[Raellus]

Recondo School

In early 1998, with the 173rd BCT isolated from the rest of the U.S. armed forces and its constituent infantry battalions widely spread around the country and responsible for large and environmentally diverse areas of operation, it quickly became apparent that the Brigade's authorized reconnaissance unit, A Troop, 1/91st Cavalry, could not be everywhere at once. In order to locate and monitor the various hostile forces* operating in their respective areas of operation, each battalion needed a dedicated, long-range reconnaissance unit of its own.

*Most of these hostile forces operated as relatively small, mobile bands, using classic guerilla tactics.

The Brigade's commander, a late-war Vietnam veteran and former Ranger, decided to create a training course for long range reconnaissance patrollers modeled on the Vietnam War-era U.S. Army Recondo school. The course would focus on long range patrolling and scouting skills, tracking, field-craft, and SERE.

The cadre for the school was formed by a small group of experienced Special Forces soldiers familiar with Kenya and its people. A diverse group of men was assembled to lend local and topical knowledge and expertise to the course. This group included a Rhodesian expatriate and former Selous Scout with extensive experience in long range patrolling in the African bush and an Israeli citizen and ex-Sayeret Maktal commando who "retired" to Kenya after a stint as an independent security consultant at the refinery facilities in Mombasa. Several Kenyan soldiers, game wardens, and indigenous, semi-nomadic hunters were also brought in to share their experience with the students (and instructors) and the British SAS mobility troop operating against Somali bandits and Junudullah insurgents in the northeast of the country routinely rotated personnel (often convalescing wounded) through the course as "guest instructors".

Graduates of the Recondo school formed long range reconnaissance patrol (LRRP) platoons in each of the Brigade's airborne infantry battalions. Additional allied personnel cycled through the school in small batches and returned to their parent line companies in order to share their newly acquired patrolling skills.