1st Recon Battalion Association

1st Recon Battalion Association

Thanks for your service.

Part 15

2022

1st Reconnaissance Battalion
Missions / Patrol Reports

Are you looking for your Old Patrol Reports? Check out this page on my website:

http://www.weststpaulantiques.com/reconmissions.html

Too close to whisper...
...one click for "yes", two for "no"...
"Brothers of the Bush"

----------------------------
Recon...their name is
their honor...and nothing more
need be said...Recon

Floyd Ruggles

Check Out New Messages

Part 16 - 2023

All Companies

Photo Gallery

Bravo Company

Photo Gallery 

The Memory Remains Not All Wounds Are Visible.

"A Brotherhood Forged In Combat"

1st Reconnaissance Battalion Index

2014

Message Board Links

Part 1 - 2018-2019 

Part 2 - 2019-2020 

Part 3 - 2020 

Part 4 - 2020 

Part 5  - 2020

Past Message Board

Past Newsletters 

Part 1 - 2017-2018 

Part 2 - 2018 

Part 3 - 2018 

Part 4 - 2018-2019 

Past Reunions 

Past Stories 

Send in your photos

Part 6  - 2020

Past Photos Galleries 

Part 7  - 2020

Part 8  - 2020

Bobby Bare

Sergeant James F. "Jim" Southall

Obituary

Family photo gallery

Part 10  - 2021

Click a photo to link to a page on our  website or Facebook. Links are found on nearly all Web pages. Links allow users to click their way from page to page. You will find thousands of links on the 1st recon battalion association website.

In Remembrance of our brother Reconnaissance Marines & Corpsmen killed in action or otherwise while on duty.

Look at it as your Time Capsule. This website won't stand long after you're gone.

 

1st Reconnaissance Battalion Index

Rest In Peace, Marines

1st Recon Battalion Association

To all members if you find a misspelled word somewhere on our website send the page that the word is on and the word and I'll correct the spelling appreciate the help thank you.

Part 11  - 2021

1st Reconnaissance Battalion
Missions / Patrol Reports

Too close to whisper...
...one click for "yes", two for "no"...
"Brothers of the Bush"

----------------------------
Recon...their name is
their honor...and nothing more
need be said...Recon
------------------------

YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN

May you rest in peace,

my brothers & sisters.

I will never forget you.

SEMPER FI

Bravo Company 1968-1969

Part 12  - 2021

To all Association Members,

Please reply and update or confirm your Information.
Your 1st Recon Battalion Association Website Information
can be found at: 1streconbn.org/members.html

Hope to hear from you soon.
Thanks for all your help.

My email address is floyd@weststpaulantiques.com.
Please keep your information up to date.

This will allow the Association to send messages out from time to time by email or by mail.

Semper Fi,
Floyd Ruggles
Membership Director & Webmaster

My Facebook page

LIFE as you get Older

If you can't think of a word say "I forgot the English word for it." That way people will think you're bilingual instead of an idiot.

I'm at a place in my life where errands are starting to count as going out.

I don't always go the extra mile, but when I do it's because I missed my exit.

I just did a week's worth of cardio after walking into a spider web.

I don't mean to brag, but I finished my 14-day diet food supply in 3 hours and 20 minutes.

A recent study has found women who carry a little extra weight live longer than men who mention it.

Kids today don't know how easy they have it. When I was young, I had to walk 9 feet through shag carpet to change the TV channel.

Senility has been a smooth transition for me.

Remember back when we were kids and every time it was below freezing outside, they closed school? Yeah, Me neither.

I may not be that funny or athletic or good looking or smart or talented. I forgot where I was going with this.

I love approaching 80, I learn something new every day and forget 5 other things.

A thief broke into my house last night. He started searching for money so I got up and searched with him.

Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed.

Having plans sounds like a good idea until you have to put on clothes and leave the house.

It's weird being the same age as old people.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be older...this is not what I expected.

Life is like a helicopter. I don't know how to operate a helicopter.

It's probably my age that tricks people into thinking I'm an adult.

Never sing in the shower! Singing leads to dancing, dancing leads to slipping, and slipping leads to paramedics seeing you naked. So, remember...Don't sing!

I see people about my age mountain climbing; I feel good getting my leg through my underwear without losing my balance.

Corona coaster: noun; the ups and downs of a pandemic. One day you're loving your bubble, doing work outs, baking banana bread and going for long walks and the next you're crying, drinking gin for breakfast and missing people you don't even like.

I'm at that age where my mind still thinks I'm 29, my humor suggests I'm 12, while my body mostly keeps asking if I'm sure I'm not dead yet.

You don't realize how old you are until you sit on the floor and then try to get back up.

We all get heavier as we get older, because there's a lot more information in our heads.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

1st Recon Battalion Association

Part 13  - 2021-2022

Part 14  - 2022

This is the extraordinary story of the men of the United States Marine Corps' 1st Recon Bn, Bravo Company, 1st Platoon. In 2010, they were sent to Afghanistan to stir up a nest of Taliban that had been inflicting significant damage on Marine infantry units in the Sangin River Valley. The Taliban soon came to fear these warriors because of their bold and decisive action, eventually dubbing them "The Black Diamonds," and warning other Taliban forces to steer clear of them.

So much talent. How’s the spray can art going?

Jack Recce, Going for a walk....

My running area for today. Nice trail run and a beautiful day.

Quick stop by the USS North Carolina today.

Jack Recce

Had to write about Sgt Jeff Balliet. He was one of our team leaders in 1968-1969 in CoA, 1stReconBn. He had his own personal callsign during the war - CID. Yeah. A personal callsign. Seems he had a knack for racking up body count. And let's admit it, Vietnam was a body count war. He was a radio call for fire wizard and when he got on the air for artillery support, the batteries would drop everything and redirect for CID.
They talked about one time, he was calling for fire from three different batteries in three different directions on an enemy force AT THE SAME TIME. Another cutie was the first time he received COFRAM or Firecracker rounds.
Think of a cheese cake cut into a dozen or so little triangles, each containing a bomblet. Stack these cheesecakes up in an artillery shell. It would open up over the target area and release these wedges. They had fins that would open up causing them to spin and in the process arming themselves. When they hit the ground a small charge went off and shot the bomblet into the air 20-30 feet where it exploded. From a distance they looked like firecrackers going off. They were a brutal anti-personnel weapon that I'm pretty sure are now banned.
Well, the first time he received a firecracker round on a fire mission, he exclaimed over the radio, "wow, beautiful. do it again." The responses was, 'shot out'.
He's gone now but he was a hellacious Recon Marine. RIP CID.

Ronald Overton

Sgt Jeff Balliet. He was one of our team leaders in 1968-1969 in CoA

Too close to whisper...
...one click for "yes", two for "no"...
"Brothers of the Bush"

----------------------------
Recon...their name is
their honor...and nothing more
need be said...Recon
------------------------

Grafton, Streeter, Lerma, Wittington, Glenn

Larry Huffman as a teenage ginger in the bush

Larry Huffman at our Louisville reunion

John Gill and Cpl Davis

John T. Gremillion

Sgt Dale Rowley

Chile Pepper Sept 1970
Sgt Dale Rowley was my team mate in Delta co spring and summer of 1970. In Late August he transferred over to Bravo company. I have obtained the patrol report in which he was severely injured as was Doc McKinnley. LCPL Holkem and LCpl Pennington were KIA. LCPL Delozer was KIA a few months later in the helicopter crash that Killed team "Rush Act" 18 Nov 1970. Semper Fidelis Recon Forever Doc Eric Schwartz

Rowley and Elkins when he was in Delta. We called him Uncle Ralph. I can't remember how he got that nickname. Photo from Larry Elkins album

The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: Operation Desert Shield, which marked the military buildup from August 1990 to January 1991; and Operation Desert Storm, which began with the aerial bombing campaign against Iraq on 17 January 1991 and came to a close with the American-led Liberation of Kuwait on 28 February 1991.

On 2 August 1990, Iraq invaded neighbouring Kuwait, and had fully occupied the country within two days. Initially, Iraq ran the occupied territory under a puppet government known as the "Republic of Kuwait" before proceeding with an outright annexation in which Kuwaiti sovereign territory was split, with the "Saddamiyat al-Mitla' District" being carved out of the country's northern portion and the "Kuwait Governorate" covering the rest. Varying speculations have been made regarding the true intents behind the Iraqi invasion, most notably including Iraq's inability to repay the debt of more than US$14 billion that it had borrowed from Kuwait to finance its military efforts during the Iran–Iraq War. Kuwait's demands for repayment were coupled with its surge in petroleum production levels, which kept revenues down for Iraq and further weakened its economic prospects; throughout much of the 1980s, Kuwait's oil production was above its mandatory quota under OPEC, which kept international oil prices down. Iraq interpreted the Kuwaiti refusal to decrease oil production as an act of aggression towards the Iraqi economy, leading up to the hostilities. The invasion of Kuwait was immediately met with international condemnation, including in Resolution 660 by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), which unanimously imposed economic sanctions against Iraq in Resolution 661. British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and American president George H. W. Bush deployed troops and equipment into Saudi Arabia and openly urged other countries to send their own forces to the scene. In response to the joint call, an array of countries joined the American-led coalition, forming the largest military alliance since World War II. The bulk of the coalition's military power was from the United States, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and Egypt as the largest lead-up contributors, in that order; Saudi Arabia and the Kuwaiti government-in-exile paid around US$32 billion of the US$60 billion cost to mobilize the coalition against Iraq.

UNSC Resolution 678 adopted on 29 November 1990 offered Iraq one final chance until 15 January 1991 to implement Resolution 660 and withdraw from Kuwait; it further empowered states after the deadline to use "all necessary means" to force Iraq out of Kuwait. Initial efforts to dislodge the Iraqi presence in Kuwait began with an aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991, which continued for five weeks. During this time, as the Iraqi military found itself unable to ward off the coalition's attacks, Iraq began to fire missiles at Israel. While the coalition itself did not include Israel, the Iraqi leadership had launched the campaign under the expectation that the missile barrage would provoke an independent Israeli military response, and hoped that such a response would prompt the coalition's Muslim-majority countries to withdraw (see Arab–Israeli conflict). However, the jeopardization attempt was ultimately unsuccessful as Israel did not respond to any Iraqi attacks, and Iraq continued to remain at odds with most Muslim-majority countries. Iraqi missile barrages aimed at coalition targets stationed in Saudi Arabia were also largely unsuccessful, and on 24 February 1991, the coalition launched a major ground assault into Iraqi-occupied Kuwait. The offensive was a decisive victory for American-led coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait and promptly began to advance past the Iraq–Kuwait border into Iraqi territory. A hundred hours after the beginning of the ground campaign, the coalition ceased its advance into Iraq and declared a ceasefire. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, and areas straddling the Iraq–Saudi Arabia border.

The conflict marked the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the American network CNN. It has also earned the nickname Video Game War, after the daily broadcast of images from cameras onboard American bombers during Operation Desert Storm. The Gulf War has gained notoriety for including three of the largest tank battles in American military history.

In 1990—1991, the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion participated in the Persian Gulf War. Upon returning from the Gulf War plans were enacted to break up 1st Reconnaissance Battalion and spread it out to AAV's, 1st Marines and 5th Marines. In June 1992 Alpha Company was moved and attached to Headquarters Battalion 1st Marine Division. Bravo Company was moved and attached to Headquarters Battalion 5th Marine Division. Charlie company was moved to the Marine Corps 8 wheeled amphibious assault vehicle (AAV) unit, forming LAR (Light Armored Reconnaissance). Delta Company was disbanded and folded into Charlie Company. Reconnaissance Company 5th Marines deployed as a company to Somalia in January 1993 and was spread around Somalia conducting reconnaissance and surveillance operations in Mogadishu, Biadoa and Bardere to help stop the flow of weapons being brought in by militant groups. Reconnaissance Company 5th Marines returned to Somalia on deployment multiple times in the next 5 years. Reconnaissance Company 1st Marines and Reconnaissance Company 5th Marines were brought back together in 2000 to reform 1st Reconnaissance Battalion in Camp Margarita, Camp Pendleton Ca, with only 50 unfilled billets on its first day.

Part 16, Part 17,Part 18, Part 19, Part 20, Part 21, Part 22, Part 23, Part 24, Part 25, Part 26 & Part 27

Part 9  - 2020