As far as I know, bungie to say good by gave out recon to any halo 3 players that started playing halo 3 before 2012 today, since data services ended. I know this because my friend didn’t have recon, but now he does (I already had it). But I made a spare xbox live silver account today and the armour permutation didn’t show up. Same with my brother’s xbox live account, since he started playing halo 3 for the first time in febuary (he is not a halo fan like me =D)
It will show up within a week at least, they are rolling it out in waves to make sure it goes smooth.
PS: 343 Industries have been in control of Halo since late 2011, Bungie didn’t decide to give Recon out to everyone, it was a 343i decision.
Sigh, still haven’t gotten my Recon armor for Halo 3. Tried twice, always at the last wave and then everyone dies 
Also I heard that you cannot change your nameplate for Halo Reach anymore. Whatever you have is now stuck forever…
I really hope 343i integrates the nameplate change, If at least the recon armor for Halo 3.
> Sigh, still haven’t gotten my Recon armor for Halo 3. Tried twice, always at the last wave and then everyone dies
> Also I heard that you cannot change your nameplate for Halo Reach anymore. Whatever you have is now stuck forever…
> I really hope 343i integrates the nameplate change, If at least the recon armor for Halo 3.
You must have been hiding when they announced that over the course of the next few days (as of Friday), they were/still are rolling out Recon to everyone on Halo 3.