A Walk In The Park Long Range Surveillance.

Welcome & Hello

I'm Morgan Reynolds, Staff Sergeant, United States Army. This is my story, as a member of LRS or Lima Romeo Sierra, Long Range Surveillance, these teams followed in the foot steps of LRRP, or Lima Romeo Romeo Papa, Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol. The LRS is planned to be deactivated last year or this year. The Army thinking, the need for such teams in the age of drones and satellite feed. Are no longer needed.

These team's won't be necessary. These teams under many different names have been disbanded many times. So don't think you won't see some kind of network of loners out searching for intelligence. These team's aren't like in most movies. We avoid a fight unless it can't be avoided. We would rather escape and evade or call for extraction. Extraction isn't always available at a moments notice. So E & E maybe the only option.

Missions might be simple intelligence gathering or a certain target or contacting friendlies or getting a person out of a situation. Team sizes vary from 6 members to 10,  they are kept small the least amount of people the easier it is not to be detected. Going undetected is what we do best.

We seldom have backup or even close to are own lines or our Command & Control. Extraction could be hours out, you may not get the support you need.

My Friend Master Sergeant TJ Carson

Some say Carson wasn't born, but is a clone of all the guys that were all part of the Long Range teams. Meaning they took what they considered the best and spliced them together. Made a slurry of it like sperm and impregnated the most street wise whore they could find. Then took him and raised him in a military school. Of course we all know this is bunk, Carson is to old for that.

Carson hates more people than he likes. He is a narcissist, egomaniac, with more bravado than anyone person should have. Carson would kill even die for you if you were a brother the one that's more than blood. The brother in arms your keeper or watcher. The one that stands alongside you no matter what! This is my thoughts on Carson.

He has very few friends, you can probably count with less than three fingers. Sure he has those he tolerates, thinks of as acquaintances and true friends the ones he would go out of his way to spend time with. Then again my thinking could be wrong. Carson is a hard nut to crack. I have known him four years. Me and Carson are counter parts. What made Carson?

I think Carson, was made from all the death, destruction, guilt, and grief of battle. He was formed from that chaos, the blood soaked ground, the yells of fear or desperation, the bravery in battle and the last breaths of the dying. These all struck Carson in one grand explosion. The heat and spent powder the force made the living Carson that persona of who he is. The bravado his stature what is Carson was probably formed in Nam. My good friend made two tours in that place.

Myself I'm a product of Carson, his Team, and the Army. I came from a lower-middle-class family. I had a passion for fast cars. I was an average student in High School. In some classes below average. My Father loved cars and making them go fast. He was a Tool and Die maker, he built furniture in his spare time. Did side jobs plumbing to bring in extra money.

Of course I went with him, to spend time with him and learn. I just made it through High School one step better than my Father, who only made it to the seventh grade. My Father was smart for one that had no education. I enlisted to serve my Country because I thought it right, and I saw no future other than trapped in a machine shop like my Father. Ironically I ended up in a machine shop some years later.

This is my story, some fact some truth and of course a little fiction. How much is the truth and fact, I won't tell. With out the fiction you probably wouldn't believe the truth or the fact.
These stories are for you to decide. My Primary M.O.S. was 13 Foxtrot, Fire Support Specialist. Military Occupational Specialty. I crossed trained with a Combat Engineer in removal of barriers. Blowing things up, is the best way to describe it, I believe that it was a 12 Bravo if memory is correct.

Of course we had common knowledge of all the team members' jobs. Everyone had to have a working knowledge of each person's job. Someone had to fill in if you lost a team member. I carried anywhere from 60 to 100 pounds of gear depending on the mission length, and days to resupply. Think about trying to stand with hundred pounds on your back and walking straight after sitting or having to leap out of a Iroquois UH one Helicopter or Huey, Chopper. Even run or move to get to cover.

They say leave no one behind, your team is eight men strong three die, one is wounded that can only walk. No way to carry any extra weight. Extraction is two hours out. The next extraction point is three hours or longer out. The enemy knows you are there. You don't have the two hours, you have too go now! What do you do! You save the team! So you leave behind the dead. That is a hard call to make. Leave no one behind doesn't always work. The remaining lives are more important. I never  wanted, to do the things I done. I was a Soldier very young, only doing what needed done. My life wasn't perfect after my service, I drove a truck over the road for six years. I've been to every state in the lower 48. I've no pictures of my life, from age 18 till I married at age 39 or was it 40.

I worked as a Manager in retail for a few years. Then ended up at the small family owned shop the past 23 or 24 years. Sorry time is sometimes hard to keep track of.

I can tell you the day I was married the year is not certain. My anniversary day is June 12th, my wife passed away October 5th 2021. My past stayed buried, till a few days after she passed, she was my love my purpose she kept my past in check. She or my daughters know nothing of my past.

So I tell you these stories some truth and some fiction, to deal with this overwhelming urge of hate for myself. I can't blame Carson or the Army. My past and what happened is nothing, but life in general. The life of a young soldier, that learned to be a man. Then in his twenties, did what a soldier does and had to do. I'm not perfect or is anyone else. If I've been punished for my past, then so be it. Me and God will argue it out. I fear only my past, and the fear is only of myself. What I can do, and what I've done.

The best way to start this is how I met Carson. This story is well, is not my best recollection. So I'll do my best. It was four months after Advanced Individual Training or A.I.T. this time was spent going through security clearance at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. Some guys it took longer others only weeks.

That time is a blurr, spent drinking and total boredom. I already had my confidential clearance I was waiting on my secret clearance. This was requested, figuring it come in handy getting promoted. So this held me up, waiting on the clearance. 

So this will be my story, Alpha team 01, for lack of a better name. I won't give any more than that. Enjoy these stories you decide what is real and what is not.

Thanks all for reading, vote make a comment.