliberti VUNG DAT AM - The 2nd Brigade's Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols often get into some pretty tight situations ... click here for full story.

Primary Source/Date Unspecified

Airstrikes Get Patrol Out of Tough Spot
PLEIKU, (4th INF-10) - After fighting off a North Vietnamese Army (NVA) force for three hours, a small group of tired soldiers tumbled out of the evacuation chopper at their home base ... click here for full story.

Primary Source/Date Unspecified

Hawkeyes In Vietnam Live Close To Death
By THOMAS CORPORA United Press International
THE OASIS, Vietnam (UPI) - The Hawkeyes of the 4th Infantry Division get closer to the Communist enemy than most GIs in Vietnam. It is a deadly intimacy. It means death in places the Communist soldiers believe safe, death at the length of a rifle barrel ... click here for full story.

IVY LEAF July 7, 1968

New Threat To Highland Communists ARVN Soldiers Undergo LRP Training
CAMP ENARI - South Vietnamese soldiers have accepted a new challenge in the war against the Communists in the Central Highlands. A selected group of ARVN soldiers recently finished a two-phased Long Range Patrol (LRP) training program, including an initial 20-day phase at Camp Enari, and 40 days in an integrated program with the division and brigade LRP members ... click here for full story.

IVY LEAF June 1968

Ivy LRRPs Bag 2 VC
CAMP ENARI - "You might say it was the same thing happening all over again," grinned Sergeant Leonard Valeen of San Bernardino, Calif., with the Ivy's 2nd Brigade Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) section, after his team had just detained a Viet Cong soldier walking down a trail ... click here for full story.

IVY LEAF March 1968

Fierce Gunfire Shuffle Fells NVA Woodsmen
VUNG DAT AM - As the morning grew warmer, members of Long Range Patrol (LRP) for the 2nd Brigade moved cautiously toward the stream to replenish their water supply. "As we neared the stream we saw a North Vietnamese Army soldier break through the tree line. He was moving as if he was looking for something," explained Sergeant Gary Robinson of Rodgers City, Mich., the LRP team leader. "We followed him and after a while found a trail. Following the trail for about 150 meters we heard some chopping and saw another NVA" ... click here for full story.

IVY LEAF May 1968

Red Squad Talks Way Into A Jam
THE OASIS - A group of Viet Cong soldiers talked their way into a jam recently just as members of a Long Range Patrol from the 4th Division's 2nd Brigade were getting ready to go back to their camp. "We really didn't expect to find too much. The area was thick with bushes, but sparse on trails and signs of enemy activity," said Specialist 4 Keith Naccarato of Priest River, Idaho ... click here for full story.

IVY LEAF October 1, 1967

Decorated By Ho Chi Minh Patrol Captures NVA Officer
By SP4 Robert Boudreau VUNG DAT AM - A brief but bitter dawn fire fight between a 2nd Brigade long range reconnaissance patrol and a North Vietnamese unit resulted in the capture of a decorated NVA officer and two enemy killed. The patrol had been airlifted into the Central Highlands' jungle to locate enemy positions and had set up a night base after a day of scouting the surrounding area. Specialist 5 Duane A. Jones (Memphis, Tenn.), team leader of the patrol, suddenly heard "a lot of noise" off to his right and requested a team of gunships to standby in case the patrol came under attack ... click here for full story.

Primary Source/Date Unspecified

LRRP Kills 7 Before Being Lifted Out; First Battle For 2
PLEIKU, (4th INF-10) - For two members of the small reconnaissance team the fight was a literal baptism of fire. The entire team came close to death. The Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) from the 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division had tangled with 15 North Vietnamese Army (NVA) Regulars. Although the odds were not in the recons' favor, the small unit managed to kill seven of the enemy before being lifted out of the hot spot. "We were sent in to recon targets of opportunity," said Sgt. Lawrence R. Willey, leader of the patrol. "We could fight ourselves, or if we thought it too much to handle, call in artillery or air strikes" ... click here for full story.

Primary Source/Date Unspecified

Thanks to Montagnards LRRP Member Spots NVA Soldiers
By Sp5 George Beidler Oasis - A fleeing North Vietnamese Army soldier was killed recently when three Montagnard laborers inadvertently warned a 2nd Brigade Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol of danger. Under the direction of Staff Sergeant Sherman T. Tilley (Savannah, Ga.), the four-man team was patrolling in the Central Highlands. During the first afternoon the team discovered a cache of rice and NVA uniforms. Early the following morning the LRRP received word to serve as a blocking force for elements of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry who were in contact at a nearby landing zone ... click here for full story.

Primary Source/Date Unspecified

LRRP Members Return From Mission, Immediately Receive Bronze Stars
By Sp5 George Beidler Plei Djereng - Five members of the 2nd Brigade's Long Range Reconnaissance Platoon were awarded Bronze Star Medals by Major General William R. Peers, 4th Division commander, immediately after the team returned from a mission which resulted in six enemy killed. Under the direction of Staff Sergeant John Sanderson (Detroit), the LRRP team had been patrolling the Central Highlands for four days when an uncharted trail was discovered ... click here for full story.

Primary Source/Date Unspecified

Sgt. Littlejohn Gets Silver Star Medal
The Silver Star has been awarded to S/Sgt. Carl W. Littlejohn "for gallantry in action" in South Vietnam. During the action he was severely wounded and won the Purple Heart medal. He recuperated from a wound in his side during a month in a hospital in Japan, and now is back in action in Vietnam. His year of service in Vietnam will expire in October. He "distinguished himself," the citation says, "by heroic action as a team leader of a long-range reconnaissance patrol Feb. 10" during the truce which included that day ... click here for full story.

IVY LEAF September 3, 1967

For SSG Tilley, LRRP Member Once In A Lifetime Stories Replaced Again and Again
By 1LT William C. Foster VUNG DAT AM - "Well, we were moving quietly through the wooded area when all of a sudden we found ourselves almost surrounded by a North Vietnamese unit. That's when all hell broke out." To many soldiers this would be a once in a lifetime story which would be told over and over. However, for Staff Sergeant Sherman T. Tilley (Savannah, Ga.), a team leader with the long range reconnaissance patrol of the Ivy Division's 2nd Brigade, it is a story which is soon replaced with another and then another. SSG Tilley is a cool, calm Ivyman who loves his job. He likes it so much that when his tour was up in July he extended for another six months ... click here for full story.