History
Major General Loots and the then Chief of the Army, Lt. General Willem Louw realised the need for a South African Defence Force to have a special operations capability but the Chief of the South African Defence Force, General Rudolph Hiemstra resisted. It was not until that Admiral Hugo Biermann became Chief of the South African Defence Force in 1972 that the go-ahead was granted.
The unit was originally based at Oudtshoorn in the Cape Province, but was to Durban in 1974, where it was formally named 1 Reconnaissance Commando. It was renamed 1 Reconnaissance Regiment in 1996, but was disbanded and integrated into 4 Reconnaissance Regiment and 5 Reconnaissance Regiment in 1997.
Read more about this topic: 1 Reconnaissance Commando (South Africa)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Free from public debt, at peace with all the world, and with no complicated interests to consult in our intercourse with foreign powers, the present may be hailed as the epoch in our history the most favorable for the settlement of those principles in our domestic policy which shall be best calculated to give stability to our Republic and secure the blessings of freedom to our citizens.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)