In doing research for I SERVED, Don Hall acquired thousands of pages of documentation from the National Archives about F/51st Long Range Patrol (Airborne) Infantry and the other units in their area of operations. (To search the National Archives yourself online, see the link at the bottom of this page).

F/51st operated directly under General Fred C. Weyand, who was the II Field Force, Vietnam commander. F/51st was fortunate to have had as its first C.O., Major (and then LTC) William C. Maus. Knowing that General Weyand had great faith in the company's ultimate success, and that F/51st was a prototype unit which would be closely studied by future military generations, he made sure that contemporaneous, meticulous, accurate, and voluminous documentation was kept about the unit and its operations. F/51st had dozens of clerks whose sole job was to monitor the radios and record the radio communications, type up the after-action reports, transcribe the officer's daily logs, and document everything that occurred. William C. Maus was a visionary. He knew that their unit represented the vanguard of future U.S. Army military strategy and tactics. LTC Maus knew that in the future, the U.S. Army would study the operations and tactics employed by F/51st LRP (Abn) Inf and would apply the lessons learned from that great unit. The huge amount of documentation that came out of F/51st would be instrumental in teaching future generations of soldiers. Ultimately, this valuable storehouse of knowledge would be used to train our modern-day Ranger and Long Range Surveillance units.

NOTE: The documents listed below are provided at full-page size, so the pages on which they appear will take a little longer to display. After you click to view any of the documents, use your browser's BACK button to return to this page.

Sample documents from F/51st LRP (Abn) Inf:

F/51st LONG RANGE PATROL (AIRBORNE) INFANTRY was a company-size LRP unit and operated in War Zones C and D in the III Corps area. The capital city of Saigon was located in the III Corps area. F/51st LRP's C.O. reported directly to General Fred C. Weyand, the commander of II Field Force, Vietnam.

Annex B, Summary of Individual Patrols

OPERATION UNIONTOWN / BREAKTHROUGH   29 Dec -7 Feb 68
Patrols 1 to 6
Patrols 6 (cont.) to 9
Patrols 9 (cont.) to 14
Patrols 15 to 16
Patrols 26 to 30
Patrols 30 to 32
Patrol 32 (cont.)
Patrols 33 to 35
Patrols 36 to 37
Patrols 37 (cont.) to 40
Patrols 40 (cont.) to 42
Patrols 42 (cont.) to 44
After Action Report--Operation Breakthrough, 29 Dec 67--7 Feb 68

OPERATION Uniontown III / Boxsprings   10 Feb - 28 Mar 68
Patrols 27 to 29
Patrols 30 to 35

OPERATION WILDERNESS / TOAN THANG I
Patrols 24 to 25
Patrols 25 (cont.) to 28

OPERATION WILDERNESS / TOAN THANG II
Patrols 192 to 195
Patrols 196 to 199
Patrols 474 to 476
Patrols 476 (cont.) to 479

OTHER
MACV Recondo School Handout 401-1--Special Medical Drugs, page 1
MACV Recondo School Handout 401-1--Special Medical Drugs, page 2


Sample documents from other units:

199th LIGHT INFANTRY BRIGADE

The 199th LIB operated in War Zones C and D in the III Corps area. The 199th was one of the units for which F/51st LRP operated.

•  Daily Staff Journal or Duty Officer's Log (form DA1594)
11 Jan 70 - Fight Support Base Nancy (Document courtesy of Ricky Jones.) "This is the day before I was hit. I would have gotten all 3 if my magazine hadn't dropped out of my 16. I watched the other two drag him away as I fumbled for ammo. I sure got mad at myself that day."--Ricky Jones
12 Jan 70 - Fight Support Base Nancy (Document courtesy of Ricky Jones.) "Here you'll see my name along with 3 other WIA's. The enemy KIA and the captured AK-47 were mine." -- Ricky Jones

•  Annex C Operations
199thOperationsAnnexC_page01
199thOperationsAnnexC_page02

•  After Action Reports
199thJanFeb68_page06
199thJanFeb68_page07
199thJanFeb68_page08
199thJanFeb68_page09
199thJanFeb68_page10
199thJanFeb68_page11
199thJanFeb68_page12
199thJanFeb68_page13
199thJanFeb68_page14
199thJanFeb68_page15

195TH ASSAULT HELICOPTER COMPANY
The 195th AHC, known as the "Skychiefs," served in the Republic of Vietnam from the 2nd of November 1967 through the 14th of December 1970.  The first lift platoon was nicknamed "Fly United." The second platoon, known as the "Ghostriders," flew for F/51st LRP (Abn.) Inf. The gunship platoon was called the "Thunder Chickens." The Thunder Chickens did extensive damage to the enemy during the 1968 Tet Offensive.  The documents at the links below are courtesy of Don Haase.
Letter of appreciation for outstanding performance during the 1968 Tet Offensive.
Comments from the 195th C.O. regarding the letter of appreciation.

101st AIRBORNE DIVISION, G2 & G3 Section. The 101st operated in the I Corps area. The Imperial City of Hue, second in importance only to the capital city of Saigon, was located in this area.  Click to see map of South Vietnam.

•  Daily Staff Journal or Duty Officer's Log  (form DA1594)
101st_04Nov68_page01
101st_04Nov68_page02
101st_04Nov68_page03
101st_04Nov68_page04
101st_04Nov68_page05
101st_04Nov68_page06
101st_04Nov68_page07
101st_04Nov68_page08
101st_04Nov68_page09
101st 19Nov68_page 5
101st 19Nov68_page 6
101st 20Nov68_page 1
101st 20Nov68_page 2
101st 20Nov68_page 3
101st 20Nov68_page 4
101st 20Nov68_page 5
101st 20Nov68_page 6
101st 20Nov68_page 7
101st 20Nov68_page 8
101st 21Nov68, page 1
101st 23Nov68_page 5

Note: the G-2 section is responsible for the following (information provided by CSM Ted Godwin, U.S. Army, Ret.):

1.  Production of intelligence, to include:

• Recommendation priority intelligence requirement and information requirements.
  
• Identifying requirements for target acquisition, surveillance, and reconnaissance.
  
• Requesting, receiving, and processing information from other intelligence elements. Processing information into intelligence.
  
• Supervising and coordinating the command's intelligence collection and target acquisition activities.
  
• Conducting intelligence preparation of the battlefield.
  
• Disseminating intelligence.
  

DETACHMENT B-36 (Special Task Force-Rapid Fire) Fifth Special Forces Group (Airborne), First Special Forces, an SF unit that operated in the III Corps area. It was commanded by (then) Major James G. "Bo" Gritz.

•  Various Reports:

B36Annex D, Lessons Learned, 30 Sep 67
B36Annex B, Project Rapid Fire IV-Patrol Paula
B36Annex B, Project Rapid Fire IV-Patrol Fanny
B36Annex B, Project Rapid Fire IV-Patrol Marauder
B36Annex B, After Action Report, 14 Nov to 26 Nov 67

Visit the ADL Law Enforcement Agency Resource Network web site to find out what "Bo" Gritz has been doing since he left the military: http://www.adl.org/learn/Ext_US/gritz.asp?xpicked=2&item=5.

If you would like to read what kind of leadership Major Gritz provided to the men under his command in Vietnam when he was C.O. of Detachment B-36, read Don Hall's Vietnam memoir, I SERVED, in which he describes his experiences during an eight-day training period with B-36. The NCOs from the first and second platoons of Don Hall's unit, F/51st Long Range Patrol (Airborne) Infantry, were sent to B-36 for additional training after they graduated from MACV Recondo School. The NCOs from the third and fourth platoons were not sent there. Instead, their post-Recondo School training was conducted within F/51.

Recommended Reading:
"Fake Warriors: Identifying, Exposing, and Punishing Those Who Falsify Their Military Service." (http://www.fakewarriors.com/index.htm).
Book authors Hank and Erika Holzer: "What we seek to accomplish with this book: to provide an overview of a shameful phenomenon in order to better deal -- in principle -- with the issue of military imposture...there is a virtual epidemic of impostors in this country - countless thousands of men who, since the Vietnam War, have been either inventing a non-existent military service, or inflating their war records...Military decorations are being falsely claimed, and often worn, by men never authorized to receive them -- the kind earned the hard way by genuine war heroes.


Documentation on Gary Linderer, president of Operation Homecoming USA, author of several Vietnam memoirs and other books, and self-appointed spokesperson for Vietnam veterans.


Search the National Archives online:
National Archives (http://www.archives.gov/research_room/arc/index.html)
The Archival Research Catalog (ARC) is the online catalog of NARA's nationwide holdings in the Washington, DC area, Regional Archives and Presidential Libraries. ARC replaces its prototype, the NARA Archival Information Locator (NAIL). You can still perform a keyword, digitized image and location search. ARC's advanced functionalities also allow you to search by organization, person, or topic.

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He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good positions.

--Thomas Jefferson, Letters to Peter Carr, August 19, 1785.

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. -- John Adams, in Defense of the British Soldiers on trial for the Boston Massacre, December 4, 1770.