Title: Phantom Warriors ,book 1Author: Garry A. LindererMain characters: many LRRP’s LRP’s and Ranger nits in VietnamSummary: The book I read was about LRRP’s (long range reconnaissance patrol) ,LRP’s (long range patrols) , and Ranger units in Vietnam. The book told stories ofseveral different types of operations in the units most challenging times.
The job of a unitof this type was to infiltrate a designated RA( recon area) stealth like as possible with afour to seven man team (sometimes larger). Once on the ground a team would set up anOP ( observation post) and would always try and remain undetected. Because of thesmall number of size an LRP would always avoid contact with the enemy but , the bookproved to me that when confrontation was inevitable the special forces units provedthemselves a truly deadly force. I would say at least ninety percent of the time LRP’swould find themselves out numbered in a confrontation.
If at all possible they would tryand escape but sometimes fighting your way out was the only way. The LRRPDetactchment, 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division had a problem like this. StaffSergeant Papy Lynch and his team where patrolling a high activity area when there teamwas abutted by fifteen or twenty Viet Cong. Off the bat three men went down twoseriously injured and the other shot in the head. There six man team was then a three manteam. The two men at camp where busy fending off the invaders while one man that wasoff doing his “business” was finding his way back.
He too was cought up in theunexpected fire and went down. Staff Sergeant Lynch called in the coordinates and afterthe ammo and grenades where almost out , air support showed up. Most of the VC wherekilled or ran away in fear of “Death from Above”. This was one of the most heroic storiesin the book. Weaknesses: This was a good book. I couldn’t find many weaknesses at all .
Theone thing I did notice was the similarity in each of the stories. It seamed liked the samething would happen in a row. The team would usually end up running from a force oflarge amount. If he would have mixed up the accounts with the ones when the team didn’thave to run it would have made the book more fun to read. Changes: In order to read this book you had to use the Abbreviation dictionary inthe back.
It didn’t bother me though. I learned a lot from it . So the only change was theone in the Weaknesses I wrote. I would only recommend this book to people who are interested in history orwars.
