| Third Recon Team | |
|---|---|
| |
| Group Info | |
| Name | Third Recon Team |
| Commander | Yōji Itami |
| Troops | 12 |
| Location | Empire |
| Affiliation | Japan Self-Defense Forces |
| Goal(s) | Exploring the Special Region |
| Status | Active (Change of Command) |
The Third Recon Team (第三偵察団 Dai san teisatsu-dan) is a 12-men+women Japanese Self-Defense Force reconnaissance unit with 3 light vehicles commanded by 1st Lt Yōji Itami who were tasked with civil reconnaissance behind enemy lines within Saderan Empire's territory in the Special Region. Their base of operations is at Alnus.
Equipment[]
3rd Recon Team have a total of 12 members and they all carry a variety of weapons from the JSDF Arsenal. Their standard mission load-out consists of 3 vehicles.
They use a Komatsu LAV (Light Armored Vehicle) with a Rotational Armored Gun (RAG) turret mount on its roof with an additional gun shield around the gun mount for extra protection (as used in the JSDF's Iraqi deployments), and a licensed built M2 Browning by Sumitomo mounted on the RAG's pintle.
There's also a Mitsubishi Type 73 light truck (shin) with either the cloth roof covering or mounted with a M249 FN MINIMI licensed built by Sumitomo. The final vehicle is the military version of the Toyota High Mobility Vehicle which also has a cloth roof covering.
Each infantry is armed with a Howa Type 64 battle-rifle (occasionally with Type 64 bayonet) and a Nissan/IHI 110mm LAM , a licensed built version of the German Panzerfaust-3.
As for side arms, they also have a licensed Minebea P-9 by Minebea carried in Safariland 6004 Holsters. They are issued with the Type 88 helmet with JGSV-V8 mount (AN/PVS-14) and Type 2 Armour with deployment flags (Japan flag patches on helmet, armor and uniform only occur on active deployments outside of Japan ie. Iraq)
Mirroring the real life JGSDF, the mag pouches and Canteen pouches are Alice pouches with Molle adapters.
They have radios for communications, night vision devices for seeing through night/dark environments and flare guns for distress signaling, illumination, or defensive countermeasures.
Their clothing are described as "Green with brown dots" which is most likely the Type 3 All Season Uniform. Officially though, the recon teams are switching over to type 4 uniforms, which are fictional. Some characters are shown wearing privately purchased Combat shirts and other privately purchased equipment.
| !!!Spoilers!!!: This contains information that can spoil parts of the story not shown yet. |
Members[]
First Lieutenant Yōji Itami, Gender: Male, Age: 33, Team Leader / Team Captain
Sergeant Major Sōichirō Kuwahara, Gender: Male, Age: 50, Second-In-Command
Master Sergeant Tetsuya Nishina, Gender: Male, Age: ?, Rifleman
Sergeant First Class Akira Tomita, Gender: Male, Age: 27, Rifleman
Sergeant First Class Mari Kurokawa, Gender: Female, Age: 23, Combat Medic
Sergeant First Class Shino Kuribayashi, Gender: Female, Age: 24, Close Combat Specialist
Sergeant Takeo Kurata, Gender: Male, Age: 21, Driver
Sergeant Azuma, Gender: Male, Age: ?, Driver, (Could this be Leading Private Higashi's first name?)
Leading Private Tou (see Manga in talk below).
Leading Private Daisuke Tozu, Gender: Male, Age: ?, Rifleman
Leading Private Wataru Katsumoto, Gender: Male, Age: ?, Heavy Weapons Specialist
Leading Private Hayato Sasagawa, Gender: Male, Age: ?, M2HB Gunner
Leading Private Hitoshi Furuta, Gender: Male, Age: ?, Rifleman
Leading Private ?, Higashi ,Gender: Male Age: ?, Driver?
Gallery[]
Notes[]
- It is odd that a regular infantry squad would be selected to do the missions they have carried out thus far at the frequency they've been called to carry out these missions (although this could be the influence of Itami and his squad's actions thus far), and should be noted that the structure of the 3rd Recon Team is similar in organization to an Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) Team from the US Army's Special Forces AKA Green Berets, despite being organized under a presumed conventional unit in the JGSDF, and comprising of unqualified (non- "S" qualified, or Ranger qualified) albeit specially skilled soldiers with exception to Itami who despite being qualified for Special Forces and is a Ranger, is a regular infantry officer, likely due to being released from the Special Forces Group for standards. Some similarities between the two organizations include:
- They have roughly the same size, the average ODA Team consists of a total of 12 operators which has 1 officer (captain), 1 warrant officer, 1 master sergeant and the rest usually enlisted season male NCOs. When compared to 3rd Recon, they have an officer, Itami who serves as the Detachment Commander and the rest of the team being comprised of NCOs with their own specialties totaling 12 members in total. The exceptions to this structure is the fact that there are 4 Leading Privates (Private First Class equivalent in the US military) (Furuta, Sasagawa, Tozu, and Higashi), who, if the organization was truly mirrored to IRL Green Berets, would all be at minimum Sergeant grade equivalent or higher and Sergeant Major Kuwahara, who nominally is the Assistant Commander of 3rd Recon, and acts in that capacity, but is not a Warrant Officer, although this could be because Warrant Officers in the US are different than in Japan, whereas Warrant Officers are considered Commissioned Officers in Japan, they exist in a category between Officers and Enlisted in the US.
- The 3rd Recon Team were engaged in similar activities as Green Beret A-Teams on deployment, they have engaged in Foreign Internal Defense , Special Reconnaissance and Counter-insurgency when they fought against bandits in Italica and as security detail to protect the town alongside the town's volunteer forces, Pina Co Lada and her Rose Knight Order, and have engaged in a hostage rescue mission to recover Princess Pina who was being held by Zorzal's forces in the Imperial Capital, provided humanitarian assistance, as shown when they helped evacuate Coda Village from the assault of the Fire Dragon, and through a clinic in Akusho, where Kurokawa appears to be the primary medical specialist, all of which are similar primary or secondary mission statements of a Special Forces ODA team.
- Although it is not mandated to have high knowledge of the local language, most members of the 3rd Recon Team, in particular Itami, and Kurokawa, possess the skill to speak to a relatively high degree of fluency of the language in Special Region, and are also shown to have learned some of the customs and culture of the Empire, based on the unit's and more specifically Itami's particular ability to embed with the local population relatively easy, as shown during the party Princess Pina was at, a similar skill set which an American ODA team would be mandated to have due to the nature of their operations.
- The 3rd Recon's organization composed of more NCOs than enlisted maybe due to the fact that the Special Region Task Force is only composed of 3 brigades of infantry, resulting in only highly ranked and experienced individuals to be sent.
- Another reason could be the fact that 3rd Recon is a force recon squad, which would typically have a higher ratio of NCOs to enlisted to increase the skills of the squad. Also, the JGSDF as a whole has a higher ratio of NCOs because of time-in-grade and reenlistment policies.
- It's odd that a Special Forces Officer like Itami is leading a normal squad of infantry, but this again could be contributed to the fact that the Special Region Task Force is small. Or it could be that, though Itami is "S" qualified, SFG commanders don't consider him reliable (good enough to pass, not good enough to serve) compared to his competent counterparts.
- It seems as if Itami is trying his best to work out with the squad, and the squad seems to love him as their commanding officer though sometimes annoyed with his laidback behavior.
- 3rd Recon seems to be much better at the task of "willing hearts and minds" than other JSDF recon teams, interacting with Imperial locals with apparent ease. Sugawara believes 3rd Recon is more "people-friendly" because of the influence of Itami's relaxed leadership style.