army rangers...

[strollingbones]

i hear all about big and bads...well here is a group i dont hear much said about....growing up around ft. bragg...i have learned to appreciate the army ranger.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeQ2gQHOZRE&feature=related]YouTube - Running Cadences-US Army Rangers.[/ame]

 

[random3434]

I used to date an Army Ranger. He would have some WICKED nightmares........................he would be in the corner with a sword thinking he was being attacked, I don't know if it was sleep walking or what.

But yeah, they are tough mo fo's.

Yeah, and he and I took his Harley to Savannah , GA where he did some training. I love Savannah! Cool town.

 

[Sunni Man]

Army Rangers are featured in the movie "Blackhawk Down".

 

[Terry]

You know I have a lot of respect for every military person from the cook to the pilot to the latrine queen to the ranger. They all do their part and without each one, it will make the other difficult to accomplish their mission if not impossible.

 

[JBeukema]

Why is this in the flame zone?

 

[geauxtohell]

Why is this in the flame zone?

I don't know, probably because a Marine runs the board.

I never served in the 75th Ranger Regiment, but as an Infantry Officer was expected to complete Ranger School, which by the grace of God, I managed to do without repeating a phase (the school is in three phases, a basic phase in Benning, where is mostly teaching, a mountain phase in Dahlonega, GA and a Swamp Phase in Eglin AFB in the Florida Panhandle).

You basically are on constant patrol in adverse terrain with constant missions coming in and the leadership of the patrol being graded. That would be tough enough (try climbing up and down the Tennessee Valley Divide with over 100 lbs of gear day after day), but to replicate combat stress, you are deprived of food and sleep and that just makes the experience miserable. I lost over 30 lbs in 62 days (I was in the shape of my life at the time. I would put my BMI at 21 or so, so it's not like I had a lot of weight to lose. By the end, we were basically metabolizing muscle and reeked of ammonia), and that was common. Most everyone went through periods of hallucinations from sleep deprivation. I'll never forget moving out on patrol at night and seeing one of my buddies w/ an AT-4 (disposable bazooka) strapped crossways across his backpack. I became convinced someone had become bisected and we were packing out his torso (w/ the AT-4 being his arms). I started freaking out, until my friend shook me out of it.

At any rate, 50% of the people who attempt the school never finish it. In my class, only about 20% of us managed to make it through without having to redo one of the three phases. That was luck on my part, I richly deserved to fail the last course as I was completely worthless by that point. My hands had cracked along the joints and I could barely use them.

Then to add the cherry on top of the "this sucks" cupcake, I went during the winter and it was fricking cold. I got a nasty case of trench foot on our last mission, which was a raid on Santa Rosa island in Pensacola Bay. We had to row zodiac boats to the Island, but the tide was miserable and we scuttled our boat on a sand bar about 100 meters out and had to jump out and drag it ashore.

As much as it sucked, it was, without a doubt, the best training I ever got in the Army (as far as preparing you for combat). I think if more people had the benefit of the training (it's closed off to everyone but males in combat arms units and Special Operations from other services (Force Recon, SEALs, etc)), there would be less causalities in combat.

At any rate, graduation was a very happy day for me. Though my future wife and parents didn't recognize me when they first saw me.

 

[random3434]

Bones loves to put everything in the Flame Zone lol. I moved it to Military where it belongs!

 

[geauxtohell]

You know I have a lot of respect for every military person from the cook to the pilot to the latrine queen to the ranger. They all do their part and without each one, it will make the other difficult to accomplish their mission if not impossible.

That is certainly the truth, and we all basically choose our destinies in the military. I volunteered for everything I did, so it's not like I get to thump my chest for my own personal decisions.

However, that's not to say that life isn't tougher and more dangerous for certain occupations versus others.

IMO, being a helicopter pilot is the most dangerous job in the military. Your job basically has the same level of danger whether you are in combat or not (since I think only one helicopter has been shot down by a lucky RPG shot in Afghanistan).

If I had to go back to the combat zone, I would much rather go with an Infantry Unit than some goofy mickey mouse pseudo-combat arms group like the ad hoc civil affairs units they are slapping together.

At least if you are going to be on the ground, you will be there with guys who can take care of business.

We saw this a lot in Afghanistan. If you looked tough, you would be left alone. We had a "softer" unit get ambushed along a road that we had just traveled down without a problem. They got ambushed because they had no rear security (someone looking behind them), and the Taliban ran down the mountain, into the road, and shot an RPG round into their ass to set off the ambush.

If they would have tried that crap with us, the RPG gunner would have been toast as "always have 360 degrees of security while moving" is the golden rule of patrolling.

 

[JakeStarkey]

The ones I truly honor are the military dependent spouses. Their road is rocky, uphill, and just so darn hard. My spouse put up with incredible trials and tribulations, and came out of them to give us all a wonderful home. Military spouses are wonderfully brave.

 

[Bootneck]

The ones I truly honor are the military dependent spouses. Their road is rocky, uphill, and just so darn hard. My spouse put up with incredible trials and tribulations, and came out of them to give us all a wonderful home. Military spouses are wonderfully brave.

Mothers, wives and girlfriends are true heroes when it comes to combat tours. It breaks my heart knowing what my loved ones go through every time I walk out that door to another tour.

I salute them all!

 

[strollingbones]

duh i put most everything in the flame zone...i cant believe it was moved...it was no slight that i posted in here...or did post in here....

 

[strollingbones]

plus i was trying to find that little song you can get them to do....

i wanna be an army ranger...i wanna lead a life of danger....

 

[JW Frogen]

i wanna be an army ranger...i wanna lead a life of danger....

When I was in the Navy we had a song "I want to be a Sea Bee to see what the sweet honeys of the world will do to me."

 

[Ringel05]

Army Rangers

what a bunch of pussies.

 

[geauxtohell]

The ones I truly honor are the military dependent spouses. Their road is rocky, uphill, and just so darn hard. My spouse put up with incredible trials and tribulations, and came out of them to give us all a wonderful home. Military spouses are wonderfully brave.

Mothers, wives and girlfriends are true heroes when it comes to combat tours. It breaks my heart knowing what my loved ones go through every time I walk out that door to another tour.

I salute them all!

Family members have it the worst when someone deploys.

I knew when I was safe (99% of the time) and when I was in danger (1%). My poor family had no way of knowing and always had to assume I was in danger 100% of the time.

 

[Toome]

A long time ago a co-worker described it in terms of bar fights. He said you get into a fight with a Special Forces guy, and he will kick your ass. But they usually are loners and you can outnumber him and eventually get him. Rangers, he said, are a different story: pick on one and once he hollers "RANGER!" they ALL come out of the woodwork. No fancy kung-fu moves; they just start poking out eyes, tearing off ears, noses, kicking the nuts and then they start fighting dirty after that.


Ranger class 10-81: "Our Souls are sold to the Black and Gold! RANGERS LEAD THE WAY!"

 

[geauxtohell]

A long time ago a co-worker described it in terms of bar fights. He said you get into a fight with a Special Forces guy, and he will kick your ass. But they usually are loners and you can outnumber him and eventually get him. Rangers, he said, are a different story: pick on one and once he hollers "RANGER!" they ALL come out of the woodwork. No fancy kung-fu moves; they just start poking out eyes, tearing off ears, noses, kicking the nuts and then they start fighting dirty after that.


Ranger class 10-81: "Our Souls are sold to the Black and Gold! RANGERS LEAD THE WAY!"

Ironically, I got my ass kicked in a bar right after Ranger School. It was at a hick-bar in my hometown against the local meth dealers. I was just minding my own business (seriously) and the dude came up and punched me in the mouth. I didn't have any back up, save for my high school friend who sat there with their mouths open (thanks guys). I took my licks and got the hell out of there. No way was I going into the parking lot with a tweaker.

It drove home what the RI's said in the sandpit at Rogers while learning "Ranger Kung Fu"; "We are just teaching you enough to get your ass kicked in a bar, Rangers."

Class 04-02.

 

[Toome]

A long time ago a co-worker described it in terms of bar fights. He said you get into a fight with a Special Forces guy, and he will kick your ass. But they usually are loners and you can outnumber him and eventually get him. Rangers, he said, are a different story: pick on one and once he hollers "RANGER!" they ALL come out of the woodwork. No fancy kung-fu moves; they just start poking out eyes, tearing off ears, noses, kicking the nuts and then they start fighting dirty after that.


Ranger class 10-81: "Our Souls are sold to the Black and Gold! RANGERS LEAD THE WAY!"

Ironically, I got my ass kicked in a bar right after Ranger School. It was at a hick-bar in my hometown against the local meth dealers. I was just minding my own business (seriously) and the dude came up and punched me in the mouth. I didn't have any back up, save for my high school friend who sat there with their mouths open (thanks guys). I took my licks and got the hell out of there. No way was I going into the parking lot with a tweaker.

It drove home what the RI's said in the sandpit at Rogers while learning "Ranger Kung Fu"; "We are just teaching you enough to get your ass kicked in a bar, Rangers."

Class 04-02.

Well, back before the Army got all nice and kind, when I was assigned to XVIII Abn Corps, we were at a bar talking smack about legs. A couple of us were RANGERS and some were non-Airborne paratroopers, one of the guys was a former British Marine converted into an Airborne Ranger. At the bar, there was a group of non-Airborne soldiers who said that we should realize that we weren't at Bragg and the rest of the Army isn't so gung-ho on paratroopers.

Our Brit guy said, "y'know...you're absolutely right! How unthoughtful of us! Just to show you that there's no hard feelings, how about a drink? My treat...."

He turned to the barmaid and said, "Darling, four shots of Scotch for us..." then pointed towards the table of non-Paratroopers and said, "and four glasses of water for the dirty, stinking legs over there...."

That's when the fists started flying. I could tell you that we kicked their asses, but the truth is that we all looked like Laurel and Hardy doing more to hurt ourselves than each other.

We ended up sharing drinks by the end of the night.

 

[Shorebreak]

I work and have beers with a great guy who's a former 101st Airborne Ranger. He's a force recon guy. You don't find much better.

 

[Lycurgus]

You know I have a lot of respect for every military person from the cook to the pilot to the latrine queen to the ranger. They all do their part and without each one, it will make the other difficult to accomplish their mission if not impossible.

Terry, I could not agree more. Though I understand it, I never did have an appreciation for those who would try and place one branch or speciality of the service above another.

As for the Rangers, Recon is where it's at, I just love that shit. I have had the privilege of working with several and it was honestly some of the best excursions of my life.

Another favorite of my experiences has been the Air Cavalry

But my soul sits with the Navy and Marines. There is nothing like taking the big show on the road, wherever and whenever needed.

It takes all Branches and Specialities to make it happen!