 Today's unconventional warfare demands some of the most unusual skills in military history. For today's warfare, more than in any previous wars, highly specialized training is an absolute requirement. One significant part of military success in combat, whether in Vietnam or elsewhere around the world, is the mission of the recon patrol. And both the mission and lives of patrol members depend on how much confidence, skill, and qualities of leadership each man brings to his job. At a number of installations throughout the country, a special kind of training, intensive training, is going on right now. To give men of our army the confidence and know-how to fulfill the patrol mission and, above all, minimize risk of life. This training is called recondo training. A man gets 21 days up and knows it. As we will see, it makes a better man out of him and prepares him for the challenge of living and winning in combat. Offer power at condo! Gordon Garber, I'm one of the patrolling instructors here, and as you know, we have the patrolling phase of the recondo center here in the last part of the cycle. And some of the things that we'll tell you about is some of the things you'll be confronted with while you're on patrol here. We're looking in on a group of recondo instructors at a recondo training camp near Fort Carson, Colorado. One of the new cadre is preparing for his recondo instructor's examination. At the core of this training's effect is one crucial element, the caliber and dedication of the cadre, the men who actually conduct the training. All of them have served in Vietnam. They know the training must be tough and concentrated to ready the men for what may face them later. Sergeant, you're going to be in a world of hurt if you don't get your ambush plans squared away well in advance. That's right, because a lot of... James Griffith, Sergeant First Class Instructor at Recondo School. Through his eyes, his feelings, we can best come away with an understanding of what recondo is all about. That's how trying to get in here is much impossible. 28 years old, married, two children. Griffith returned from Vietnam just a few months ago. He knows what recondo should be all about. He's a man dedicated to his job and to his students because he's been where it's at. You try to reach that young man in there and try to get everything at one time. I think about how it was over there every now and then. The other instructors do too. That's part of the reason why we're willing to put in many extra hours a day to make sure this training is what the man needs to keep alive. When you have an idea of what he may come up against later in Vietnam or some other place, it makes you want to pump a little bit more into getting them prepared. Ben, hut! Early in the first week of the cycle, the commandant at Recondo talks to the men. Take the seats! Good morning, man. Welcome to Count Red Devil, home of the 5th Infantry Division Mechanized Recondo School. During the next 21 days, you will receive some of the roughest but the best training that this army has to offer. You will be coming in contact with some of the best instructors. They are here because they have had the experience in Vietnam out in the field. During this training, some of you will not make it, but for those of you that do make it, you will be proud to wear the patch of a Recondo. This is when you must draw upon your reserve energy. This is when you must exert your leadership principles because in order to complete this course, you must put forth all that you can muster. Now, you will have with you at all times a cadre. It will provide you with guidance that you can apply to your leadership position. You must then take what you have learned during the classroom instruction, apply this in practical work. 85% of your training here is practical work. This includes patrolling, survival, land navigation, and mountaineering. So I put it to you as a challenge for the next 21 days. You must muster everything to include physical, mental, and courage to complete this course. From this point forward during Recondo training, these men will sweat, learn, suffer, gain courage and confidence, meet fear and conquer it, learn skills, learn how to survive in war, and become better men. On the second day of training, we start trying to build confidence into each man and start of acquainting him with how to conquer a mountain. It starts with what is under described as a mountain walk. Confidence is a very individual thing. I doubt if anyone's born with it. It comes through good old solid experience, doing something that maybe you didn't think you could do until you do it. Okay, one man at a time, get your left foot up. Keep your head up as you're moving up. Close your foothold. Reach up above your frame. Get your hand up. Keep your mud off your feet there so you won't slip on it when you start up. Get your hand holds up there. Okay. And just when you feel like you've accomplished more than anyone on earth could expect, something new comes up for you to achieve. Our Recondo we're going to repel from right down here. Let's go. Morning, Pop. Good morning, Sergeant. Pretty good. Got you another group of Recondos here for a little bit of repel training. Haven't been over a clip yet, so they're going to be a little bit skittish maybe on the first try. Hello, sir. Are you scared or high? A little, sir. Quite a... quite a... quite a steepness there. Quite a way down there, isn't it? Yes, sir. Well, I tell you, don't be scared of it. You're going to teach you how how to go down and safe way and how to get to where you're going to like it. Okay? Now, we had... we had been mountain walking, and we started climbing, and we had a lot of trouble, didn't we? We started climbing. Today, you have no trouble, have you? Huh? No, we're going sideways up here. This is Pop Sorensen, civilian instructor for Recondo Mountain Training, one of the leading ski jumpers in the world. He was U.S. Olympic ski coach in 1936 and 1952. He's an expert mountain climber. So, we're going to start in on this particular clip. Very steep. You're going to use steep hip rappel. Okay? Another step of rope happens a while later the same day. For me, I learned how to prepare for rappelling down a cliff. Okay, now lean back a little bit. Okay, now take short steps. Start moving your feet down one at a time. There you go. Keep your hand down close to your snap length. Keep your hand as small as you back. So, your shoulders back a little bit. So, you pull your weight in against the rope. Keep your knees straight. Don't bend them so much. Keep your feet pointing straight uphill. Sure, there are some that are awkward, nervous, scared. Call it what you want. But let's not forget, they do go over the edge. And when they do, they grow some more. And your shoulders back a little bit. Don't grip your left hand so much in your right hand. You're told your right hand is like under the rope. That's because all it is, you're balancing it. It's not a breaking hand. Give them all it's like you can, our safety man. Well, your shoulders back a little bit, just getting the hump forward. You don't have to watch your feet, Dale. They'll pick their own foothold. All right, Rikondo, when you get off of this rope down there, I want you to shake this rope out. Let it fall against the cliff. And then give me a good lap off of this hill. Rikondo. Rikondo! You begin to see the real uniqueness of Rikondo here. It's a sort of emotional growth that lasts. And materialing that helps prepare a man for a lot of things in life. Offer pelt. Offer power, Rikondo! A man that takes Rikondo may never use mountain training itself in combat. The discipline and confidence he experiences during this stage of training may see him through a lot of things. Oh, no, physical training is a big thing in army training. Tense of the left. Arms downward. There's a high jumper. At Rikondo, it starts before the roosters get up. After they get through with their regular exercises, we'll gradually have them running several miles at a time. High jumper. Starting position. Move! Exercise. Want, hope, hate. What? Want, hope, hate. What? Want, hope, hate. What? And sooner or later, they may learn there's a real value to building stamina. One, two. One, two. You want to finish this course? There! One, two, three. Want, hope, hate. Rikondos, some of the different types of guerrilla warfare would be to attack a vulnerable target with superior strength. Gentlemen, in patrolling, crossing a danger area is a technique all of its own. Some of the principles of evasion. The most important principle of evasion is prepare a detailed plan. Observe the rules of movement, camouflage, and concealment. Patience and perseverance. Good morning, Rikondos. For the next 50 minutes, I'm going to explain, and we're going to discuss, the lensetic compass that the point man will halt a patrol prior to entering the danger area and call a patrol leader forward to make what we call a patrol leader's recon of the danger area. Conserve your food. Conserve your strength. You must have the will to survive. Once the recon is completed, primarily, we'll call the compass man back to the patrol leader and tell him the area is secure and he can move the rest of the troops across. The stronger helps the weaker. The man becomes disabled, help him along. Don't leave him at the rear or behind to die. Man, you want a world of hurt? Just forget to spread out while traveling on a patrol. What is an asthma? Rikondo 1-1. An asthma is the direction given in a clockwise manner. Very good, very good. So spread out. Maybe that way they'll only get one. Check the danger better, Ned. Look around you, Rikondos. That's the organization you've created at the University of Med. All right, on your feet. Move out. Before I can even lay down. How many more days of this stuff do we have left anyway? Two minutes for me. I'm afraid to count. Okay, you guys. Just because you volunteer for Rikondo doesn't mean you have to like it all the time. It is tough. Damn it if I could sleep nights if it weren't. Small wonder that in 21 days we cover seven to eight weeks of normal training. When you really stop and think, it's quite possible a lot of these men are going to reach combat. They'll have a world of hurt if they don't come away from here with a heaven's plenty more than just words and a book. It's all geared toward building leadership, one way or another. If a man can't control his patrol under the stress and harass of training, how can you expect him to handle actual conditions of combat? It's better to have confusion here in training and correct it. So next time when it really matters, the response is more positive. Come on, come on. Use a little teamwork. Help your buddy up that obstacle. Let's go. Right, Timmy. Come on. Okay, man. Make sure with your hand, help up over the bank. Don't leave your CIDs. Use this method. Don't you get the rest of these people squared away and get them up over the bank. Now, let's go. Damn it, let's try it. 21 days isn't much time for trying to build skilled, confident leaders up patrols. But we hear back from the units our little crash course is doing okay, making better soldiers and men. In the final week of recondo training, the students go through a 96-hour patrolling exercise. We're picking them up here at dawn, second day. The mission is to plan, prepare, and execute the complete disruption of the enemy supply column. Not long after successful ambush, the patrol is given the order to establish a patrol base for contact with friendly partisans in the area for resupply. This is a free-range pickup of limited supplies, including some sea rations and live, unprepared food, meaning pheasants. Later in the day, the men will have to prepare and eat the birds as part of their survival training. It's next morning. Prior to this, patrols have successfully conducted raids and other missions. They've been ordered by higher headquarters to form a company conducting the economy of force mission, which is a consolidated mass attack on the enemy headquarters. In order to break up into teams and return to base camp, attempting to evade the 150-man enemy force between them and base camp, the point is quite clear. Any recondo captured will be returned to the starting point of the exercise. Recondos know that means miles of extra walking before they can get back, so they are motivated to evade the enemy. It's fair to say, by the end of the 96-hour exercise of patrolling, the men feel they've earned the right to be called recondo. They're given some coffee and food that are permitted to get some well-deserved rest before preparing for graduation. It gives me great pleasure to present to you Colonel Gordon. Thank you, Major Hester. General Broadenthal, distinguished guests, families, and graduates. I'll add my congratulations to those I know you'll receive from many friends today. You do deserve them most heartily. There isn't any question in my mind of the kind of weather that you encountered out there. Some of us were out there with you, and other than the fact that we originally planned on accusing you of stealing five weapons and a machine gun from the second brigade, we were heartily behind you. You came out of this bad weather and this very tough course, very confident that you can handle yourselves in any environment and under any conditions at all. With this confidence, you can go a long way. The confidence that you now have in yourselves is the same kind of confidence that a man gains in combat when he knows that he has referred successfully around, fired at him in anger and behaved himself as a properly disciplined soldier. I see that many of you have been in combat and I need not explain it further to you. The second best possible way to get through that unscathed is to go through the recondo course. The confidence that you gain there will serve you the rest of your lives and the rest of your careers in the Army. So let me again congratulate you on having performed exceedingly well under exceedingly difficult conditions, on having graduated from a very tough course and having learned lessons that will serve you well the rest of your lives and hopefully will contribute to the performance in the units that you'll be returning to today. Thank you very much. They've been through enough to feel deserved pride in themselves. They now know a little better the feeling of wanting to achieve new and greater levels of excellence. Growth won't stop here, that's a fact because they have experienced the glow of succeeding at something hard and that's a contagious experience. Sure, we feel pride too in helping this man, this group to rise above their own expectations of themselves. The transformation in each individual is a lasting one. One that may well see him through missions of a Vietnam or other global point of conflict. Should that happen, these men will be ready prepared to assume the role of leadership in war with confidence and knowledge.