Introduction - Vince11

[cams]

Welcome. Life as an import is not easy, even with your background you'll be expected to prove yourself in all facets of Rangering and leadership as a SSG. Most of the posts you've noted are because the majority of us were "born and raised" in Batt.

As much as we all got our bags smoked daily for months on end and called every name in the book about every 5 mins as new Privates, I've never seen one NCO there that wouldn't also protect his Privates with his life in a heartbeat, even from being abused by other NCO's not in their platoon.

Also, as a SSG you'll need to complete RASP 02 and Ranger School before being accepted to a Batt.

I've seen several transplants from different units come in and not do so well, leaving shortly after arrival, so be prepared to be tested and watched very carefully by your peers there.

Good luck Warrior. Godspeed.

[cams]

Here's a transplant story for you, now mind you this was quite a long time ago and things MAY have changed some over the years.

We had just gotten a new Sgt/E-5 transplant from the 82nd. He was tabbed also. We, as young Ranger Privates were not.

This Sgt didn't like the way our SSG was treating people (us), and spoke up about it to SSG_____.

This was his first mistake because we already knew the deal about hazing and daily/nightly verbal/smoke abuse and we were ok with it because we loved Batt life and others before us had all been through the same.

The same SSG that was smoking the shit out of us, who had been in Batt for 10 yrs already, later that day ordered us to kidnap said Sgt from his room, very early before formation the next day, and strip him, flex cuff him and leave him in front of the Ranger Rock before PT formation.

We did our job, wearing balaclavas and Gargoyles to hide our faces, and left him nude and flex cuffed in front of the Rock, in freezing rain at about 35* in WA state.

Mind you if we had ever even not snapped to Parade Rest for another Private who had more TIB than us, we'd be toast, never mind an NCO, in that case we'd normally be physically beaten and DX'd that same day, but this was acceptable as long as we weren't identified.

There he lay, naked and shivering before the entire Batt at PT, with his cherry beret on the ground next to him. Some O's were very upset by this, but we as Privates never heard another word about it, and the Sgt left Batt shortly after the incident and went back to the 82nd.

Granted, this guy did prove to be a douche, and other transplants have absolutely thrived in Batt, each depends on how you handle yourself, lead your men, and don't interfere with young Rangers earning their way.

[RMP-RLTW]

Fucking standard, cams!!!!


Ryan
RLTW!

[cams]

Cams, thanks for the hasty reply.

I for one, have never questioned the way an NCO or Soldier conducts business, especially having been attached to an ODA where the team sergeant would treat his new guy to the team (this guy was a SSG who deployed with another battalion having his long tab already) worse than I've ever seen any private treated. I'm in no way saying I know what I'll be seeing as an import, but I think I got the gist of it.

As per your statement about going to RS before going to battalion. The PSG in charge of the guys with my MOS in RSTB/75 says I'd have to go through a pipeline that involves training/deployments/SURT/RS, but I'll be in RSTB before all of that. However. It's expected I graduate from RS ASAP.

I'll keep your thoughts in my mind as I prepare for RASP II. I would like advice on the land nav there if you please, I've never conducted a night land nav and am a bit worried about it. I asked a former tabbed batt boy here in HQ SOCOM if he could set a range up for myself and my section so I could get some good practice in and take us out of our comfort zones.

Interesting, I've never heard of an NCO, especially a SSG, being in Batt without a Tab. We did have a CWO that was not tabbed out, an older guy we just called Chief who worked in the C/E vault with Intel and encryption, great guy, squared away and very quiet and I believe he must have been one of the best at what he did since they didn't force him to go school and our SSG who was I still believe literally sent straight from hell to torture us, really respected him and never once called him out for not having a tab, again very unusual.

Things have changed quite a bit I'm sure as when I was there we did not have RSTB.

I'll leave this to our younger more knowledgeable Rangers as I don't want to give you bad info brother.

Night land nav is no different than day LN really, just a slower pace, study your basics of map orientation, measurements, benchmarks, azimuths/back azimuths as well as getting a good pace count. Do you have/use Ranger beads for counting? Back in the day we had to 'charge' our compasses glow points with a flashlight to be able to read them in the blackness of WA state woods. We didn't have good tritium type items.

Best thing I can advise is to move slowly and deliberately at night through the "wait a minutes" and rocks so you don't end up with ankle or eye injuries. One of my biggest lessons doing this was when we were young we'd try to rush through thick brush and almost immediately we'd be caught up and tangled up in shit. One night I was moving too quickly and had a branch stick into my eye and snap itself off so it was still poking out of my eye, luckily it didn't pierce anything and was just caught up under the lid, scratched the shit out of my eye though and I had to finish the course half blind. After we unfucked ourselves we were then taught to move slowly, picking each branch or vine out of our way with each step and not to force ourselves through nature, but to weave yourself through it naturally and deliberately.

This is obviously slower and on a timed course can get you wondering if you're being too slow, but that's where good basics come in, map reading, pace count etc so those mistakes don't cost you more time.

In no way do I mean this to sound accusatory towards you but absolutely do not get caught cutting corners or cheating on your points, better to come back one short and have a chance to re-do than get caught up in an integrity violation and get bounced.

[cams]

I would definitely recommend using beads to keep pace.

In an assessment course you never know who or where the instructors will be. Some young men have been caught giving point information to others who are lost and unable to find them, fearing they'll fail, they resort to cheating and have been caught red handed by instructors standing in the dark, listening and watching.

One of our Sgt's made us as young Rangers post something in each of our rooms so we would read it everyday. "Self-Discipline means always doing the right thing, even if you think no one is watching.", because at this stage someone is always watching.

Those men that were caught out in the woods would've faired well to heed those words.

[Jim]

I had/used ranger beads. If someone asked me what they were, I always claimed they were my Rosary Beads. Believe me, there were times when I prayed for help figuring out where I was.

[RangerX]

We had a tabless E6 in C Co 3/75 back late 80s/early 90s. He was an FO, came in as an E4, hung around long enough to get a couple promotions, then left as a tabless E6. Had a lot of 11B E3s scratching their heads. Good guy though, and a damn good FO.