D/75 RGR HISTORY

	D/75 RGR
	Unit History     |      Unit Photo Album     |      Unit Roster     |      Unit Web Site
	UNIT DIRECTOR - Richard "Herd" Nelson

Company D (Ranger) 75th Infantry was formed on 20, November 1969, with a cadre of regular army personnel from Company D (Ranger) 151st Infantry, many of whom were veterans of other tours of duty in country. Major Richard W. Drisko was appointed as the Commander.

The rangers referred to themselves as the "Delta Rangers" in conformity with the letter "D" of the ICAO phonetic alphabet adopted by the U.S. military in 1956. On 1 December, the new ranger company was placed under the operational control of the aerial 3d Squadron, 17th Cavalry.

Intensive ranger training was conducted to prepare the new unit for combat reconnaissance operations. Each of the field platoons completed a seven-day preparatory program that included instruction on communications, map reading, tracking, prisoner snatches, demolitions, ambush techniques, sensor emplacement, and familiarization with repelling, rope ladders, and McGuire rigs. Four rangers were sent to the sniper school and graduated on 28 January 1970, giving the company sharpshooter capability for special countermeasure patrols. Ranger Company D was given the mission of providing corps-level ranger support to II Field Force Vietnam by collecting intelligence, interdicting supply routes, locating and destroying encampments, and uncovering cache sites. The ranger surveillance zone was expanded to encompass the former Indiana Ranger area of operations, as well as the Northeastern portion of the Catcher's Mitt western War Zone D in Bien Hoa and Long Khanh provinces. The Delta Rangers concentrated on ambush patrols but also performed point, area, and route reconnaissance with elements as small as three men.

On 2 December 1969, a Delta Ranger ambush killed a transportation executive officer of the communist Subregion 5 who was carrying the enemy payroll, capturing 30,500 Vietnamese plasters. In early January 1970, a nine-man combined ambush group, composed of ranger teams 14 and 15, killed eleven North Vietnamese soldiers from the 274th Regiment of the 5th VC Division and fixed its location for higher headquarters analysis.

The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong instituted increased precautions against Ranger tactics by assigning more trail-watchers to landing fields, mining or booby-trapping routes that they no longer intended to use, and forming counter-raider teams. These enemy teams consisted of four soldiers who were highly killed in tracking patrols and heavily armed with light machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

On 8 February 1970, Ranger Company D was released from 3d Squadron, 17th Calvary, and placed under the operational control of the 199th Infantry Brigade. The Delta Rangers continued operating in southwestern War Zone D and the eastern Catcher's Mitt area. On 18 March, Ranger Company D returned to direct II Field Force Vietnam control; it was employed to sweep the Nhon Trach district and train recon members of the South Vietnamese 18th Division.

At the end of March 1970, the Delta Rangers ceased operations and commenced stand-down procedures. Company D (Ranger), 75th Infantry, was reduced to zero strength by the afternoon of 4 April and was officially inactivated on 10 April 1970. During the unit's Vietnam service, the Delta Rangers performed 458 patrols that reported seventy separate sightings of enemy activity and clashed with NVA/VC forces on sixty-five occasions. The rangers killed eighty-eight enemy soldiers by direct fire and captured three, while suffering two killed and twenty-four wounded rangers in exchange. Of supreme importance, the Ranger company unmasked changing enemy unit displacements and supply channels aimed against the main allied bases outside Saigon.

II Field Force Vietnam was well served by a succession of highly proficient combat reconnaissance units. The requirements to safeguard the allied capital area placed a tremendous burden on corps-responsive teams to provide accurate and timely information. Fortunately, the patrolling expertise and professional Ranger spirit of the Hurricane Patrollers, Indiana Rangers, and Delta Rangers enabled them to render excellent recon support in South Vietnam's most crucial region. In many cases, however, their reconnaissance specialty was sacrificed by higher commanders who utilized the units as a "special field force reserve" of light infantry strike forces.

Today, the modern Rangers of the 75th Ranger Regiment continue the traditions left behind by the Vietnam era Rangers.