The Chilly Struggle was fought lengthy earlier than the primary pictures of Vietnam captured America’s consideration. By 1966, greater than 400,000 U.S. troops had been dedicated to the conflict, Marine Corps Captain James “Jim” Steele amongst them, on his first journey again to Vietnam since advising South Vietnamese forces in 1961. The conflict had escalated quick: an August 1964 assault on a U.S. Navy ship within the Gulf of Tonkin, and a second reported assault that later evaluation confirmed by no means occurred, pushed President Lyndon Johnson to commit American fight troops to the battle. This time, Steele was there to battle, and he would want each little bit of his reconnaissance coaching to outlive what got here subsequent.
Episode 3 opens with Steele buying and selling his assigned radio name signal, “Lavender Lace,” for one he selected himself: Evil Eye. From there, we comply with him by way of a coaching train within the Philippines that changed into an evening spent tied to palm bushes ready for a tsunami that by no means arrived, and thru the exhausting classes of a second fight tour: selecting up the stays of a Marine after a mine strike, discovering a fellow Marine killed by recoilless rifle backblast, and confining a Marine who fragged a fellow officer to an improvised cell till Division might take him away.
The episode additionally tracks two of the tour’s defining threats: a faulty batch of M16s that jammed within the area and acquired Marines killed earlier than the Marine Corps traced the issue to the incorrect gunpowder, and an evening ambush by which Steele’s expertise in nighttime fight pistol matches let him take out 4 infiltrating enemy troopers by intuition, at nighttime, earlier than they reached his place.
It builds to late April 1967, when a machine gun spherical handed by way of each of Steele’s legs, narrowly lacking the bone and a principal artery. His rifle jammed. He dodged a grenade thrown at him, threw two of his personal, and made his personal tourniquets whereas his corporal was killed working to his support. Wounded and bleeding, Steele talked his personal medevac helicopter all the way down to his place by radio. What adopted, a mixed-up Crimson Cross telegram that informed his spouse Marlene he’d been shot in 4 locations he hadn’t been, an experimental surgical method to save lots of his legs from an infection, and Steele altering his personal service document to get again to the conflict earlier than a physician ever signed off on him, reveals a Marine who had educated himself, by his personal account, to really feel virtually invincible.
Reconnaissance Man is greater than the story of 1 Marine. It’s the story of reconnaissance itself, informed by way of the profession of considered one of its pioneers.
In the event you loved Episode 2, Episode 3 follows Steele into the conflict he’d solely suggested on earlier than, and the evening that almost ended his life.
Chapters:
0:00 The Highway Again to Vietnam
4:00 Tied to a Tree: The Philippines Tsunami Scare
6:45 Turning Arduous: Choosing Up the Items of Struggle
10:35 Fragging within the Ranks: Personal Washington
13:01 The M16’s Lethal Jamming Downside
17:19 Grenades, Mortars, and Calling In Air Help
22:51 Evening Ambush: 4 VC within the Darkish
27:14 Wounded: Shot By way of Each Legs
33:15 Speaking Down His Personal Medevac
36:10 A Telegram and an Experimental Surgical procedure in Guam
45:34 Getting Again to Vietnam Earlier than His Legs Had Healed
Created by investigative journalist Ashly McGlone in collaboration with the Marine Reconnaissance Basis (MRF), and visually dropped at life by Fight Story, Reconnaissance Man is a nine-part restricted sequence following Steele’s extraordinary 30-year navy profession by way of Vietnam, the Chilly Struggle, and past.
🎙️ Visitor — James Lyle Steele
James Lyle Steele is a retired U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel whose 30-year profession carried him by way of Vietnam, the Chilly Struggle, and past. A member of the unique era of Marine reconnaissance males, Steele’s story affords a uncommon firsthand take a look at conflict, survival, and repair throughout a long time of American navy historical past.
Ashly McGlone is an investigative journalist and the creator of Reconnaissance Man. As Steele’s granddaughter, she pairs reporting, narration, and historic context with household connection to deliver his extraordinary story to life with depth and care.
Discover Reconnaissance Man and Ashly McGlone On-line:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reconnaissanceman/
Fb: https://www.fb.com/ashlyreports/
X: https://x.com/ReconManPod
X: https://x.com/AshlyReports
🎙️ Host — AJ Pasciuti
AJ Pasciuti is a retired Marine Pressure Recon Scout Sniper and Infantry Weapons Officer (Marine Gunner), writer of Darkhorse: Harnessing Hidden Potential in Struggle and Life, and host of the Fight Story Podcast, the place veterans and extraordinary people share sincere, unfiltered tales of fight, survival, management, and life after adversity.
Discover AJ On-line:
Ebook (Darkhorse): https://www.ajpasciuti.com/ebook
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ajpasciuti/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelo-pasciuti/
Web site: https://www.ajpasciuti.com/
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