Any old 101st Recondo School Black Hats here?

[JoBa]

Hello Rangers. I served with the 101st at Ft. Campbell from 1960-1963. I have fifty static jumps, C-123, C-124, C-119, C-133, C-130. I was volunteered for Recondo School in 1962. That was a school set up by Westmorland and operated by Rangers. At first is was a very intense two week course but it was later decided they needed another week, so they changed it to a very intense three week course.

When I "volunteered" I thought it was something you just muscled your way through. They only gave us two hours of sleep per night, so like a dumb s***, I used classroom time to nod off with my eyes open. They washed me out half way through the third week. I didn't mind that at all, however, my C.O. did. He volunteered me for the very next class. I had five days to prepare. He had two Rangers drill me for that five days on the academics. I went back and joined a class of 145 troopers. around twenty five finished, but only 14 graduated. That time I graduated third in my class.

It was not until years later that I found out that it was very rare for them to allow anyone two shots at the school. I also read an article on the net, that at the time, the 101st Recondo School was considered to be the toughest training in the U.S. Army.

This leads me to why I signed up on this web site. I'll be 70 in a few weeks, and for some reason, I'm wondering about all of this, so I have this question. I know it is a long shot but I'll ask anyway.
Are there any of you older Rangers that might have been part of, or a black hat, in that school during the late 1950s, or early 1960s that can verify some of my memories?

They had run our company through the confidence portion of the school about a year before I attended the school. I have a few photos of that day, which includes a double exposure of the infamous "death slide". The story was eleven guys had been killed on it, so they closed it a few classes before mine, however, I did get a chance to take the ride the day I took the photos.

Anyway, that is it for now.

Best,

JoBa
Co. C Ist ABG, 502nd Inf.

[Steadfast]

Welcome to ArmyRanger.com JoBa. Thank you for your service to our country.

I was a Freshman in HS while you were going through your Recondo school.

[Jim]

I knew a couple of former Black Hats from RECONDO school. CSM Parker Harris passed away last year; Mike Martin ia still around.

Of course we all knew Lew Millett, who started the school when he was a Major. He went on to be one of the initial advisors to the Vietnamese Rangers. He passed away a couple of years ago.

[JoBa]

Anyone who attended that school in those days remembers Millett. There was another one named Bell. I'm better at faces than I am at names. If I can figure out how to post photos, I have a few.



-JoBa

[Jim]

I knew a couple of former Black Hats from RECONDO school. CSM Parker Harris passed away last year; Mike Martin ia still around.

Of course we all knew Lew Millett, who started the school when he was a Major. He went on to be one of the initial advisors to the Vietnamese Rangers. He passed away a couple of years ago.

I just realized that all three of them are in the Ranger Hall of Fame.

[CharlieRanger1FFV]

Welcome to the site, JoBa. Like Steadfast I just started high school when you went through the 101st Recondo school.


RLTW!!!

[Jim]

I almost forgot my cousin, Chuck Waters. Enlisted at 14 in USMC in Pacific in WWII, 1st Airborne Ranger Company in Korea; Ranger Advisor in Vietnam, Ranger Hall of Fame.

[Slowpoke]

Welome. When I first returned CONUS from RVN in '67 I was in Charlie Company, 1/506. I went to the "other" Recondo School in in '66.

I know two guys who were instructors there and may have been there when you were......Harold Kiama and Roger Brown. I served with both of them in the 173rd LRRP in RVN.

[Jim]

I think we have told you that we are familiar with Recondo. Tell us more about you. What have you done?

[JoBa]

I think we have told you that we are familiar with Recondo. Tell us more about you. What have you done?

I've done nothing that would impress you guys. I joined the Army, 101st unassigned as soon as I turned 18. I had served in the Canadian Army Cadets for a year when I was 13, before my family migrated south, so I had a little understanding of military ways.

I went through jump school at Ft. Campbell in the summer of 1960. I was on a shit detail, the only white guy in the back of the duce-in- a- half right after I was awarded my wings. The very large guy sitting next to me said something about my white ass was no way qualified to wear those wings, so he grabbed my hat, ripped them off and tossed them off the truck. I lost it completely. I now believe those stories about people lifting cars off their loved ones. I picked the guy up like he weighed nothing and tossed him off the back of the truck, it was going fairly fast down a gravel road.

I remember standing at the back of the truck so completely enraged, screaming every derogatory thing I could think of at him to find my fucking wings. I never once, in my rage, used any racial epitaphs. The second lieutenant got out of the now stopped truck and told the guys to get off and help him, I told them to stay where the fuck the were, and they did.

The guy finally found my wings, then they loaded him on and we took him to the hospital, gravel roads are hard on you I guess.

Anyway, I had inadvertently established myself in the company, I went through the ranks fast, I made Sgt. E-5 just before my 20th birthday simply because people did what I told them to do, nobody fucked with me....talk about luck.

I was sent to Recondo School a few weeks later, it took me two tries.

I was an F.O. for the 81s, and an 81 squad leader when we were in garrison.

I served one hitch, then got out. When I got to San Diego, I was sitting in Lucy's Tavern sipping a few when the news came on. It showed my company unloading in Nam.

I found out years later, that after me and a couple of other guys said our goodbyes to drive across the country to the left coast, they had sent a chase vehicle after us. We were oblivious to it. Apparently they had received their Nam orders while we were still in the barracks.. three buck Sgts.

I remember thinking as I sipped my brew that I was glad I missed that formation.

I was young, it was not until years later that I started feeling guilty after hearing how bad my guys got it over there. Maybe I could have made a difference, I don't know.

The farthest I went in school was the ninth grade. I received my high school GED at Campbell. I owned my own business for the last 35 years before I retired. I am a Private Pilot and until I retired, owned a Piper Warrior II. Had to sell it, can not afford such things now.

I trained in judo and jiu jitsu for a few years in my fifties under Grand Master John Denora. Great exercise.

I turned my garage into a woodworking shop, since I enjoy doing such things.

OK, that is probably a whole lot more than you wanted, but I'm old and retired, I enjoy playing on the computer in the morning.

-JoBa

[Ranger Ron]

God I love it when someone older than me shows up here!!!! Welcome to ArmyRanger.com and thanks for your service to our great country.

[Jim]

[OK, that is probably a whole lot more than you wanted, but I'm old and retired, I enjoy playing on the computer in the morning.

-JoBa

No, that's fine a lot of us are retired now. Plese become more active.