Reconnaissance Man — Episode 3: Evil Eye

The Cold War was fought long before the first shots of Vietnam captured America's attention. By 1966, more than 400,000 U.S. troops were committed to the war, Marine Corps Captain James "Jim" Steele among them, on his first trip back to Vietnam since advising South Vietnamese forces in 1961. The war had escalated fast: an August 1964 attack on a U.S. Navy ship in the Gulf of Tonkin, and a second reported attack that later analysis showed never happened, pushed President Lyndon Johnson to commit American combat troops to the fight. This time, Steele was there to fight, and he would need every bit of his reconnaissance training to survive what came next.

Episode 3 opens with Steele trading his assigned radio call sign, "Lavender Lace," for one he chose himself: Evil Eye. From there, we follow him through a training exercise in the Philippines that turned into a night spent tied to palm trees waiting for a tsunami that never arrived, and through the hard lessons of a second combat tour: picking up the remains of a Marine after a mine strike, discovering a fellow Marine killed by recoilless rifle backblast, and confining a Marine who fragged a fellow officer to an improvised cell until Division could take him away.

The episode also tracks two of the tour's defining threats: a defective batch of M16s that jammed in the field and got Marines killed before the Marine Corps traced the problem to the wrong gunpowder, and a night ambush in which Steele's experience in nighttime combat pistol matches let him take out four infiltrating enemy soldiers by instinct, in the dark, before they reached his position.

It builds to late April 1967, when a machine gun round passed through both of Steele's legs, narrowly missing the bone and a main artery. His rifle jammed. He dodged a grenade thrown at him, threw two of his own, and made his own tourniquets while his corporal was killed running to his aid. Wounded and bleeding, Steele talked his own medevac helicopter down to his position by radio. What followed, a mixed-up Red Cross telegram that told his wife Marlene he'd been shot in four places he hadn't been, an experimental surgical technique to save his legs from infection, and Steele altering his own service record to get back to the war before a doctor ever signed off on him, reveals a Marine who had trained himself, by his own account, to feel almost invincible.

Reconnaissance Man is more than the story of one Marine. It is the story of reconnaissance itself, told through the career of one of its pioneers.

In this episode:

• The Gulf of Tonkin incident and the road to a 400,000-troop war
• Getting the call sign "Evil Eye"
• A near-tsunami during training in the Philippines
• Toughening up: picking up the pieces after a mine strike
• Fragging in the ranks and Private Washington
• The M16's deadly jamming problem in the field
• Volley grenades, pistol tactics, and calling in fire support
• A night ambush: taking out four infiltrators with a pistol
• Wounded: shot through both legs in late April 1967
• Losing a corporal, and talking down his own medevac
• A telegram mix-up and an experimental surgery in Guam
• Rewriting his own paperwork to get back to the war

If you enjoyed Episode 2, Episode 3 follows Steele into the war he'd only advised on before, and the night that nearly ended his life.

Chapters:
0:00 The Road Back to Vietnam
4:00 Tied to a Tree: The Philippines Tsunami Scare
6:45 Turning Hard: Picking Up the Pieces of War
10:35 Fragging in the Ranks: Private Washington
13:01 The M16's Deadly Jamming Problem
17:19 Grenades, Mortars, and Calling In Air Support
22:51 Night Ambush: Four VC in the Dark
27:14 Wounded: Shot Through Both Legs
33:15 Talking Down His Own Medevac
36:10 A Telegram and an Experimental Surgery in Guam
45:34 Getting Back to Vietnam Before His Legs Had Healed

Created by investigative journalist Ashly McGlone in collaboration with the Marine Reconnaissance Foundation (MRF), and visually brought to life by Combat Story, Reconnaissance Man is a nine-part limited series following Steele's extraordinary 30-year military career through Vietnam, the Cold War, and beyond.

🎙️ Guest — James Lyle Steele
James Lyle Steele is a retired U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel whose 30-year career carried him through Vietnam, the Cold War, and beyond. A member of the original generation of Marine reconnaissance men, Steele's story offers a rare firsthand look at war, survival, and service across decades of American military history.

Ashly McGlone is an investigative journalist and the creator of Reconnaissance Man. As Steele's granddaughter, she pairs reporting, narration, and historical context with family connection to bring his extraordinary story to life with depth and care.

Find Reconnaissance Man and Ashly McGlone Online:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reconnaissanceman/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashlyreports/
X: https://x.com/ReconManPod
X: https://x.com/AshlyReports

🎙️ Host — AJ Pasciuti
AJ Pasciuti is a retired Marine Force Recon Scout Sniper and Infantry Weapons Officer (Marine Gunner), author of Darkhorse: Harnessing Hidden Potential in War and Life, and host of the Combat Story Podcast, where veterans and extraordinary individuals share honest, unfiltered stories of combat, survival, leadership, and life after adversity.

Find AJ Online:
Book (Darkhorse): https://www.ajpasciuti.com/book
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ajpasciuti/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelo-pasciuti/
Website: https://www.ajpasciuti.com/

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