Beret flash 75 Inf Rgt Rangers (Vietnam period non authorised)

The conventional approach to the history of Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP), LRP, and Ranger unit employment
in Vietnam is first to acknowledge the three chronological periods of their existence: LRRP from late 1965 to December
1967, LRP from late September 1967 to February 1969, and Ranger thereafter to the end of the war. The first period
began in December 1965, with the creation of a provisional LRRP platoon by the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division.
The 1st Infantry Division and 173rd Airborne Brigade both formed provisional LRRP units in April and the 25th Infantry
Division in June 1966. General William C. Westmoreland, commander of Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV),
officially authorized the creation of provisional LRRP units on 8 July 1966. Other divisions and brigades stood up
provisional LRRP units during the ensuing months: the 4th and 9th Infantry Divisions in November 1966, 196th Light
Infantry Brigade in January 1967, and 1st Air Cavalry Division in November 1966. The 9th Infantry Division LRRP
Platoon came into being in the fall of 1966 while the division was still at Fort Riley, Kansas, and deployed to
Vietnam in January 1967. This unit was expanded to a company in July 1967. The 101st Airborne Division “main body,”
while still at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, converted its divisional Recondo School into a provisional LRRP unit in the
summer of 1967, before the division deployed to Vietnam. This provisional company arrived in Vietnam in late November
1967.

The second period began in late June 1967, when the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Earle G. Wheeler,
authorized the formation of two long-range patrol companies for I and II Field Forces. Company E (Long Range Patrol),
20th Infantry (Airborne) was activated on 25 September 1967 and assigned to I Field Force and stationed at Phan Rang.
The nucleus of this unit came from the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division LRRP Platoon, along with soldiers from the
replacement stream. Company F (Long Range Patrol), 51st Infantry (Airborne) was activated on 25 September 1967 and
assigned to II Field Force with station at Bien Hoa. Its nucleus came from the LRRP platoon of the 173d Airborne
Brigade, along with soldiers from the replacement stream. Each of the two field force LRP companies had an authorized
strength of 230, and was commanded by a major.