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The United States Army Ranger School is an extremely intense, 61+ days, combat leadership course, oriented to small-unit tactics, and conducted in three separate three-week-long phases - at Fort Benning, Georgia, U.S.A., (the woodland terrain, 'Benning Phase'), at Camp Rogers and Camp Darby, Georgia; 'the Mountain Phase' at Camp Merrill, near Dahlonega, Georgia and the Florida Phase at Camp Rudder, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The Desert Phase, conducted first at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah and later at Fort Bliss, Texas was eliminated in 1995. The last Ranger School class to go through the Desert Phase was class 7-95. Ranger School is closed to female applicants due to the Combat Exclusion Laws pertaining to assignment to Ranger coded positions within the Combat Arms of the United States Army.
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History
Ranger School was formed in 1950, during the Korean War, in order to train soldiers in Ranger tactics. Ranger training at Fort Benning, Georgia began in September 1950 during the Korean war with the formation and training of 17 Airborne Ranger companies by the Ranger Training Command. In October 1951 the Commandant of the US Army Infantry School established the Ranger Department and extended Ranger training to all combat units in the Army. The first Ranger Class for individual candidates graduated on 01 March 1952. On 01 November 1987, the Ranger Department expanded into the Ranger Training Brigade, and established three Ranger Training Battalions.[1].
Students
Many Ranger students come from the 75th Ranger Regiment, where completing and passing Ranger School is required for any leadership position and continued assignment to the Ranger Regiment. Most students come from Regular Army units, and return to them with greater leadership skills. The Army also allocates a select number of training slots each year to other US Military Service Branches, including their Reserve Components, as well as Foreign Military Services. These highly valued school slots are often competed for and used to augment the training of specialized combat career fields that directly support US Army units. Upon completion of the course, all soldiers return to the units that sent them and are referred to as being "Ranger Qualified". Since the 1950s, students have received a copy of
Ranger School is recognized as the Army's premier leadership course and it is impossible to attain a leadership position in the 75th Ranger Regiment without it. Lower Enlisted Soldiers with the goal of becoming a member of the 75th Ranger Regiment will first complete the Ranger Indoctrination Program (RIP) and then be assigned to the Ranger Regiment. Once the Chain of Command feels confident the soldier will pass Ranger School, usually within 6 months, the soldier is sent to the Ranger Regiment's Pre-Ranger Course. Only after successful completion of the Pre-Ranger Course is the soldier sent to Ranger School. If a member of the Ranger Regiment fails to complete Ranger School he will often times be dismissed from the Ranger Regiment, at the discretion of his chain of command. If he is fortunate he will be afforded the opportunity to go back at a later date, case by case dependent. Non Ranger Qualified NCOs and Officers must first complete Ranger School before assignment to the 75th Ranger Regiment.
Training
Ranger School training has a basic scenario: the flourishing drug and terrorist operations of the enemy forces, “the Aragon Liberation Front,” must be stopped. To do so, the Rangers will take the fight to their territory, the rough terrain surrounding Fort Benning, the mountains of northern Georgia, and the swamps and coast of Florida. Ranger students are given a clear mission, but they determine how to best execute it.
The purpose of the course is learning to soldier as a combat leader while enduring the great mental and psychological stresses and physical fatigue of combat; the Ranger Instructors (RI) create and cultivate such a physical and mental environment. Field craft instruction comprises most of the coursework; students plan and execute daily patrolling, perform reconnaissance, ambushes, and raids against dispersed targets, followed by stealthy movement to a new patrol base to plan the next mission. Ranger students conduct about 20 hours of training per day, while consuming two or fewer meals daily totaling about 2,200 Calories (9,200 kJ), with an average of 3.5 hours of sleep a day. Students sleep more before a parachute jump for safety considerations. Ranger students typically wear and carry some 65–90 pounds (29–41 kg) of weapons, equipment, and training ammunition while patrolling more than 200 miles (320 km) throughout the course.[2]
Training Capabilities
Ranger School students will participate in three airborne, and several air assault operations throughout the duration of the course, relying on C-130 Hercules cargo planes, as well as UH-60 Black Hawk and CH-47 Chinook helicopters, for insertion and extraction. Non-airborne personnel will work drop zone details while the other students jump. The students also have the ability to call-in and utilize close air support in the form of AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and AC-130H Spectre gunships during many of their missions. All aircraft are provided by other nearby units as part of a training co-operative.
Benning Phase
The first phase of Ranger School is conducted at Camp Rogers and Camp Darby at Fort Benning, Georgia and is conducted by the 4th Ranger Training Battalion. The "Benning Phase" is the "crawl" phase of Ranger School, where students learn the fundamentals of squad-level mission planning. This phase is critical to success, as it lays the groundwork for the "walk" and "run" phases. At Fort Benning, training is separated into two parts, the Ranger Assessment Phase (RAP) and Squad Combat Operations.
The Ranger Assessment Phase at Camp Rogers has traditionally included:[3]
- Ranger Physical Fitness Test (RPFT) requiring:
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- Push-ups - 49+
- Sit-ups - 59+
- Chin-ups - 6+
- 5 mile individual run in 40 minutes or less over a course with multiple hills
- It should be noted that the Ranger Training Brigade has very high standards for these exercises, and a student may find a substantial portion of the total number of his exercises not counted.
- Combat Water Survival Assessment and Water Confidence Test, conducted at Victory Pond.
- Combination Night/Day land navigation test - This has proven to be one of the more difficult events for students, as sending units fail to teach land navigation using a map and compass.
- A 2 mile terrain run, followed by the Malvesti Field Obstacle Course, featuring the notorious "worm pit": a shallow, muddy, 25-meter obstacle covered by knee-high barbed wire. The obstacle must be negotiated - usually several times - on one's back and belly.
- Demolitions training and airborne refresher training.
- Modern Army Combatives Program (MACP) training was removed as a part of a new POI at the start of 2009.
- A 12 mile individual ruck march with full gear in 3 hours and 15 minutes or less. (The length and time standard of this event can vary.)
The emphasis at Camp Darby is on the instruction in and execution of Squad Combat Operations. The Ranger student receives instruction on airborne/air assault operations, demolitions, environmental and "field craft" training, executes the infamous "Darby Queen" obstacle course, and learns the fundamentals of patrolling, warning and operations orders, and communications. The fundamentals of combat operations include battle drills (React to Contact, Break Contact, React to Ambush, Platoon Raid), which are focused on providing the principles and techniques that enable the squad-level element to successfully conduct reconnaissance and raid missions. As a result, the Ranger student gains tactical and technical proficiency, confidence in himself, and prepares to move to the next phase of the course, the Mountain Phase.
Mountain Phase
The second phase of Ranger School is conducted at Camp Frank D. Merrill near Dahlonega, Georgia by the 5th Ranger Training Battalion. During the Mountain Phase, students are taught military mountaineering and techniques for employing a platoon in combat in mountains. They further develop command ability, and controlling a platoon through planning, preparing, and executing combat missions. The Ranger student continues learning how to sustain himself and his subordinates in the mountains. The rugged terrain, severe weather, hunger, mental and physical fatigue, and the psychological stress the student encounters allow him to measure his capabilities and limitations and those of his fellow soldiers.
In addition to combat operations, the student receives four days of military mountaineering training. In the first two days he learns knots, belays, anchor points, rope management, mobility evacuation, and the fundamentals of climbing and abseiling. The training ends in a two-day Upper mountaineering exercise at Yonah Mountain, to apply the skills learned during Lower mountaineering. Each student must make all prescribed climbs at Mt. Yonah to continue in the course. During the field training exercise (FTX), students execute a mission requiring mountaineering skills.
Combat missions are against a conventionally-equipped threat force in a Mid-Intensity Conflict. These missions are both day and night in a two part, four and five day FTX, and include moving cross country over mountains, vehicle ambushes, raiding communications and mortar sites, river crossing, and scaling steeply-sloped mountainous terrain.
The Ranger student reaches his objective in several ways: cross-country movement, parachuting into small drop zones, air assaults into small, mountain-side landing zones, or a 10 mile march across the Tennessee Valley Divide. The student's commitment and physico-mental stamina are tested to the maximum. At any time, he may be selected to lead tired, hungry, physically expended Ranger students to execute and accomplish another mission. At the end of the Mountain Phase, the students travel by bus to a nearby airfield and conduct an airborne operation, parachuting into Florida Phase. Non-airborne are bused to Eglin Air Force Base for the Florida Phase.
Florida Phase
The third phase of Ranger School is conducted at Camp James E. Rudder (Auxiliary Field #6), Eglin Air Force Base, Florida by the 6th Ranger Training Battalion. Emphasis during this phase is to continue the development of the Ranger student's combat arms functional skills. He must be capable of operating effectively under conditions of extreme mental and physical stress. This is accomplished through practical exercises in extended platoon level operations in a coastal swamp environment. Training further develops the students' ability to plan for and lead small units on independent and coordinated airborne, air assault, urban operations, small boat, and dismounted combat operations in a mid-intensity combat environment against a well-trained, sophisticated enemy.
The Florida Phase continues the progressive, realistic OPFOR (opposing forces) scenario. As the scenario develops, the students receive "in-country" technique training that assists them in accomplishing the tactical missions later in the phase. Technique training includes: small boat operations, expedient stream crossing techniques, and skills needed to survive and operate in a rainforest/swamp environment by learning how to deal with reptiles and how to determine the difference between venomous snakes and non-venomous snakes. Camp Rudder has specially trained reptile experts that teach the students to not fear the wild life they encounter.
The Ranger students are updated on the scenario that eventually commits the unit to combat during techniques training. The ten-day FTX is a fast-paced, highly stressful, challenging exercise in which the students are further trained, but are also evaluated on their ability to apply small unit tactics/techniques. They apply the tactics/techniques of raids, ambushes and movement to contact to accomplish their missions. The capstone of the course is the extensively-planned raid of the ALF's island stronghold. This small boat operation involves each platoon in the class, all working together on separate missions to take down the cartel's final point of strength.
Afterwards, students who earned graduation spend several days cleaning their weapons and equipment before returning to Ft. Benning. By then they have earned PX (Post Exchange) privileges, and access to the "Gator Lounge", a place where they can use a telephone, eat civilian food, and watch television. During that time students are fed three daily meals. The graduation is at Camp Rogers in Ft. Benning. In an elaborate ceremony at Victory Pond, the black-and-gold Ranger Tab is pinned to the graduating soldier's left shoulder (usually by a relative, a respected RI, or soldier from the student's original unit). The Ranger Tab is permanently worn above the soldier's unit patch.
Leadership Positions
A student's graduation is highly dependent on his performance in graded positions of leadership. This leadership ability is evaluated at various levels in various situations, and is observed while he is in one of his typically two graded leadership roles per phase. He can either meet the high standards and be given a "GO" by the R.I., or he can fail to meet this standard and receive the dreaded "NO GO." He must demonstrate the ability to meet the standard in order to move forward, and can thus only afford one unsuccessful patrol. His success will lie in his ability to essentially manipulate the men directly underneath his charge of leadership. At times, this will be as few as two to three men - and at other times he may be required to lead up to an entire 45 man platoon. His success can be dependent on the performance and team work of these individuals, whom he must motivate and lead. Missions are broken up into 3 stages: planning, movement, and action on the objective. Key leadership positions, as well as important support positions such as: medic, FO (Forward Observer) and RTO (Radiotelephone Operator), are reassigned for each of the three stages of a mission.
Peer Evaluations
Another part of the evaluation of the student is a peer evaluation; failing a peer evaluation (scoring less than a 60% approval rating from your squad) can result in disqualification, though usually only if it happens twice. Due to unit loyalties, certain individuals within a squad who may be "the odd man out" will sometimes be singled out by the squad arbitrarily. Because of this, someone who has been "peered out" or "peered," will be moved to another squad, sometimes within another platoon, in order to ensure that this was not the reason the student was peered. If it happens within this new squad, however, this is generally an indication that student is being singled out because he is either lazy, incompetent, or cannot keep up. At this time he will usually be removed from the course.
It should be noted that the evaluation process is often completed via "agreement" within a squad, also known as "rigging" the peers system. This means that when the evaluation is issued at the end of a phase, the squad members all agree to rate one another in such a manner that no one is "singled out." However, the cadre can detect most attempts, and if discovered of using any such method, all students could be dropped from the course on grounds of being a "honor violation."
Recycling
If a student performs successfully, but suffers an injury that keeps him from finishing, he may be re-cycled at the discretion of either the battalion or the Ranger Training Brigade commander; he’ll be given an opportunity to heal and finish the course with the next class. While in the status of waiting to re-join the next class, students are temporarily assigned to Vaughn's Detachment (also known as the "Gulag" to Ranger students). While in Vaughn's Detachment, recycled students typically receive daily classes on Ranger School tasks and perform general tasks in and around Camp Rodgers. While marking time in the "Gulag" is not always pleasant, student recycles typically perform well when reinserted back into the course, with pass rates well over 80%.
Students can also be recycled for failing a leadership evaluation on patrol; however, if a student fails patrols in a given phase twice, he will usually be offered a "day one restart" and have to begin Ranger school from RAP week onwards. Day one restarts can also be given (the other option being removed from training, never to return) in the case of soldiers who fail patrol leadership positions and peer evaluations. In rare cases, those assessed of honor violations (lying, cheating, stealing) will also be given the ability to take a day one restart, however these soldiers are usually permanently removed from the course.
Historically, the graduation rate has been around 40%, but this has fluctuated in both directions at certain points. In the years spanning 2005-2007, the graduation rate has risen from 52% in 2005 to 54% in 2006 to 56% in 2007.[4] Only around 20% of soldiers make it through all three phases without having to repeat a phase.
Physical Effects
It is not uncommon for soldiers to lose 20-40 pounds. Military folk wisdom has it that Ranger School's physical toll is like years of natural aging; high levels of fight-or-flight stress hormones (epinephrine, norepinephrine, cortisol), along with standard sleep deprivation and continual physical strain, inhibit full physical and mental recovery throughout the course.
Common maladies during the course include weight loss, dehydration, trench foot, heatstroke, frostbite, chilblains, fractures, tissue tears (ligaments, tendons, muscles), swollen hands, feet, knees, nerve damage, loss of limb sensitivity, cellulitis, contact dermatitis, cuts, and insect, spider, bee, and wildlife bites.
Because of the physical and psychological effect of low calorie intake over an extended period of time, it is not uncommon for many Ranger School graduates to encounter weight problems as they return to their units and their bodies and minds slowly adjust to routine again. A drastically lowered metabolic rate, combined with a nearly insatiable appetite (the result of food deprivation and the ensuing survivalist mentality) can cause quick weight gain, as the body is already in energy (fat) storing mode.
Food and Sleep Deprivation
A Ranger student's diet and sleep are strictly controlled by the Ranger Instructors. During time in garrison students are given three meals a day, but forced to eat extremely quickly and without any talking. During field exercises Ranger students are given two MREs (Meal, Ready-to-eat) per day, but not allowed to eat them until given permission. Since food and sleep are at the bottom of an infantryman's priorities of work behind security, weapons maintenance, and personal hygiene it is generally the last thing Ranger students are allowed to do. Each MRE has on average 1,200 calories, and Ranger students are infamous for eating every part of the MRE including sugar packets, coffee creamer, and salt. Though a 2,400 calorie diet would be enough to satisfy the average person, Ranger students are under such physical stress that this amount is insufficient and most students lose upwards of 20 pounds by the end of their training.
Grazing is the practice of surreptitiously eating food throughout the day in order to fight the normal hunger pains. This practice is strictly forbidden and being caught can lead to being given a major minus or being recycled. Despite the strict nature of Ranger training, most students experience a slightly more lenient cadre in Florida Phase, and more students risk grazing during this phase because it is often overlooked by many Ranger Instructors.
References
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This article includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (September 2009) |
- ^ Ranger School Inbrief https://www.benning.army.mil/rtb/rtbmain.asp
- ^ ibid
- ^ The Benning Phase
- ^ "Ranger School Brief". Ranger Training Brigade. https://www.benning.army.mil/rtb/standardbrief1.ppt. Retrieved July 6 2008.
External links
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