Specific skill training and the structure of its instruction

smug · Post by **smug** » March 23rd, 2004, 2:07 pm

For those who have BTDT, Iâ€™d appreciate your recollection of the skills training you received in the Battalions as well as how the instruction was structured. For example, were you taught tracking? If so, was it a formal curriculum? Was it taught in a single, set-aside block of time (e.g. a day, several days, a week, etc.) or was it interspersed throughout other training (e.g. training in tracking was interspersed throughout recon training). Was it taught â€œin-house,â€

Spartan · Post by **Spartan** » March 23rd, 2004, 3:28 pm

Good question, although the answers will need to be somewhat limited.

Training is both stand-alone, per task, as well as integrated with other tasks that are all used together to accomplish the mission. Tracking could be one, as well as land-navigation, shooting or setting up defensive perimeters. I could go on and on as to specific tasks, but it would be more appropriate for you to get your hands on a Ranger Handbook or Common Skills book for the infantry and look through it yourself.

Horned Toad · Post by **Horned Toad** » March 24th, 2004, 2:18 pm

So why the intrest in just tracking?

BRanger91 · Post by **BRanger91** » March 25th, 2004, 9:25 pm

Rangers, like most units work off of a METL (list of tasks) that needs to be done. This is what drives all training. Specifics are not as important as how well you conduct the training. With instructors giving 100% and students giving at least 10% more than you end up with well trained soldiers. If the instructors don't care than neither will the students. Motivation, discipline, a very proud tradition and the will to be the best at what they is what makes Rangers so successful. Always look ahead of the goal, not at it. Don't worry about a specific school, if you want to do it then work hard and earn/prove it to others.

RRDTm3 · Post by **RRDTm3** » March 29th, 2004, 9:16 am

we train to jump out of planes and kills motherfuckers!

Slowpoke · Post by **Slowpoke** » March 29th, 2004, 10:00 am

RRDTm3 wrote:we train to jump out of planes and kills motherfuckers!

Bubba always cuts right to the heart of the topic. And he's right, the whys and wherefores of the training will be way above your pay grade as a Private. All you have to do as a Private is go where you're told, and do what you're told to the very best of you're ability. Everything else works itself out.

smug · Post by **smug** » March 30th, 2004, 11:38 am

Ranger Slowpoke,

Thank you for your reply. I agree with you that the structure of Ranger training will be way above my pay grade. I believe the question is relevant to me, however, because I have not yet decided to enlist with a view to becoming a Ranger. I am considering it quite seriously and have been for more than a year. That being the case, I want to know what I will be getting and getting into. If I had already signed on, I think my question would be, as you said, quite irrelevant â€“ something I would presumably have looked into before enlisting.

Thanks, again, for your time.

smug · Post by **smug** » March 30th, 2004, 11:45 am

Ranger Spartan,

Thanks for your reply.

Is the Common Skills Field Manual you mentioned also called Common Tasks? A cursory search online returned a Common Tasks manual, but no Common Skills. Any help in locating this would be greatly appreciated.

After reading your post, I looked through the Common Tasks manual and the Ranger Handbook. Would you say that these manuals cover the majority of the skills one could expect from anyone serving in the Regiment?

Thank you for your time.