Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Ranger School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The United States Army Ranger School is an intense nine-week long combat leadership course, oriented towards 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 Florida Phase at Camp Rudder, (Eglin AFB), Florida. The Desert Phase, conducted first at Fort Bliss, Texas and later at Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah was eliminated in 1995. The last Ranger School class to go through the desert phase was class 7-95.
Contents |
Ranger School was formed in 1950, during the Korean War, in order to train soldiers in Ranger tactics. The first class graduated in November of 1950. [1]
Many Ranger students come from the 75th Ranger Regiment, where completing and passing Ranger School is required for any leadership position, but many other students come from regular Army units, and return to them with greater leadership skills. Passing Ranger school is a de facto requirement for success as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army. The Army also allocates a select number of training slots each year to other service branches. These highly valued school slots are often competed for and used to augment the training of specialized combat career fields that directly support Army units.
Since the 1950s, students have received a copy of Rangers Standing Orders, a version of the guidance Major Robert Rogers composed for his unit, Rogers' Rangers.
Ranger School training centers on a basic scenario: the flourishing drug operations of the enemy forces, “the Cortinian Army,” must be eradicated. To do so, the Rangers will have to take the fight to the enemy's 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 best to execute it.
Field instruction is the majority of the coursework; students carry gear weighing around or over 100 lbs. (45 kg), while spending each day planning and executing patrols, reconnaissance, ambushes, and raids against widely dispersed targets, followed by a stealthy and elusive movement to a new patrol base to again begin the planning cycle for the next mission. Training during the course averages roughly 20 hours per day, with students sleeping only an average of 3.4 hours a night, while eating two, or fewer, meals per day. This is only an average, however; on some days students may get the opportunity to sleep more or less (and on some nights, not at all). Heavy mental and physical fatigue are the result; a climate of high psychological stress is cultivated by the R.I. (Ranger Instructor) in order to simulate the stress of extended combat operations.
Ranger School students will participate in three airborne, and several air-assault operations throughout the duration of the course, relying on C-130 cargo planes, as well as UH-60 (Blackhawk) and Chinook helicopters, for insertion and extraction. The students also have the ability to call-in and utilize close air support in the form of Apache attack helicopters and AC-130 Spectre gunships during many of their missions. All aircraft are provided by other nearby units as part of a training co-operative.
Fort Benning is the home of the Ranger Training Brigade and its 4th Ranger Training Battalion, which hosts 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 Benning, training is separated into two parts, the Ranger Assessment Phase (RAP) and Camp Darby.
The Ranger Assessment Phase has traditionally included:[2]
- Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) requiring:
-
- Push-ups - 49+
- Sit-ups - 59+
- 5 mile individual run in uniform and running shoes in 40 minutes or less
- Concluding with 6 chin-ups.
- Combat Water Survival Assessment and Water Confidence Test, conducted at Victory Pond
- Combination Night/Day land navigation test
- Modern Army Combatives Program (MACP) training, conducted for several hours nightly in the sawdust pits
- A 1.63 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
- A 12 mile individual ruck march in 3 hours and 15 minutes or less.
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. The Ranger student must then demonstrate his expertise in both leadership and support roles through a series of cadre and student led tactical operations. 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.
During the Mountain Phase, students receive instruction on military mountaineering tasks as well as techniques for employing a platoon for continuous combat operations in a mountainous environment. They further develop their ability to command and control a platoon size element through planning, preparing , and executing a variety of combat missions. The Ranger student continues to learn how to sustain himself and his subordinates in the adverse conditions of the mountains. The rugged terrain, severe weather, hunger, mental and physical fatigue, and the emotional stress that the student encounters afford him the opportunity to gauge his own capabilities and limitations as well as that of his "Ranger Buddies".
In addition to combat operations, the Ranger student receives five days of training on military mountaineering. During the first three days of mountaineering (Lower) he learns about knots, belays, anchor points, rope management and the basic fundamentals of climbing and rappelling. His mountaineering training culminates with a two day exercise (Upper) at Yonah Mountain applying the skills learned during Lower mountaineering. Each student must make all prescribed climbs at Mt. Yonah to continue in the course. During the FTX, Ranger students perform a mission that requires the use of their mountaineering skills. Combat missions are directed against a conventionally equipped threat force in a Mid Intensity Conflict scenario. These missions are conducted both day and night over an eight day field-training-exercise (FTX) and include moving cross country over mountains, conducting vehicle ambushes, raiding communications/mortar sites, and conducting a river crossing or scaling a steep sloped mountain. The Ranger student reaches his objective in several ways: cross-country movement, airborne insertion into small, rugged drop zones, air assaults into even smaller landing zones on the sides of mountains or an 8-10 mile foot march over the Tennessee Valley Divide (TVD). The stamina and commitment of the Ranger student is stressed to the maximum. At any time, he may be selected to lead tired, hungry, physically expended students to accomplish yet another combat mission. At the conclusion of the Mountain Phase, the students move by bus or parachute assault into the Third and final (Florida) Phase of Ranger training, conducted at Camp Rudder, near Eglin AFB, Florida.
The Third Phase of Ranger School is conducted at Camp James E. Rudder (Auxiliary Field #6), Eglin AFB, Florida. 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 jungle/swamp environment. Training further develops the students' ability to plan for and lead small units on independent and coordinated airborne, air assault, 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 jungle/swamp environment.
The Ranger students are updated on the scenario that eventually commits the unit to combat during techniques training. The 9-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 "Cortinian" Army'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.
After this op is completed, those students who have earned the right to graduate spend several days cleaning their weapons and gear in preparation to depart for Ft. Benning. At this time, students have earned P/X (Post Exchange, similar to a convenience store) privileges, and access to the "Gator Lounge", a place where students can, for the first time in several months, use a telephone, grab some nachos and a few beers, and watch television. Additionally during this short period, students are finally alloted 3 square meals a day (which is jokingly reputed to be so that he will not look so frighteningly malnourished when he sees loved ones at graduation). The graduation ceremony is held back where the class begun- at Camp Rogers on Ft. Benning. In an elaborate ceremony held at Victory Pond, students are pinned with the distinctive "Black and Gold" Ranger tab on their left shoulder (usually by a relative, a respected Ranger Instructor, or a member of the student's original unit). "The tab" will now be worn permanently above the soldiers unit patch.
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 blown 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 2 to 3 men - while he may be given charge of up to an entire 50 or 60 man platoon. His success is dependent on the performance 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 like the medic and the RTO (Radio Transmission Operator), are reassigned for each of the three stages of a mission.
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 -- at least in my case it was. 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". The plan our squad carried out was fairly simple and the only meaningful peer eval was at the end of Flordia phase. With no future evals to be concerned about, the gloves came off and a couple of guys were slammed.
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 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 another class, the student lives in the "Gulag" attempting not to draw attention and when that fails, getting stuck on detail.
Students can also be re-cycled 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 re-start" 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 integrity violations (lying, cheating, stealing) will also be given the ability to take a day one restart, however these soldiers are usually permanently removed from course.
Historically, the graduation rate has been around 40%, but this has fluctuated in both directions at certain points. Only around 20% of soldiers make it through all three phases without having to repeat a phase.
While there have been no publicly available, peer-reviewed scientific studies published on the physical effects of the Ranger course on students, it is not uncommon for these individuals to lose 35 - 50 pounds during the course. Common military folk wisdom has it that suffering through Ranger School takes a toll on the body not unlike years of natural aging; high levels of fight-or-flight stress hormones (such as adrenalin, noradrenalin, and cortisol), along with standard sleep deprivation and consistent physical strain, prohibit the students full physical and mental recovery throughout the course. This has a "snowball effect" and takes quite a physical toll on the student, making even the simplest task difficult.
Common maladies during the course include extreme weight loss, dehydration, trench foot, heatstroke, frostbite, chilblain, bone fractures, tissue tears (ligaments, tendons, muscles), swollen hands/feet/knees, nerve damage/general loss of sensitivity in the limbs (which may or may not fully return), cellulitis, cuts requiring stitches, and bites from insects, spiders, and venomous wildlife (including the brown recluse, fire ant, scorpion, and water moccasin).
In addition to the physical ailments and damage suffered by the body, students must also recover from a drastic change in their metabolic status, brought on by the large calorie deficiency experienced during the course.
- ^ First Graduating Class Nov 1950 the official website for Ranger School
- ^ https://www.benning.army.mil/rtb/RANGER/Benning_phase.htm
