“Vietnam is not a place for training at first hand, but a place for action. The type of conditioning that Force Recon Marines should be getting is to put a 70 or 80 lbs pack on your back and go out humping 5 days, 6 days, maybe more, out in the brush climbing high mountains, down into ravines, crawling on your hands and knees through the brush. When we first started out, we traveled light because we were still on our mission to observe and report intelligence. However, as we found out … it’s almost inevitable that contact with the enemy will be made, and when contact is made, you want all available weapons, grenades, and firepower to your advantage. What immediately became evident was that Force Recon missions placed a premium on ingenuity and creativity in our team members. Those who could overcome the harsh Darwinian demands of repeated combat operations in the jungle deep in enemy territory remained. Those who could not were quickly replaced. In tallying kill ratios, the kill ratio for regular Marine infantry was 7.6 enemy killed for one Marine. For Force Recon, the ratio was 34 enemy killed for every one Force Recon Marine. In the category of enemy contact, with the regular Marine infantry units, the enemy initiated contact 80 percent of the time. But with Force Recon, it was the opposite. Astonishingly, in 95 percent of the incidents, it was Force Recon that initiated contact." Cpl. John T. Morrissey, 3rd Recon Bn, Vietnam, 1966 #stayzero #recon #marines #zerofoxtrot