Memories of Ranger School

Three phases and 62 days of hell. This section named in honor of MAJ John Whyte who was taken from us on 04/17/05.
Post Reply
User avatar
ranger19a
Inprocessing
Posts: 7
Joined: December 9th, 2013, 7:05 am

Memories of Ranger School

Post by ranger19a »

Greetings Rangers,

I just thought I'd share some memories of school I've been putting together over the past few weeks in the notes app on my phone. My motivation to start doing this was when I realized I was starting to forget some great stories, such as the arty sim fire incident. The only thing I've changed for this post is the names of individuals in the story. I wanted the grammar and writing style to remain unedited, hopefully to help capture the stream-of-consciousness way I wrote these down.

Without further ado...

Random Ranger memories

-at the cop where Peters was psg, where I threw away all that ammo...
1. The random ass dogs that came out of nowhere. One of them had a girl's name... I think the same name as an ex of mine, can't remember. It was comforting to see friendly dogs out there. I was surprised the RI's didn't chase them off.
2. The fucking fire the RI's set with their gay ass arty-sims. Then us, the QRF force, putting it out with 5-gallon jugs, etools and normal shovels- right after chasing the opfor thru the woods. It was motivating to actually be useful at Ranger school.
3. Getting the worst fighting positions; i.e. not in the corners in the guard shacks. Fuckers. It was cold as fuck there with the wind whipping us. Quaid got the right idea and hid in the low ground between two berms where he could sleep (also where I hid some ammo).
4. Checking the whole perimeter for Peters cause he didn't trust any other fuckers to do it. I still kind of half-assed it but Johnson fucked it up worse than anyone.
5. Distributing all that shit for Peters. Loose 5.56 and shit.

-our first long walk in Florida. I was wsl... In so much pain (fractured foot, didn't know it yet)... Really had to gut check to finish that one.

-hearing other platoon's pyro going off in the distance before we were even set on the obj in mountains. Really disheartening.

-the worst night in mountains: FTX 1, going up that endless steep ass hill off-trail, reaching the "top," then turning left and continuing to climb the Appalachian trail along the ridge line, passing those asshole civilian hikers with a roaring fire. The only bright point was at like 0130-02 when the ri's were like fuck it, put your snivel gear on, black over boots on, and get in your sleep system and sleep. And have a real guard this time, down by us by the road. You know, in case someone is freezing to death and happens to be loud about it so the guard notices and can inform us. Riiiight. Anyway, I think that was the only night anyone actually pulled guard all night. I don't remember what they threatened us with to make it happen.

-when I was wsl in fla, that T intersection where the obj was... And the road we had to cross right before reaching our fp. Parks's badass gun cadence.

-CPT whats-his-name (the armor guy) letting us stand around the fire during aar's, and yet we still were cold us fuck cause us nice guys let everyone else stand by it (not everyone could fit). Conversely, in the first 2-4 days of the Florida FTX, that asshole RI who would make them douse the fire right after we hit the obj. Then he called us worthless and the shittiest people he's ever seen and other pleasantries.

-the young Hispanic looking (kinda) douchey CPT from Darby who was super moto, even when just talking to another RI with only 2 of us listening.
----
RS 1-14 (06OCT-06DEC13)
User avatar
ranger19a
Inprocessing
Posts: 7
Joined: December 9th, 2013, 7:05 am

Re: Memories of Ranger School

Post by ranger19a »

-the fucking swamp in Darby where I decided to be a jackass and not follow the leader and cross at a different point, allowing me to become chest deep instead of just belly-button deep. To be fair, I was only the 2nd dude from the front so I wanted to try to blaze a better trail for the remaining 13 guys. Instead I showed them where not to go.

-pissing the bed twice- twice- because I was simultaneously too tired to use the muscles required to hold it in and too tired to wake up. This was in the barracks. Just got up, finished in the urinals, went back to sleep. In camp Rogers tho, right before graduation, I took a shower.
-pissing the bed a week after ranger school for the first time in..... Many years.

-feeling like a fucking king in the chow hall at camp Rogers after Florida, knowing we were just a day or two from graduating. Feeling sorry for all those fuckers who were just starting school (and by "feeling sorry" I mean "having no sympathy at all and being extremely happy to not be in their position").

-day zero: "this class may get cancelled." Fuck you sergeant major, don't get my hopes up!

-going thru rap week thinking the government shutdown would close the course.

-going thru Darby thinking the government shutdown would close the course.

-riding the bus to Dahlonega thinking "fuck... the government shutdown didn't close the course." Seriously, we had heard so many rumors. Even RI's were telling us they didn't think we'd keep training. I think they just were hoping for some time off. Their job no-shit sucks and I respect them for doing it.

-after mountains, there were only enough buses to take the airborne guys to the airport. Us NAP's were getting our hopes up that we'd get a late ride to atlanta and miss the flight down and have to take the bus, but no dice. We flew down with them and watched them jump out.

-MRE's deserve their own section.
1. Concoctions: key lime pie, ranger bar with melted peanut butter on top and Reese's pieces, ranger cookies (creamer + sugar), mocha latte mix with a little water and melted p-butter, the list goes on.
2. The rat-fucking incident on Thanksgiving. Parks having his remaining five mre's completely stripped, missing every goddam snack, only the main meals remaining. Immediately put on SOR probation. Downgraded to 3 major minuses. And since he didn't have enough calories to safely finish the FTX, they gave him two more mre's. What the fuck. Florida recycle (went on to graduate the next class) instead of what he should have been, a day zero drop for safety/integrity/stupidity violation. And why? He's a batt boy and was on his second try at school. Guarantee any ibolc/abolc LT or regular army NCO would have been dropped.*
3. The older mre's in Florida (suspicious because our class was the first class in a while to NOT get Gatorade bars- they were expired in the previous class and had worms in them).
4. Perfecting the art of going from opening an mre to every item (one exception- the coffee packet, it almost always went to a Peters) eaten in 10 minutes flat.
5. Daydreaming all day about the cheese tort or Mexican style chicken Id be consuming at 0100

-not getting fully hard for 62 days.

-being "on the rocks" at camp Darby. It was actually just extremely fine sand... Moon dust that got in everything. The term "on the rocks" came from camp Rogers where we were on rocks under the overhangs.

-all the assholes who fell off the log bridges in mountain phase. It must have been miserable... One time it was like 40 degrees at 1500 when it happened. About 4 guys fell in.

*Rangers, I'm sorry if this offends you (actually I'm not really sorry, it's just a figure of speech), but seriously, the level of stupidity it must have taken for Parks to think he should rat fuck EVERY mre right before thanksgiving (the previous two years had thanksgiving day massacres, layouts to find contraband) is not measurable by normal tests. And I honestly believe an ibolc LT (of which I am not one) would have just been dropped right away. Instead Parks got a second lease on life because the RI's didn't want to kill a batt boy's career. That's just how i see it. Also, Parks was a decent guy and a good friend of mine. He really knows his shit. He just gradually broke down towards the end of school and it was really starting to show. After the Christmas break he came back and from everyone I've talked to in his new platoon he was a much better Ranger.
----
RS 1-14 (06OCT-06DEC13)
User avatar
Jim
Rest In Peace Ranger
Posts: 21935
Joined: March 8th, 2005, 10:48 am
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: Memories of Ranger School

Post by Jim »

Excellent tale. The exact details differ, but you reflected on what I suspect each graduate since 1950 experienced. To this day, I know that if they hooked me up to a lie detector, I would truthfully tell them I saw a four-lane road down the middle of the Yellow River swamp.
Ranger Class 13-71
Advisor, VN 66-68 69-70
42d Vn Ranger Battalion 1969-1970
Trainer, El Salvador 86-87
Advisor, Saudi Arabian National Guard 91, 93-94
75th RRA Life Member #867
User avatar
ranger19a
Inprocessing
Posts: 7
Joined: December 9th, 2013, 7:05 am

Re: Memories of Ranger School

Post by ranger19a »

Thanks Ranger Jim. I agree, I think the fundamentals of the course have largely stayed the same. Here's the last bit of what I have so far, I'm sure over the next few months I'll remember more.

-realizing that the cwsa course actually does serve a purpose. Walking across that 40' or whatever high log at victory pond has a practical application. We walked across many logs in the mountains and Florida with all our gear.

-thanksgiving night: after an entire day of the usual stuff and not a word about it being thanksgiving from the RI's, having our own little celebration at about 0130-0230. Our squad built a badass warming fire and sat around it talking about what we were thankful for. I took my time with that mre (it was southwest style beef and beans or some shit). I think the RI's let us build a fire cause it was thanksgiving, oh and it was about 30 degrees that night.

-my first tie-down freak out: in camp Darby, we were out on patrol and stopped for an si check. I was all tangled up and knew it. I dropped my ruck, all 70 lbs of it (or maybe 80, who knows), and my NODs tie down got caught on it, wrapped around my neck, and choked me the fuck out on the way down. I got dragged to the ground. After some hardcore cursing I got it all off me and fixed my shit.

-the utter misery of knowing I failed my first patrol in Florida.

-walking down the sandy trails on the Florida long walks and watching the dudes in front of me through my NODs. It was always entertaining. Dudes would just veer off to the right into the woods, oblivious that they were sleep-walking. The guy behind them would shuffle up to him, grab his ruck and point him back to the trail.

-falling asleep on one of the long walks. Instead of veering, I just failed to notice the guy in front of me doing a modified-standing-rucksack flop. I only figured it out when my nod's jammed into his ruck and then my eye.

-moving through the woods in mountains and watching a branch go straight into my eye. Luckily, the eyepro directed it down to my cheek, where it cut a pretty gnarly gash that took the rest of school to heal. I maintain that sans the eyepro, I'd be half blind right now. That stick was headed into my eye. I never took my eyepro off again for the rest of school while moving at night (not that I had them off often before).

-the ninja-move I saw someone do in Darby which I replicated successfully in mountains. We took contact to the front and I found myself hauling ass to help security squad, ruck and all. The damn at-4 strapped to my ruck caught a thin flexible tree, stopping me in my tracks and slinging me violently to the ground. Pissed off, I flung my legs backwards over my head, doing some sort of weird backflip with the ruck still planted on the ground, dragged my ruck over my head, and forced myself up. I almost kicked the shit out of my battle who had came over to help me up. It was awesome and a few guys laughed.

-firing down the sights of my saw from the kneeling position, surprised and happy that I actually got a few bursts out of it. Turns out cleaning it and (more importantly) gallons of CLP go a long way. I remember being pretty pumped on that engagement, I really wanted to kill those opfor and my good buddy Peters was psg or PL and I wanted to do good by him.

-speaking of Peters, his pissing the bed story kills mine. It was our first night in the barracks after the last mountains FTX, and he remembers waking up and thinking he was in the woods still. He got out of his fart sack, took a knee, and pissed all over his bed. The actual act of peeing woke him up or took him out of his lucid state or whatever. He went to the john and finished, then moved a little ways up the mattress and went back to sleep.
----
RS 1-14 (06OCT-06DEC13)
User avatar
Mike11C11B
Ranger
Posts: 129
Joined: April 5th, 2013, 10:39 am

Re: Memories of Ranger School

Post by Mike11C11B »

This brought back some memories. Mine are seeing a plantation type house in mountains through the trees, talking to guys pulling security on the side of the road that were see through holograms, that last final walk into Camp Rudder and getting that final go, and the worst hike (the no ruck mission) in mountains when the cat eyes in front of me started flying around and getting woke up with arty sims being all by myself because 3 of us were missing.
1/75 Mortars 1999-2002
3/75 B Co, 1st Plt 2004-2005
3/75 Snipers 2005-2007
OEF/OIF
Class 7-00
Post Reply

Return to “About Ranger School - In Honor of Ranger BattleBoar - RIP”