Would these be in addition to the LRP (or is is LRSU?) unit in the divisional Military Intelligence battalion? IIRC, those guys had a lot of Ranger-qualified individuals, but I can't remember if it's a platoon or company. They were definitely scouts and not raiders, though.
I remember this, from when the Black Beret was instituted to give morale. I had a pal in the EW side of an MI battalion, who told me the big and burly-looking fellows in his unit were not happy to be giving "their" berets to the geeks and paper-pushers of the rest of the battalion.
To my mind, '97 may be too early, but around '98, when things break down and the front goes static, I could see SACEur (wearing his Seventh Army CG hat) setting this up to give his division commanders more recon assets at their disposal. I'd think these might be the first guys to get access to horses, and/or the last ones to lose access to helos.
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My Twilight claim to fame: I ran "Allegheny Uprising" at Allegheny College, spring of 1988.
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