Tracing the history of U.S. Marine Force and Battalion Reconnaissance from its formation in 1898 through its operations during the Vietnam War (1963-1971), this book provides insight into Force Recon's selection, training and deployment. Emphasis on actions with the South Vietnamese ARVN highlights important lessons for today's Special Forces community, illustrating the inter-service cooperation of Recon operations. Firsthand accounts of Marines who served are included, along with photographs, maps and appendices.

The most comprehensive and up-to-date guide to American and British special forces, covering all aspects of their equipment, training and deployment in the Iraq age of warfare. It takes a special kind of person to join the Special Forces and those to pass the stringent entrance requirements are subjected to the most rigorous training. They're trained to be super-fit, taught to survive in the most adverse conditions, and turned into killing machines. This book reveals what makes these men tick, and everything you need to know to become one of them. It covers all the types of training required - for fitness, combat, survival, navigation, communication, infiltration, interrogation, extraction and evasion. And it details the full array of weapons used, from small arms and knives to explosives and air back-up. Also included are full listings of all the units - including the SAS, Green Berets, SBS, Navy SEALs, Delta Force, Army Rangers - and their deployment in present-day conflicts such as Desert Storm, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq and anti-terrorist operations.

Cu Chi, (body bag), Shit-hook (Chinook helicopter), dink (Vietnamese slang for a G.I.), slope (G.I. slang for a Vietnamese), hose (kill), boom-boom (what's done in a tapioca mill, or whorehouse), Mike-Juliet (marijuana), pogey bait, DO-28, C-2A, L Zed (Aussie for landing zone), rat-turds (oak leaf clusters), thousand yard stare, Samozaryadnyi karabin (Soviet rifle), guerre a outrance (French war to the end--the viewpoint of the North): these and the 10,000 others in this dictionary are the words of the Vietnam era. They were spoken by ground pounders in the boonies and by peaceniks on U.S. campuses, by hawks, doves, Victor Charlies and hoi chanhs, Chinese advisors and the Muong people of the Central Highlands. The period covered is primarily 1963-1975, but there are terms included from as early as 1945 and as late as 1987.