LRRP, SF, SOG, or DELTA?
This is a general distribution to those I think might be interested,
particulary some original members of our LRRP platoon.
I am rewriting my book LRRP. This time around I have access to info I
couldn't originally get. The Second Brigade LRRPs were a special
experiment that worked.
Our AO in the central highlands, between Pleiku and Kontum, was where the
Special Forces had been running their Project DELTA long range patrols.
The 4th Division commander after Christmas 1966 at the time was General
Peers, ex-OSS and an old Burma hand. Westmoreland gave Peers wide
LRRP-mission latitude, and allowed him to use all the SF camps in our
tri-border (Laos,Cambodia, Vietnam) area for LRRP bases. We were lumped
in with DELTA, and in my 201, that time is listed as: "2nd Bde LRRP
USARPAC-V 5th SFG."
Peers was experimenting to see if infantry-level LRRPs could do the same
job as the more exotic DELTA project. The question he wanted answered was
could we operate farther out, with less support, than normal LRRP ops. In
short, could we do what DELTA did?
DELTA was technically separate from SOG. DELTA was all SF, while SOG was
joint-services. DELTA's missions were supposed to stop at the border, and
SOG was supposed to take over there. The reality was there was a little
double-dipping, and DELTA sometimes went over the border. Our little
rag-tag provisional LRRP platoon got caught up in the big time.
Technically, DELTA was working with us rather than us working with them.
This exposed us to DELTA and in some cases, SOG information. Our recon
teams operated out of SF camps, and sometimes got mission briefings in SF
ops bunkers. We took it in stride as part of the job.
Incidentally, Peers LRRP experiment with us worked well enough for him to
specifically cite our platoons' mission and casualty stats, and get
Westmoreland to approve two strategic-level non-SF LRRP units in
September 1967 for all of South Vietnam. Two 'MACV" LRRP companies were
created, one each for Field Force I and II.
So now if anyone knows enough to ask you if you were LRRP, SF, SOG, or
DELTA, you can say "no" with emphasis. We were Second Brigade LRRPs, in a
class by ourselves.
Frank Camper