Company F, 425th Infantry
Company F, 425th Infantry was a long range surveillance unit of the Michigan National Guard that was inactivated on 12 June 2011. The company came into being in the mid-1960s when the 1st Battalion (Airborne), 225th Infantry was reflagged as Companies E and F (Ranger), 425th Infantry, and organized as Ranger companies. During this period these two companies were assigned to division and higher level commands to perform long range reconnaissance patrol missions, as opposed to the Ranger companies of today which comprise the four battalions of the 75th Ranger Regiment. According to the United States Army Center of Military History, it was reorganized and redesignated as the 425th Infantry Detachment (LRS) effective 1 September 2008 and was relocated from the State of Michigan Pontiac Armory to the Selfridge Air National Guard Base near Mount Clemens, 15 miles northeast of Detroit.
Company F (Ranger), Long Range Surveillance, 425th Infantry
Co.F troops at Camp Grayling, MI
Co.F troops with full equipment exiting a C-130 Hercules
Michigan National Guard griffin patch and 425th Airborne Ranger scroll
Long-range surveillance (LRS) teams were elite, specially-trained surveillance units of the United States Army employed for clandestine operation by Military Intelligence for gathering direct human intelligence information deep within enemy territory. Classic LRS employment is to infiltrate deep into enemy territory, construct hide and surveillance sites, and provide continuous surveillance/special reconnaissance of an intelligence target of key interest.
A long-range surveillance team from the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan during 2007
Staff Sgt. Anthony Purnell, a soldier from Echo Company, 51st Infantry Company, Long-Range Surveillance, V Corps demonstrating a ghillie suit in 2004