Larry Chambers (1)

"Recondo" is a captivating and engaging story about an infantry soldier who goes to Vietnam and volunteers for the LRRPs in the 101st Airborne and later gets accepted into the prestigious Recondo training program. The training is rigorous, demanding, and sometime dangerous. The author doesn't go into much detail about the training modules but paints an overview for readers to get a feel for what it was like. The 3rd week (final week) entailed small teams to go into the Ashau Valley to gather intelligence and to locate an NVA Regimental headquarters. A program cadre member accompanies each team - failure for individuals to demonstrate skills from their first two weeks of training will result in expulsion from the class.

Chambers and his team climb mountains and near the end of the week find themselves in a situation that was almost unbelievable; this hill was later immortalized as Hamburger HIll by the 101st grunts after their 10-day battle to take the mountaintop. As a former 101st grunt myself, I could relate to much of what the author wrote. I was familiar with the mentioned firebases and also patrolled through the Ashau Valley. We also learned that holding blasting caps during a thunder storm could be hazardous to our health, and especially, if they were already installed in grenades, claymore mines, C4 or carried loose in somebody's pocket - my unit experienced that same thing that Chambers LRRPs did during a storm, but without the same consequences. I also enjoyed the author's wit and sense of humor; many of the comments he made during the story made me laugh out loud.

"Recondo" flowed nicely and kept my interest from beginning to end. It would have been an added bonus if the author might have touched upon his R&R to Australia...showing what these soldiers experienced and why the trip was so important to them. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about these small LRRP teams - their missions and training to survive. Great job, Mr. Chambers. Thank you for your service and sacrifice. Welcome home, bro!… (meer)