Ranger Recon!

SOFREP, meet Iassen.  I asked him to be a part of the team because he served as an RTO in 3/75 at the same time that I was there and because he is an exceptionally knowledgeable subject matter expert, backed by the fact that he is a very articulate writer.  So here it is, because so many of you asked for it, Iassen’s first foray with SOFREP is about the little known and often misunderstood Regimental Reconnaissance Company. -Jack

When the 75th Ranger Regiment was officially established way back in 1984, along with a third Ranger battalion, another unit was created in its shadow: the Regimental Reconnaissance Detachment, or simply RRD. The unit’s original purpose was to provide “operational preparation of the environment” in support of any future/upcoming Ranger engagements. Somewhere down the road, that mission statement evolved into providing special reconnaissance capabilities not just for the Rangers, but for special operations units within JSOC as well. I’m sure that’s about the time when things got really interesting for the boys on the teams.

When I was with 3/75, many of us looked at these guys with a similar sense of awe and respect as we did with our big brothers over at Bragg. It was no easy feat to make it into RRD as 1.) They had a selection course which was widely known as “Mini-CAG Selection” (and for good reason), and 2.) There were only so many slots as there are only three RRD teams (one for each Ranger battalion), and retention was much higher.