Ranger School for Inf. Officers

[Rouge Spear]

Is Ranger School a requirement for infantry 2LT's that plan on going to Light Inf units after IOBC? And what if that 2LT is qualified in Airborne or Air Assault from his ROTC days? Does he still have to go to Ranger School?

Second question:

Even though I'm and avid student of Army Spec Op forces and I hope to be an Inf LT when I recive my commission from ROTC, I am still fuzzy on the exact mission profile of the Rangers. I know they are expert light infantry and are being trained more and more in MOUT and CQB, but what "special" missions can rangers accomplish other than th airborne raids and airfield take downs?

[Ted]

Just about any high-risk, high-priority raid. There are lots of little facets to the Direct Action mission imperative that the 75th is tasked with.
It's not SF, the Rangers don't do Foreign Internal Defense, Strategic Recon, Unconventional Warfare (which basically is any dirty trick that you can think of to f**k up the enemy), or others. They do Counter-terrorism and Hostage Rescue/Personnel Snatch only as a supporting force (i.e. they act as a big hammer) for others.

[JOE-BOO]

Ranger school is not "required" as an IN Officer....it is highly encouraged that you go....light or mech...which these days is getting blurred some...your qualificatons from ROTC you keep like Airborne and air assault but they d not exempt you from Ranger, since they are nothing alike...Ranger is to make you a better IN Officer...airborne and air assault are for qualification....if you are not Ranger qualified as an IN Officer life can get a little difficult if your CO is animate about it

Continue to march
11ZULU out

[Snake]

I'll just reinforce what the Lt was saying.
For newbies (E-1 thru E-6, and 0-1/2's), the Tab is not a big thing. However, if you expect to have a career, it's becoming more of a requirement. Some CO's are real qualification-mongers. My Batt. CO in the Airborne was adamant that his Junior Officers be AirAssault qual'ed. Why? Air Assaults arent on our mission-task list. And having just the Leaders qual'ed makes no sense. But there you go. If you have an opportunity to go for the Tab, take it. If you dont, dont worry about it. When you start to need it as a career-mandated-thingy, you'll have the opportunity to aquire it.

Snake
25th ID(L)
Non-tabbed(Just Airborne)

[JSOCMarine]

Please forgive me for spewing on an Army issue, but I may be able to lend some perspective. I attended IOAC at Benning as an exchange student. It was a great course, hopefully it still is.

During the course, the guys from DA who make the Infantry assignments came to speak to the Army captains in the class. I figured, what the hell, stay and listen to the brief.

A key part of the brief to the Captains in attendance was that they could attend Ranger school after IOAC if they were lacking the tab. Someone asked if the tab was all that important at that stage of a captain's career. The room fell silent.

The guy from DA stated that if you did not have a Ranger tab you would almost certainly NOT command as a captain in the 82nd, 101st, and Light Division,etc. Of course, at that time in the Army system, no command as a captain-no promotion to Major.

A few guys bristled at this statement and challenged the guy from DA on whether or not it was an official policy. He stated that it was not written down anywhere, but was in fact what was being enforced out in the field. He had promotion and failure to selection stats to back up what he was saying.

I asked my Army buddies what the reluctance was on the part of the non-quals to go to the school. They explained that many of the guys without the tab had probably avoided the school purposely as Lt's. They also said many without it were probably good guys who were injured at the course as Lt's one or more times and had yet to complete it.

One of my class buddies was a former enlisted instructor at Ranger school, as well as a Ranger Batt platoon leader. He said that the washout rate at Ranger school for post-IOAC captains was very, very high. I asked him why and he said many guys were out of shape, many got hurt again, and some just were not willing to be a snuffy again for the duration of the course and had grown lazy. Others in my class related stories of their time in Ranger school when they had observed captains get screwed with and ultimately dropped late in the course.

Now, this was a good while ago. Things may have changed. But one thing has not. The human body changes and ages every year. You young guys will not believe this, but your body will not respond to injury the same at age 29 as it will at age 21. Get to be 35 and when you hump heavy loads with the young guys you'll notice more aches and pains than ever before.

This is what the other old-timers are trying to say about the lifestyle not being for everyone. Not every body can take the punishment of heavy loads, night jumps with full equipment on UNPLOWED DZ'z that are harder than asphalt,etc (unlike the candy-assed jump school DZ's at Benning). I used to marvel at the old farts who were the genetic wonders who never seemed to get hurt,etc. For me it was 4 knee operations, lower back problems from jumping, arthritis from sleeping on cold ground, eardrum ruptured from a mortar round landing next to me, you get the picture. It's hell getting old!

My advice to 11 ZULU and anyone else in his predicament is to heal up completely before you start the course, BUT START IT AS SOON AS YOU CAN WITH THE YOUNGEST BODY POSSIBLE! You are getting some good advice in this string, do not ignore it. There is life without a Ranger tab. But, it is a significant discriminator for an Army Infantry officer, that's just the way it is.

Every service has some unwritten stuff like this. Let a Marine Infantry officer NOT get a 1st Class PFT score, or otherwise fail physically and I assure you that he will be famous (the BAD kind of famous). Let a Marine officer fail an Army school (Ranger,etc.) and his career is over, and as we looked at it, rightfully so.

Go to the NTC 11 Zulu, heal up while you are learning more about what a 2ndLt really does while leading a platoon. You will be able to learn a great deal from your peers and enlisted men that will enable you to kick ass at Ranger school once a slot opens up and they send you.

Last piece of advice, go see a Physical Therapist. The Army has some great ones. They can test you for muscular imbalance or other insidious things that can doom you to lower body injuries unless corrected with specific weight training. If I had talked with them early in my career instead of being such a hardheaded tough-guy, I could have done everything required of a grunt/Recon Marine and still be able to walk without a limp after age 40.

I wish you a lot of luck. Use your head son, you only get one body. Take care of it. Semper Fi!

[Snake]

I dont know about that unit-restriction thing. About 50% of the 0-3's in the 82nd's manuever batts didnt have the Tab. Now, once you get past the 0-3 mark, I would say you -would- need it. In the 25th ID(L),
-all- of our Battalion Commanders are Tabbed. Once you hit 0-3, the rules start changing. Same with the Enlisted ranks after E-5. If I wanted to advance as an Enlisted Infantryman, I'd most likely -have- to go get Tabbed. Question, how hard is it to get a Hooah school slot after IOBC?

Snake
25th ID(L)

[Whammer]

Per Snake's question,

Isn't a Ranger school slot a forgone conclusion after IOBC for 11As? (obviously if you want it?)

di

[wolfhound227]

When a gi-joe enlisted guy like me sees that tab it answers alot of questions about the officer wearing it.You know you can count on him and in the thick you can usualy trust his judgement.All of our O's were tabbed and
they seemed to thrive on compeating with the
19yr olds on the morning runs and on a long field problem when I was starting to drag
Col.Rock would suanter up along side and tell
a corny joke and for the next two miles I'd be snickering.
I dont know what they do at ranger school,but it works.

[Mac679]

Hey Rogue,
whereabouts in Newport News? what High School?

email me if you like

Mac
Denbigh High Class of '97