pathfinder teams to signal for resupply drops would have been valuable, but such teams, had they been employed to mark the initial jump areas, would have been killed before they got into action." Vietnam War In Vietnam Pathfinder Infantrymen were inserted into areas to establish landing zones for air assaults or other helicopter operations. Pathfinders determined the most practical landing zones, withdrawal routes, approach lanes, and landing sites for helicopter assaults, in hostile areas. They themselves would then often be extracted with helicopter McGuire rigs. The US Army's 11th Aviation Group landed in the country in August 1965, and while assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) expanded its Pathfinder unit to company size, creating the provisional 11th Pathfinder Company. While the 11th Pathfinder Company was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division's reconnaissance section, units such as the 1st Infantry Division, 101st Airborne (Airmobile), 82nd Airborne (3rd Brigade), etc., operated Ranger or Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) companies within their reconnaissance elements. The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), which had deployed to Southeast Asia in September 1965, departed South Vietnam in April 1971. The 11th Aviation Group re-deployed from Southeast Asia in March 1973. The activities of the Pathfinder Platoon, HHC, 160th Aviation Group, 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam are covered in the book "Pathfinder: First In, Last Out" by the late Richard R. Burns, a veteran of the unit. To date it is the only book covering pathfinders in Vietnam. Post–Vietnam Era In the post–Vietnam era the Army established pathfinder units in US-based aviation units, to include the 222d Aviation Battalion in Alaska and the 6th Cavalry Brigade (Air Combat) at Fort Hood, TX. The Army also activated pathfinder units in both the Army Reserve and the National Guard. The first USAR unit was the 26th Infantry Platoon in Wichita, KS, which was formed with the lineage of a former Regular Army scout dog unit that had served in World War II and Korea. This was followed by the 27th Infantry Platoon in Grand Prairie, TX, which had no prior history, and the 5th Infantry Platoon, which carried the lineage of a former Regular Army pathfinder unit that had been assigned to Fort Rucker, AL, from 1963 to 1975, when it was expanded and reflagged as Company C (Pathfinder), 509th Infantry. In time the 54th Infantry Platoon was activated in Wenatchee, WA, and the 79th Infantry Platoon at Fort Douglas,