Sweet Sorrow

By mid-1971 the U.S. Army's Long Range Recon Patrol/Ranger teams had learned to out guerrilla the Viet Cong North Vietnamese when it came to behind the lines jungle fighting. With hit and run ambushes, prisoner snatches, and sneaking and peeking, the five and six man teams were carrying out dangerous and daring patrols even as the long and drawn-out ground war for the U.S. forces in South Vietnam was coming to an end.Realizing that the war was unwinnable, American forces were withdrawing frontline units from the war, leaving an estimated 160,000 troops in-country even as well over 200,000 enemy soldiers were operating in the South with thousands more streaming down through the Ho Chi Minh and Siahanouk Trail from the north. Anyone could see the handwriting was on the wall.For the 55 LRRP/Rangers of R Company- Romeo Company, it seemed that their war was not letting up, and how they would continue to fight was all about to change.