Perhaps further clarification is needed. In 1960, I was stationed on the USS Princeton (LPH-5) in the Marine Detachment. We took on board a Marine Force Recon platoon on their way to Hawaii for low altitude egress from helicopters. They were training for 50’ jumps without rapelling. By the time we reached Hawaii, they were jumping over the railing on the O-2 deck (right below the flight deck) onto the steel hangar deck, without injury!
OK, the story they told us was how they had infiltrated a small town in TN, blew the bridges, cut the phone lines and held everyone prisoner for a week. Scuttlebutt, maybe. But when four Force Recon guys, with a mission to blow a bridge and set up a radio station, got lost; 76 out 85 ships were pulled out of a SEATO operation to find them. As their LT said: “You don’t understand, their mission is to blow a bridge and set up a radio station, they don’t care if the bridge is on an island or Red China.”
This brought back memories of a tale I heard just after transferring from a line company to hdqts co in SF outfit.
I called one of the guys involved to refresh my memory.
They were on exercise in southern Utah, apparently about
30 men, and got into some trouble with some locals. Bartender told them, 4 soldiers, they ought to leave as some local guy at other end of bar had a pistol and was getting mad about their present. He followed them outside and they took away his pistol and missed it up. They left, in a jeep, and the guy csught up with them in about 15 minutes and shot at them with a shotgun until empty. Fight and guy is worked over pretty good and left. Cops or sheriff’s deputy gets soldiers. Major gets soldiers out
of trouble. This was in 1964.