Recondo School memories

[Brasso]

Dam, I knew I'd get some good responses from that sickly post...Dam ALL you RECONDO'S should all get down and beat your faces while your knocking them out...I ain't dying and as the gentleman said RANGERS DON'T die they just re-group. Oh, and thanks for the Medical Class, I needed that ! NOT!

S.S.T.C.C.

[SGT G]

Dam, I knew I'd get some good responses from that sickly post...Dam ALL you RECONDO'S should all get down and beat your faces while your knocking them out...I ain't dying and as the gentleman said RANGERS DON'T die they just re-group. Oh, and thanks for the Medical Class, I needed that ! NOT!

S.S.T.C.C.

Happy to see your back to normal.

[recondo82]

Glad to see that you are still the same cheerful soul you were back in Recondo School, Brasso. I would be disappointed if the years had softened you up, LOL.

[kenlavine1]

Dam, I knew I'd get some good responses from that sickly post...Dam ALL you RECONDO'S should all get down and beat your faces while your knocking them out...I ain't dying and as the gentleman said RANGERS DON'T die they just re-group. Oh, and thanks for the Medical Class, I needed that ! NOT!

S.S.T.C.C.

Push-ups? No problem. As long as I don't have to run around the compound with sandbags in my ruck.

[dav]

Did your class do the drill where everyone went into the pit and the object was to throw everyone else out of the pit?

I think we called that the "bear pit."

[dav]

After 33 years, this is what stands out best:

The "duffle bag drag" up that long sand road, and how the instructors pounced on those "dragging," and scattered the contents of their bags all over the trail.

The Operations Order "contest" starting the final week, and how I awoke in the middle of mine and discovered several paragraphs of scribbled gibberish on the page in front of me. Each time I tried to wake-up, collect my thoughts and fix it, but each time I fell asleep again, writing more gibberish.

Guajardo! (sp?) That was it, not Hernandez. He walked around with a machete (as opposed to a pointer) which he would stick into the nearest stump for emphasis of a point he wished to make. It was comic relief. I bore the brunt of this emphasis on our first "shake down" patrol after patrolling class.

I was the APL, and tasked with insuring everyone was in the proper uniform. I had a guy who wore his winter field pants under his cammies. I noted this and told him to remove them. He would overheat with them on, and they weren't on the packing list. He objected, swearing he "always dresses like this in the field back in his unit". Well, you can imagine what happened!

20 minutes into the patrol and I started hearing stumbling and branches breaking somewhere up ahead. This didn't go for long before the formation halted and the "apl to the front" came back down the line.

Sure enough, there's douchenozzle laying on the ground, soaked in sweat, with SFC Guajardo over him and machete buried into a lighter-naught stump by douchenozzles head. ROFLMAO. (But it wasn't funny at the time) So yeah, I endured a vicious ass-chewing for failing as his APL, and learned a valuable lesson or two.

[old13foxtrot]

Hello to all the Recondos from old13foxtrot. I made it to Ft. Bragg and HHB Divarty in 1980. I went to the old 18th ABN Recondo school during the Rorem era! In fact, I see old MSG Joe Rorem quite often and he is still a hard charger. Joe called me today and said his daughter found something on the internet about the old Recondo course at Ft. Bragg. After a little digging I wound up here.

I have read and enjoyed the previous posts and it brings back a lot of memories. It really is hard to forget that place, I don't care how sleep deprived you get.

What is really special for me is the fact I get to occasionally rehash the old days with one of the NCO's who put me through it. And as a side note, he STILL keeps a squad of Golden Retrievers in top shape with daily PT and patrolling. The high point of my week is greeting Top at O'dark thirty, sharing a cup of coffee, loading the troops, and heading out in the old pickup truck for a walk before the sun cracks the horizon.

If any old Recondo wants to get in touch with MSG Rorem, just drop me a note and I'll pass along your contact info.

Airborne! All the way!

[recondo82]

Hello to all the Recondos from old13foxtrot. I made it to Ft. Bragg and HHB Divarty in 1980. I went to the old 18th ABN Recondo school during the Rorem era! In fact, I see old MSG Joe Rorem quite often and he is still a hard charger. Joe called me today and said his daughter found something on the internet about the old Recondo course at Ft. Bragg. After a little digging I wound up here.

I have read and enjoyed the previous posts and it brings back a lot of memories. It really is hard to forget that place, I don't care how sleep deprived you get.

What is really special for me is the fact I get to occasionally rehash the old days with one of the NCO's who put me through it. And as a side note, he STILL keeps a squad of Golden Retrievers in top shape with daily PT and patrolling. The high point of my week is greeting Top at O'dark thirty, sharing a cup of coffee, loading the troops, and heading out in the old pickup truck for a walk before the sun cracks the horizon.

If any old Recondo wants to get in touch with MSG Rorem, just drop me a note and I'll pass along your contact info.

Airborne! All the way!

Welcome to the site, old13foxtrot. A bunch of us here went through Recondo School in the 80s before they scrapped it. If you would kindly go o the Introduction forum and post your pertinent military info such as Basic/AIT/BAC dates, units served, etc., you will be spared from one of the Admins here putting you in the front leaning rest position for not following site SOP.

Again, glad you found the site. A lot of memories here.

[AFTAC85]

Welcome to the site, old13foxtrot. A bunch of us here went through Recondo School in the 80s before they scrapped it. If you would kindly go o the Introduction forum and post your pertinent military info such as Basic/AIT/BAC dates, units served, etc., you will be spared from one of the Admins here putting you in the front leaning rest position for not following site SOP.

Again, glad you found the site. A lot of memories here.

Very eloquently put...you're a softy there Scott.

[eradicator]

He'll yes we did it. Lost my first RECODO buddy to a broken collar bone. Had some other guy get his eye full of saw dust that he to go to the hospital. I remember the jump and roll stuff too. I always hit hard every time I did it. Too bad the Army did away with that course. If you made it thru RECONDO school you knew you had accomplished something.

Going to have to agree with you ondoing away with the course,that was one of the main reasons I enlisted but by that time it had gone the way of the dodo. The Recruter said he can guaranty Airborne and Ranger RIGHT after basic.....God was I ever a green newbie...lol

[Brasso]

WELCOME TO THE FNG'S and screw the recruiters....When I was a Drill at Benning 81-83. We had to line them up on the 2nd or 3rd day with their contracts to make sure we had 11X's since some of them were hideous and bitching about How they were suppose to be a mechanic....after 48 hrs or so with us....they wanted OUT and all the Pillsbury Dough boys who were allowed to be over weight and had 6 months to loose it....we weeded out the worst in the first two weeks since I stayed with them in my office every nite for the first 2 weeks and I would slip home sometimes during the days but I was not leaving them in those Barracks alone...I put them to bed by using commands and woke them up by smashing trash can lids together...I attempted to train them all Hard but Fair...and I wold have at least 5 -7 of them gone by the 14th day......TDP program.....Speaking of OLD times etc...I met a guy on Face Book Ray Storch who was an Instructor at Recondo in 1986 and he has a page called 82nd/XVIII Airborne Recondo School ..so I made a few posts and posted some info , video etc and he asked me to be an Admin guy since he was doing it alone so I'm helping him out we have been tossing different ideas around ...like calling it US ARMY RECONDO SCHOOLS I told him no way we would have to get the history from every unit, etc....I said as we move along we should add the history a little at a time....I did an article on the Army's first LRRPS and posted about 15 patches from all over....It's better to add a little at a time. He has the entire POI etc..Good Man..."SALSA"

[Recon6]

SFC Eddyburn and the all the other instructors at the 18^th Airborne school Recondo course, where the best NCOs, I had the pleasure over every dealing with. They were hard but fair and they gave me the skills and motivation to be the best NCO I could be. I was a cherry NCO back in Nov 85, and they laid down the foundation in which I could build on. To becoming a good 13F NCO/NCOIC, I tried to start a course like this at Fort Sill, back in 98 and was shot down. Today’s SGTs don’t understand what it means to be a NCO, NCOs lead from the front and have to earn the right to say. They are the backbone of the Army. The instructors at Recondo school were truly Backbone NCOs, Recondo school was a course Run by NCOs, for NCOs!Recondo.jpg

[Rocket1972]

SFC Eddyburn and the all the other instructors at the 18^th Airborne school Recondo course, where the best NCOs, I had the pleasure over every dealing with. They were hard but fair and they gave me the skills and motivation to be the best NCO I could be. I was a cherry NCO back in Nov 85, and they laid down the foundation in which I could build on. To becoming a good 13F NCO/NCOIC, I tried to start a course like this at Fort Sill, back in 98 and was shot down. Today’s SGTs don’t understand what it means to be a NCO, NCOs lead from the front and have to earn the right to say. They are the backbone of the Army. The instructors at Recondo school were truly Backbone NCOs, Recondo school was a course Run by NCOs, for NCOs!Recondo.jpg

Ok highspeed, we need you to jump over to the intro section and post an intro as per my private message to you.

[Brasso]

SFC Eddyburn and the all the other instructors at the 18^th Airborne school Recondo course, where the best NCOs, I had the pleasure over every dealing with. They were hard but fair and they gave me the skills and motivation to be the best NCO I could be. I was a cherry NCO back in Nov 85, and they laid down the foundation in which I could build on. To becoming a good 13F NCO/NCOIC, I tried to start a course like this at Fort Sill, back in 98 and was shot down. Today’s SGTs don’t understand what it means to be a NCO, NCOs lead from the front and have to earn the right to say. They are the backbone of the Army. The instructors at Recondo school were truly Backbone NCOs, Recondo school was a course Run by NCOs, for NCOs!Recondo.jpg

Clyde, Your having a rough week, after posting your RECONDO certificate on the wall page of the 82nd/XVIII Airborne Recondo School FACE BOOK page. And I made the comment, "Thanks Clyde but I don't remember us issuing certificates with the guys pictures on them "! But I was just BS with you, if that makes you happy, so be it. BROTHERS, we have a plan in effect and it's working out really well. Ray is handling the 82nd/XVIII Airborne Recondo and the 82nd Raider also.....(IF ANY OLD TIMERS WENT TO THE RAIDER COURSE,) He could use any input you may have....

I'm handling the first Recondo School in the Army which of course was the 101st Airborne Recondo School and I'm also working on probably the most popular one the Special Forces MACV Recondo School in Vietnam (since I graduated from it May 11, 1968 RN 1114). Now were just introducing both of these courses slowly so as not to distract from the 82nd/XVIII Airborne Course, however, at the same time, it's imperative to be ready to expand into the history of the RECONDO School system and eventually the units that the majority of the graduates from both the 101st and MACV were assigned to or eventually winded up in a LRRP, LRP or RGR unit in the Nam...and all the schools did not survive much longer than the mid 70's since we all know there were some schools here in the States and several at the unit level in the Nam...And why did they STOP Recondo?
Simple answer is LRSU came into the picture and the Army had big plans for it. In fact one of the instructors I worked with at the Recondo school at Bragg got sent to be an RI and was one of the first RI's drafted to begin writing , planning and then conducting the first LRSU course at the Ranger school. So it was all about LRSU which is like Recondo however they had to have extensive commo training in the beginning....It has been tossed around so much now the LRS are being assigned to some CAV units which have their own "RECON" or scouts and unless they have a DAM good commander, who can keep their missions seperate and keep them from killing each other and fighting over school slots etc...I think the LRS will not be used correctly unless as I said the CDR is really going to need to be experienced in both arenas and IMO, very few Infantry Officers have that, so I dam sure doubt that a Cav officer would have it NOW DON'T get upset...I was a 19D also and the Cav does great things,,,,,what I cannot understand is the lack of leadership at the top to make a firm commitment about where or who the LRS will be assigned to and keep it that way and it will work out if THEY make it work out....then the engine can keep on the tracks....The LRS have been through more BS due to the lack of the top brass understanding or ever working in the reconnaissance and surveillance arena AMEN ! "SALSA"

[rockwellB\co1\508]

Class 6-81,SFC Roerm was IN CHARGE, He was 3rd plt sgt in my unit when I first arrived,so I knew him. Once we were low crawling in front of the classroom to keep us awake and the Instructor was yelling If the man in front of you isent fast enuph crawl over him! some Jarhead thought he would try crawling over me so I did my best to kick his fucking teeth out ,the instructor draged me into Roerms office to explain ,he absolutly loved it !! He loved his paratroopers!Roerm told me the sound of people behind him weezing and dieing on the ruck runs just made him want to go faster ,I think It gave him a Big boner!!The SEAR training was espesially fun Particularly the "HANDS ON " phase it was easy to tell who held out the longest by the size and color of the bruises,and then there was the wonderful swimming lessons handed out by the Instructor called "WILDMAN" crazy MFer I remember thinking ,there not really going to hit me WRONG WRONG WRONG!they later had to tone it down becase somone broke there arm and the bruises showed up at womack hosp and some do gooder raised hell.the pit was fun I remember a guy broke his arm and had to be droped, and there was this Jarhead that left some nasty bite marks on some people .I was lucky to graduate I got a severe infection from a blister and had to cut the heel of my boot open to get my boot on, this was at the begining of patrol phase I finally had to show it to Wildman and they hauled me into the base camp the medic wanted to send me to the rear and I of course said fuck that! we're almost done so the SF medic \Instructor dug abig puss pocket out of my heel ,gave me a cow shot in the ass and sent me back to the field. At the end we built a huge bonfire and wildman had beer brought in it was great!!!Ive never been surounded by a more exelent group of people in my life, Great experience!!