Vietnam was a different sort of war for the United States and many of her Allies. It wasn't a set piece sort of thing as was WWII. The shades of grey were a lot deeper and even finding the enemy was a difficult task. Thanks to the heavily forested terrain, normal means of information gathering using aircraft or motorized scouting was not possible.

Into this arena was developed the long-range scouting patrol. The mission of these small groups of men was to be inserted into a particular area, find out what was there, and get back with the information. They were not to make contact with the enemy because doing so would not only alert them to the knowledge they had been discovered, but would often result in their moving somewhere else, thus voiding the mission.

This sort of mission was not for the average soldier and line the Rangers of WWII, there were physical and mental requirements that set these men apart from others. In his book on the LRPS (which later did become Ranges), author Rottman covers the sort of man the Army was seeking, how he was trained, how he was equipped and the weapons that he used. In line with other books of this series, the conditions of service, their belief systems and feelings of belonging are also looked into. Then there is a section on some of the various campaigns in which these men were used that includes their living conditions and mission planning. This leads on to how a team was prepared, placed into the field and how they reacted to contact with the enemy. The book concludes with a look at existing sites and museums, of which there are quite a lot more than one would suspect. This is all enhanced by  period photographs and the superb illustrations of Adam Hook, whose work we have seen many times in other books in this series.

It is a book that should be on the shelf of any serious historian or those who have an interest in this era. One I enjoyed reading and can highly recommend to you.

November 2008

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