Matthew D. Smith

Enc. 1101

November 21, 1999

Word count 1,192

Becoming an ARMY Ranger

If you talk to any previous ARMY Ranger they will tell you that it was the greatest honor of their life. The Rangers have the longest and most distinguished history of any of the Military’s Special Forces. To be a Ranger you need persistence, attention to detail, and strong willed. My girlfriend’s dad was a Ranger for a short period of time before becoming special operations personnel.

Ranger training at Fort Benning, Georgia, began in September of 1950 with the formation and training of 17 Airborne Ranger companies during the Korean War (Ranger History). They have been involved in every major confrontation of the United States Military since World War II. The first Ranger class for individual candidates graduated on 1 March, 1952 (Ranger History).

The 75^th Ranger Regiment is a flexible highly trained and rapidly deployed light infantry force (Officer Recruiting). The Rangers are one of the only infantry force to be used as an air, sea, and ground attack unit. They are deployed as the first and usually secret wave of an attack because of their training and their ability to accomplish a task with small numbers. They are considered to be the indestructible part of the ARMY. Rangers are use to take ground or objectives. Rangers are often used to conduct covert operations in hopes to prevent war or major conflicts. You must be prepared to go anywhere and at anytime with no explanation only your objectives. You are expected to fight and win at any cost (Koehler). The Rangers have no peace time duties like normal ARMY troops. A Rangers only peacetime duty is to prepare to go in to battle. Rangers are considered the most advanced strike teams in the military.

There is a limited amount of schooling needed to join the ARMY Ranger, because they do the training on their bases. If you voluntarily enlist in the Army you can chose to train to be a Ranger as part of your enlistment contract. The ARMY has to honor their responsibilities to train you as a Ranger unless you fall below their requirements in basic training. You start off by taking the Armed Forces Entrance and Examination Station. After and if you pass the entrance exam, you would move on to basic training at Fort Benning, Ga. After you make it through basic training you move on to more specialized training like Advanced Infantry Training. One of the prerequisites is to be airborne certified or willing to attend US ARMY Airborne School. Take into account that if you do not meet their requirements they do not have to honor your enlistment contract. If you complete all this training you can finally start you’re Ranger Training (Koehler).

The first part of Ranger School is the Ranger Orientation Program. The purpose of the Ranger Orientation Program is to train, assess and select new recruits and officers for service in the regiment.

They make their choices based on many training exercises and also have tests on the breifings they recieve. We will start off with the briefings. They have a force protection/ anti-terrorism brief, Regimental standards, special operations orientation, fire support assets brief, weapons familiarization, and finally Ranger history test. Must score at least a seventy-percent on the Ranger history exam. Next we have the training exercises. They are CWST, RTC 350-1-2 demo, the APFT (with chin-ups), airborne refresher/ operation, fast rope training, advanced MOUT training, and the CWST. The minimum requirement for this orientation program is an eighty percent on the APFT. The scores are calculated by age for all Officers and combat arms NCO’s. A seventy percent on the APFT is required for all non-combat arms NCO’s. You have to be able to do six chin-ups, must successfully complete the CWST ( must be able to swim 15 meters in BDU’s boots and LBE). Finally we have the physical training which consists of daily physical training, road marches, and a five-mile run. The requirements for these activities are a twelve-mile road march with a forty-five pound rucksack within three hours, a ten-mile road march with a forty-five pound rucksack within two and a half hours, and a five-mile run within forty minutes. Another exam that is the self paces SOP exam. A minimum score of seventy or better is needed. There is also a psychological assessment by USASOC psychologist. Finally there is the recommendation from RASP board interview ( Ranger Orientation Program)

After the Ranger Orientation Program you move on to the Ranger Indoctrination program. The Ranger Indoctrination program purpose is to select and prepare candidates for service in the 75^th Ranger Regiment. This program also includes many hard training events. To start off there is daily physical training, six, eight, and ten-mile road march. The requirements are to complete two of the three road marches and a five-mile run no slower than eight minutes per mile. Next they have their tests a Ranger history test, map reading test, APFT assessments. They need at least a seventy- percent on all exams. There are classes on Ranger standards, airborne operations, day and night land navigation. There is training on combatives, knots, combat water survival (which will have a test), driving (DDC card), fast rope, and combat lifesaver certification (Ranger Indoctrination Program).

The trainings you endure will be used in many situations that you will run into on the battlefield. An example is the Airborne Training. Most of the missions that the Rangers are sent out on are air drops, so if they do not know how to sky dive they will have a big problem. The CWST is vital also because if they are sent into areas that probably very wet and may have to swim across rivers. The last example I will use is the fast rope training. If they are sent into a mountainous terrain they will have to repel down steep cliffs.

Your pay is base on your rank and time in service. You can also get extra pay for hazardous situations, and oversees missions. Hazardous situations are considered to be any time you go into combat. Oversees missions are as they seem. Any time you have to leave the United States of America. I selected the ARMY Rangers because I always enjoyed watching movies that the Special Forces where involved.

The biggest drawback to being an Army Ranger is the assignment you get. Rangers are thought of as an indestructible piece of machinery to use at the US Governments disposal. You also have no idea of when you are going to be call on to risk your life. Rangers usually have no idea of when or where their assignment will be.

The greatest aspect of being a Ranger is to be able to tell you children and your grandchildren that you were the best of the best in the greatest Army in the world. You will become one of the elite few that was apart the Special Forces. Another one of the satisfaction of being a Ranger is knowing that you are doing a job that few others can do.

Works Cited

Ranger History- The Ranger Training Brigade. U.S. ARMY Ranger Assn., Inc. 8 October 1999

Ranger Indoctrination Program. United States ARMY. 7 October 1999

Ranger Orientation Program. United States ARMY. 7 October 1999

75^th Ranger Regiment Enlisted Recruiting. United States ARMY. 7 October 1999

Koehler, Pat. Telephone interview. 9 October 1999