Fall Out and Fall In Around Me…

Fall Out and Fall In Around Me…

I went off on a small tangent last night that was fueled by watering eyes and maybe four or five beers. I thought about it today while at work and remembered what it was like to be in YOUR shoes, because I was once there. I am a product of practically the same generation.

I think. I just turned 25, I left 3rd Ranger Battalion approximately nine months ago. I have had enough time on my hands to get on here and look back.. but I certainly don’t have enough time to mentor one of you young bucks, although I wish I did.

Now, when I said I remember what it was like to be in your shoes, I do. I was not one of these HARDENED AMERICAN HEROES on this board from days of old, (and I say that with the most respect a man can hold in his heart, period.) I was YOU. I stumbled across this website. I asked questions that had already been asked, and got pretty much shaven down to a toothpick for it. Ranger Spartan, may god rest his soul, practically gave me a sucking chest wound, numerous times, some I thought warranted, some just because thats the way he addressed us! The only thing that separates you from me (as in from the beginning… haha I got my shit) is that ArmyRanger.com did not have this FREE and SELFLESS mentor program that you all are so blessed to have today. They answered questions, they bitched us out, they told us.. REPORT BACK EVEN THOUGH NOONE DOES!!! I actually did!! buut it was few and far between.. and the reason for that is something I will explain shortly.

I perused the stickies on this board about the mentorship program, and my friends… if you do not take FULL advantage of this YOU ARE SELLING YOURSELF SHORT!! I can remember the natural high I had just by reading these guys stories and the envy I felt because I WASNT THERE… I DIDNT HAVE THOSE STORIES!! I also remember the absolute fear I had when I was signed up.. in the DEP program.. and had that shadow of doubt that something was going to go wrong.. something was going to happen.. I might not make it.. I am not one of these natural athletes! I had the same feelings that I am sure at least a few of you share!

So, without further a do.. I am going to post a few replies to this about MY experiences that I know if were told to me I would have probably printed out and prayed to at night.

I was in your shoes

My interest in the military came around the 11th grade. My father is a retired Colonel with a distinguished service record, not a Ranger, not in special operations, but an unarguably honorable career. From the day I took interest in the military I honestly had no intentions in following his footsteps. I wanted to be a Navy Seal!! I wanted to be a good looking all american badass! Just like the movies! He had about as much enthusiasm for that as an anorexic for a hot dog..

I think my interests really changed after I read BlackHawk Down. I became obsessed with anything and everything RANGER.

I followed the rest of my miserable peers to college, a place that at the time I wanted like I wanted a nice set of genital herpes. I did a year and was miserable. The only classes I enjoyed and went to were all things ROTC. That did not fill the void of where I wanted to be at all.. Afghanistan was well underway, and I watched the invasion on television with raging jealousy. Shortly thereafter I walked into the recruiters office as a godsend to these miserable guys.

I had done my research on this site and walked in saying I want to be an 11B with an option 40 contract!… I said it like this… I want to be a one one B with the option for a 40 on my contract..I was a dumbass too…
I wanted to go AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!.. I mean I was hoping to be in basic training by that next monday. Needless to say they had me reporting to MEPS like a month later.

MEPS was actually a lot of fun for me. I hung out with some guys at the hotel. We watched 8 mile in the MWR room.. and I went to bed early. The next day was like a scene from that horrible movie Pearl Harbor (Michael Bay version.) I got shots, walked around like a duck in my boxers (little did I know that the day I showed up to RIP hold would be my last days ever wearing boxer shorts.) I passed my medical screening and sat in a row of chairs for about 8 hours. I was the last one called because my recruiter knew that I was “in the know” and wouldn’t accept anything less than that option 40. Finally, I was called in and they had my contract ready for me. 4 years, 5,000 dollar bonus, OSUT with Airborne and Option 40. I didnt care about any bonuses whatsoever, all I wanted was that option 40. THIS IS NOT ADVISABLE TO YOU ALL. DEMAND THE HIGHEST BONUS POSSIBLE! This was chump change compared to the amounts that my peers in RIP had obtained.. 25.. 30,000 dollar bonuses.. thats a lot of pennies folks. I was just pissed I had to wait for 6 months before shipping.. That was 6 months filled with PT and research on how to accomplish this goal. Again I had the same fears, the same doubts, and the same athletic ability as I am sure many of you have.. Keep doing PT but also enjoy your time you have remaining as a civilian. Don’t do anything stupid this early in the game! Alienate those parasites in your life, YOU ALL HAVE THEM. These are people who try to bring you down every chance they get. Don’t listen to them… be someone new.. instead of going to that keg party on saturday.. stay in.. spend some time with your folks.. go do a crossfit workout.. GO RUN.. Read.. study.. go hiking.. rock climbing.. join a local MMA club.. join a gym.. get familiar with a map and a compass.. BETTER YOURSELF!

Did I do that.. YES and NO.. I like woman just as much if not more than you guys.. I went out and partied and chased girls.. nothing wrong with that.. just do it smartly.

A jump forward…

I am not going to give you an extremely detailed version of my OSUT experience, at least I will try not to because I tend to get in depth in a lot of things I do. All I can say is no matter how mentally prepared you might think you are the army will come at you like a fucking shotgun blast. You will get on a bus going to 30th AG nervous as a son of a bitch… and thats where things get interesting. I recall reading a guy’s 30th AG experience and he had nailed it on the head with one sentence. This I will get to in a second.

You will be expecting to meet a bunch of guys who are there to be a warfighter, someone who like you has done the research and is mentally ready to give this shit a shot. If you are lucky you will run into maybe one of these cats. The rest of them will mentally bring you down to square one. The quote I was refering to earlier.. the guy said, “…instead 30th AG was more like the infield at a NASCAR race.” (NAIL ON THE HEAD)

There are going to be fat slobs, short pudgy kids, tall kids with facial deficiencies that you never even imagined was in existence.

You are going to sign paperwork for hours and you are going to quickly realize that you are now legally in the system and you cant just up and quit this fucking job. You will see these kids try too. YOU ARE BETTER THAN THEM. I am a guy who can make friends with people very easily, this is a good trait but it is also a character flaw.. because now is not the time to start lifelong relationships. Stand in line at parade rest and dream about donning your tan beret. Because Gentlemen, THE JUICE IS WORTH THE SQUEEZE. Say it.. over and over again…

AGAIN, avoid parasites! they can bring a good man down in a matter of seconds! You are here to be a WARFIGHTER! SAY IT! WARFIGHTER!
There aint shit about WAR or FIGHTING in 30th AG. When I sat in my bunk the first night I looked up and saw carvings of idiots who had gone before me.. I distinctly remember one.. it said.. I have been here for 3 days and I already appreciate the smaller things in life.. then there was an arrow pointing to this quote.. and it said.. FUCK! I have been here for 30 minutes and I already know what this guy is talking about! THAT MY FRIENDS IS 30th AG! I was seriously depressed at 30th AG until one thing happened.. it was 0′ black 30 in the morning and I heard cadence from wayyy off in the distance.. I remember hearing Aiiiirrrboorrrnnnneeeeee RanggeeeeeEEERRrr!! (and the cadence goes on…) I had goosebumps ALL over my body. That little bit brought me from fucking ZERO to HERO. Im not even going to get into hearing the sound of automatic gunfire in the distance, explosions, and the sweet WHOOPING of Helicopters.. To this day I love the sound of distant battle while CONUS.

NOW!… You will at some point make your way down the road to your respective home for the next however many weeks it is now.. That day will be a new type of shock! A bit more painful, but a lot more rewarding because it broke that slump you were in while at 30th. Now you are going..going..going.. Get ready guys.. its coming..

I dont have any secrets to basic training. You will hate life at times and you will be happy at some times. Facts of life. Do extra PT. We did. This is where to make your friends. BUT CHOOSE WISELY!.. Youll find out who all has Ranger Contracts, and of them who is a stud and who is a waste of paper. Hang around the STUDS. KEEP IT PUSHING! Surround yourself with people who are BETTER THAN YOU!

My best friend in basic training was indescribably bred for this line of work. He was a PT Stud, He knew his role, He was MOTIVATED, He had a wealth of knowledge that cannot be bought or sold. Let me explain with one example. He was in a club in highschool that basically taught you what every tree was.. WHAT EVERY FUCKING TREE WAS! I am from Alexandria Virginia the biggest suburb in the universe.. I knew what a PINE tree looked like.. that was it… He could tell you everything about the woods, the trees, bushes, their offsprings.. all kinds of shit. Thats like being in the woods and it being as recognizable as your neighborhood block. He went to Ranger School after being in Ranger Battalion for only 3 months. He was a THE senior Squad leader in his platoon before he could even get his E-6. He works for the big dogs now.

Quitters are a bacteria that will eat away at everything they see. It is hard to avoid them, but you should at all costs.

Enjoy Basic training and PAY ATTENTION. All of that stuff that you are too tired to really want to pay attention to.. the stuff youd rather just daydream about going home and the stuff your going to do when your done.. than listen to.. Guys, its going to come back to you. Listen and practice how to properly emplace…..EVERYTHING.. when you are given the opprotunity to train on it.. do it .. over and over and over again. It will come back to you. Just TRUST ME ON IT.
I am not a perfect person, I am not a perfect Ranger, far from it. I learn lessons generally the hard way.. fuck that.. the HARDEST WAY. I have overcome my mistakes, which I have made many, and gentlemen I will attest that it is much better to learn from other peoples mistakes than from your own. Dont take that to think I was some bumbling idiot.. I was and am a damn good Ranger. I never had a problem with my peers or any of my bosses.. but I made mistakes like everyone has.

WAR-FIGHTER

..in every sense. No matter what shoes your wear, no matter how long your hair is, no matter whether you have a beard or not… you are there to take the fight to the enemy every way possible. You have to want to do THIS. If you are here in search of “bettering your name” or to impress ANYONE.. then you are looking in the wrong direction..

Now I am going to take my Ranting to a different light. My experinces that I have just laid out pretty much encompass the rest of your training path. I will give no insight on how to succesfully make it through Airborne School, RIP, or Ranger School because I just did. Plus, thats not your 50 meter target right now.

Keep your mouth shut, Make the right friends, Find motivation in all the small things, Keep it pushing, DONT QUIT, Dont Self Assess and do the right thing when no one is looking.

My next Post will be in the form of the things I remember from RIP HOLD, RIP, Ranger School, and Most of all.. MY RANGER REGIMENT!!!

WAR-FIGHTER!!

The justice is worth the squeeze…

Now, it has been asked for you all to sound off if you have read this post, which is a tremendous honor coming from Ranger ., truly, you all do not know who you are REALLY speaking to when he and many of these PATRIOTS respond and give you all guidance. Really, you don’t. Personally, I don’t need the thank you’s, but I did like to hear that I am not just rambling and that I may have said something, even just a sentence, that hit home with you guys and you will carry it with you, as many of the things I have read here have done for me.

Before I joined I lurked on many different websites to find out as much as I could about what it was I was hopefully in store for. I did come across a thread called “I miss it….” (I think it was on the SOCNET forums) I am not going to search for it, but if it is still up I recommend you checking it out.

Last night when attempting to put my thoughts into words about one of our Fallen Rangers I realized that I practically posted something similar to the posts in this thread. I will post what I put last night, and I will follow on. I also ask if other Rangers could post in what I am calling, The Juice is worth the squeeze, no opsec, nothing too personal that these guys wouldnt understand, just “the small things” that you remember, that would really help these guys out.. Thanks.

I never could have imagined the day I registered on this website (under a totally different name that I don’t remember) that I would have faced the things I did since. I registered, asked questions that had been asked years in advance, was put in my place, and drove on. I was given the right guidance on exactly how to obtain my contract. I signed the dotted line and saluted the flag. Now everything since then has been flashes of the best and worst times of my life. I met the best friends you could ever imagine, each with the same flaws as anyone you would meet in every walk of life. I have had THE HIGHEST TIMES and the lowest times I could have imagined. I have experienced the feeling of running as fast as the fucking wind blows past formation after formation of airborne school students and hearing the whispers and seeing the looks. I know the feeling of wearing a fucking black sweat suit that made others dizzy with envy, and still does. I can remember shaving and soaking my tan beret in the sinks at RIP next to my fucking best friends. I remember drawing my CIF issue and they issued me another tan beret and the poor kid next to me from 3rd ID pointed at it and practically yelled, “Thats the shit right there.”
I remember all of my deployments of which are to priceless to speak. I remember hating getting my class A’s prepared, but loving every minute I spent while in them. I remember the Beer, I remember the bullets, I remember the breaches, I even fucking remember the beaches, but I will never forget our lost boys.Rest in peace Ranger Tom Tom for I wish I had at least had a beer with you and every other Ranger that has passed on.It has been a hard five years when it comes to losing friends. Rudd just joined the crew up there… save my seat gentlemen. I miss you.*and fk off about the sappy ending you heathen bastards..

It will come when you never expect it. Never be complacent. I never expected that standing on the basketball court during RIP that I would be standing to the left, right, front, and rear of purple heart recipients, best friends, Delta Operators, Ranger Instructors, FUCKING FUTURE RIP CADRE, fuck that…. people that were going to hold the title of Sergeant!.. because at that time, to me, a Corporal was like a Sergeant Major! I remember being a Ranger private and thinking.. holy shit.. I guess some day I really will be a team leader! Thats fucking nuts!
Guys, the day after my 21st birthday I was in Afghanistan, and you know what? There was no place I’d rather be.. except for maybe at like Applebees drinking a beer with my meal.. because that was an obsession of mine until I turned 21. I still have a hard time going out to eat and ordering a water.. but thats besides the point.

I remember the first day I showed to up to my squad. Now remember, everything I knew of from Ranger Battalion was from these old Heroes who were in Battalion in the fucking 70’s 80’s and 90’s.. Dude..I was prepared to be almost be killed… maybe dead for a brief moment.. but at least resesitated.. so the first day Wasn’t as National Geographic as I thought.. but oh my friend was it still painful.. You cant do anything right no matter how hard you try. I remember thinking that it was like Peters Pans gang from the movie hook.. where ROOF-I-O was like skate boarding everywhere… because literally some dude skate boarded right by me… Everyone was yelling.. and I looked up and there was a dude hanging from the ceiling in a multi-purpose net.. ahhhhh Im kidding… kind of..
ANYWAY.
This is the first of what I hope to be many posts.. Im tired and my creative writing is fading fast. Thank you guys for your future Service.

Rangers Lead The Way!!

I got one more in me…

This is more of a rant than any of the “Juice is worth the squeeze” business..

My recent self analysis has been that I have really had a lot of lessons learned since my time in Battalion. I am not going to discuss the reasons on why I am on another career path in the military now, but I will say that I have learned so much by stepping away from the battlefield. I can look at old pictures of my time in Battalion and see my progression. I looked at pictures of my kit on deployments as a private and at pictures of my kit as a team leader. Talk about zero to hero. In battalion I learned the love of war-fighting. Gentlemen, there is less than a handful of places in this mans army where you will have the utter satisfaction of being the ultimate tip of the spear. Ranger Battalion is if not number one, no where near lower than number 2. You will have the opportunity to be up close and ever more than personal with the radical enemies of this country. Do not take a moment for granted in this precious preparation time you have been given. When I was a team leader and I would teach my guys the ropes of being a war-fighter, I cut out all the bullshit, I stopped being the disciplinarian, I stopped being the guy you should ultimately fear, especially for the ones who never took the journey. I was a teacher, and I specifically explained.. this is where VIOLENCE OF ACTION begins! Think about those words. You are about to embark on a journey to be something you’ve never been before, I don’t care what your background is. You are about to hear the glorious sound of an earth shattering explosion, filled with glass and shards of mud brick exploding inches from your face, and you are about to charge towards that explosion with 90+ pounds of foreign diplomacy on your shoulders in order to bring our countries victims to absolute justice! Guys, there is not a better feeling in the world. I want you to mentally prepare to bring your soul to extreme measures of violent intentions that would make your mother drop to her knees, but at the same time have the professionalism and knowledge of self to INSTANTLY be able to bring yourself back to the most calm and collective individual this country has produced. NOW is the time to start practicing this type of mentality. By this I mean making the right decisions at the right time. Be the better man, walk away from petty shit, HUMBLE YOURSELF IMMEDIATELY! High school drama is nothing worth what you have in store for you. I want you to practice this mentality by ultimately silencing yourself to others about your future career plans. TRY IT. Be honest with yourself, how many of you are walking around telling your friends about the Airborne Ranger you are going to be? Make a self assessment. Now act upon it. Practice being a quiet professional. Because my friends this will be expected of you… and the violation of that.. can be dire. You are here to seek wisdom from those who have come before you. Doing the right thing is contagious. Not as contagious as doing the wrong thing, though, unfortunately. Be the BIGGER man in every situation. I want you guys to sit down with a pen and paper and write out some things. Im not just talking about your ultimate goal of being an Airborne Ranger.. I want you to take every aspect of your life and categorize it. The shit thats important. Start practicing a new lifestyle, one that YOU would want to be remembered by for example. Lets just say you categorize the important things in your life by the following.. just an example..

GOD
FAMILY
COUNTRY
PHYSICAL FITNESS
KNOWLEDGE
PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS

So in my example I have these listed. Now I want you to think on ways you can improve on these things daily. Religion is a personal preference which I believe makes this country great, I met an native afghan interpreter who deeply explained that he had no idea why any afghan would be upset at the American presence in Afghanistan, simply because we let them practice their religion. Apparently the Russians did not do this and forbid them to pray. I was just using it as an example.. if your an athiest.. then just dont even bring it up.

Now think of ways you can incrementally improve on these things DAILY. Im not talking about becoming a new person the next day.. but each day make any improvements you can. Look at each category and think what could I do BETTER. This is a never ending process guys, especially in this profession. You are either improving or you are falling by the way side. I am not a genetic gift from god at all things physical. Yes I am somewhat of a natural athlete, lifting heavy weight comes easier to me than running in any shape or form. It took me a lot of time and a lot of hardship to realize the easiest solution to my problem… GET OUT AND RUN.

Now analyze that with what I have just told you. Yeah I can read a thread and be inspired, I can go out and just start running until my legs fall off! But where did that get me in the long run? Nowhere.

You are about to enter a lifestyle where you are expected to act MORE professional than a CEO of a Multi Billion Dollar corporation one minute, and the next minute you are to execute professional, meticulous, pre-meditated murder.

Are you ready for this?

(note: I started editing this for grammatical errors, and then started going off about physical fitness. So I copied it and am making a new post.)

Physical Fitness

I will start this off by a quote from Mark Twight,

What you know does not matter – what you do matters. Physical training produces physical memories – not simply muscle memory but a psychophysical imprint, knowledge that is instinctual rather than intellectual. This is useful knowledge. Automatic (instinctive) action and reaction is always faster and more energy efficient than intellectually induced action or reaction. There’s already plenty to think about in confrontational situations so any response that does not require conscious thought spares intellectual energy for decisions and actions that do demand it. Train yourself to the point that particular, common actions and responses may be executed automatically.

For the BTDT’s, doesn’t that sound like a more in depth account of the definition of a battle drill?

Anyway. I will stem from my last post and bring it back to the idea of making that ultimate list. I will of course take PT and run with it. This is the type of thought process and this is how in depth I would like you to go with these subjects of self analysis and self improvement.

I was finishing with this before I realized I was writing too much in one space, so i will pick up with what I had previously written.

I am not a genetic gift from god at all things physical. Yes I am somewhat of a natural athlete, lifting heavy weight comes easier to me than running in any shape or form. It took me a lot of time and a lot of hardship to realize the easiest solution to my problem… GET OUT AND RUN.

Now analyze that with what I have just told you. Yeah I can read a thread and be inspired, I can go out and just start running until my legs fall off! But where did that get me in the long run? Nowhere. Consistent incremental improvements are what are going to bring you from a bad runner – to one that can hold his own – to a good runner – to a badass runner. This works vice versa guys.

Personally I have a pretty strict PT regimen. I do believe in unconventional workouts that have been making huge waves in the fitness community. You can reference these through pages like Crossfit and Gym Jones. If you want to tap into your inner weakling and start showing him the business end of your new goals, then these are the type of workouts you guys should be tapping into. Attack your weaknesses HEAD ON. Be smart about your workouts. Buy a weekly planner and PLAN. Don’t just wing it. Have a plan and stick to it, tweak things, make adjustments. Regiment is not looking for marathon runners or bodybuilders, they are looking for WAR-FIGHTERS. You have to want to be as fast as possible and as strong as possible with endurance, agility, and stamina. You want to be quick on your feet and strong with your fists.

You have no business going to the gym and doing curls for the girls, crunches on a padded matt, and 20 minutes on the elliptical machine.

Step up to the plate. Get OUT of your comfort zone. Do it harder and faster than the next guy. Go to a military surplus store, buy a PRO MASK. Try working out with one of these. This will HURT, but it will put your body in a position where it is starting to get used to using less oxygen to fuel your performance. So when you are training without that promask, you are getting twice the oxygen you are used to.. thus it feeling and being easier to work towards max capacity. if you cant get to a military surplus store, buy a snorkel with a mask that covers your nose. Go on a run. youll get wierd looks, but the hell with them you are on your way.
Now, I am on my way to go running in this bitter cold. Cheers guys. I have been thinking of my next post and I am definitely excited about putting this one into words.

Have a good day, and dont let it just be.. another day..

Try it.

The Mental Game…

First I would like to thank you all for the acknowledgments. Humbly, I thank you all for your words and responses. I am calling this one the mental game. Because your intestinal fortitude is something that cannot be taught or given to you through words on a website, but I would like to bring light on what you might be facing in the future.

As I said before you are about to enter a job that you cannot just up and quit. You are LEGALLY obligated to serve in some way shape or form the amount of time that you agreed to. This may seem like chocolate chips to you right now, but it will sink in at one point or the other.

This will not be an issue when you are learning the basic fundamentals of marksmanship. It will not come when you are throwing grenades or emplacing claymores. It wont even be a factor during strenuous exercise. This will come at you at the very beginning of your stay. When everything is slow, boring, and you are around a group of approximately…ehh 80 to 85% quitters, and I don’t mean guys who are going to quit the army. These guys will follow you throughout your training path and they will slowly but surely keep falling to the wayside. The beauty is.. when all is said and done.. YOU WILL BE DONNING YOUR TAN BERET. (hopefully) and you will look around and realize that there is probably 2 guys around who you may have had the fortune of running into that early in the game.

Guys, this is about the least of your worries when it comes to your future hurdles, it probably wasn’t even worth mentioning. The real blood and guts of this comes later on. When the real suck starts! I want you to imagine the sleepiest you’ve ever been, the absolute most tired you have ever been, mixed in with being extremely hungry and almost positively sick. Now, when I say sick..I mean sick. Think about it.. when your body is subject to all of these stress-ors, your immune system is to hell and back. My Ranger buddy had the worst case of uncontrollable diarrhea when we were in Florida. So much that our RI’s made him rear security during movements in the swamp so that the entire movement he would be walking waist deep in muck with his pants at half mast giving the swamp a little something back the entire way… and that shit was HILARIOUS! He didn’t even fathom quitting!

Heres another example, and this one is absolute suck…really. One of my good friends in my platoon was on his way to Ranger School. He was faced with a bit of difficulty on the way because english was his second language and he wasn’t exactly proficient in it. He could carry a conversation, but he was no master. After Pre-Ranger his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. I do not remember the exact circumstances, but none the less he continued and went to Ranger School. While he was in Ranger School he recycled each phase once, and Florida Twice. Gentlemen, when you recycle Florida Twice, you are sent back to DAY 1. He went Back to DAY 1. During his second tour in Ranger School his wife’s cancer spread throughout her upper-body into her lungs. He finally graduated. Once he graduated every company donated money to him. We cumulatively moved all of his household goods into a storage facility. Our command then awarded him a year away from work in order to attend “college”. His wife survived and he got to spend a lot of time with her during every phase of her recovery. Talk about the juice being worth the fucking squeeze. I do not know of many units in the Army who would be willing to go to these lengths for their lower enlisted. Trust me. For that matter, any men who would be willing to go through Ranger School while his wife was being treated for cancer. We did many other things for him, but you should get the picture right now.

There might come a time when you will think, this is not what I thought it was going to be. Some push past that feeling and succeed, some decide this is not for them, and some listen to the ones who have decided it is not for them, because the ones who have made that decision have to give every excuse on why they thought that “this wasn’t for me”.

Let me tell you about the “this isn’t for me attitude”.. YOU FUCKING QUIT!!
I have literally heard quitters try and make me think that these guys were better than what we were going through!!…BETTER!!??

Next time you guys think about quitting…I want you to think about those who have gone before you with much worse hardships. Now revert to my last post and go better yourselves physically.

RANGERS LEAD THE WAY!

Thank you…

Hello everyone,
I want to start by thanking everyone for their words and taking the time out to read my old rantings. I also want to apologize for being away for so long. I had been asked to come back and write more, but simply did not. For that I apologize. I just re-read everything I wrote and am looking at it from an outside view thinking that this guy needs to step down from his fucking soapbox.. Truth is I HAVE been busy as fuck as I am still active duty, but will not sit here and say that I have been too busy to get on and write something back. I have also had some serious writers block on what else I think could help. I do feel that I must reiterate that I am in no way shape or form the tallest Ranger in the room..I simply just had a lot to say.. a lot on my mind.. and honestly.. was telling myself a lot of this shit.

When writing this I was going through the q-course…which is an interesting time for most guys coming from Ranger Battalion. It’s not the same beast that Regiment is. The men are honestly not the same (not in a bad way.. or a good way..just not the same) and I was going through a serious adjustment period (still am admittingly)…but in this time I honestly learned a lot about not just myself, but the Army, War-Fighting, and humbleness. Im still suffering from writers block but one thing I thought of came to mind… This is how you will succeed not only on your future endeavors..but throughout the military.

Be the best soldier you can be. Period. Do what you think is right. What many people calls tricks or “morale gray areas” are wrong, and use that as a crutch to try and get by on normal shit your supposed to do in the military.
A hint to all of you little “operators” out there.. The “real” cool guys got where they were by EXCEEDING the standard, not by trying to slide by it. If you make the finer points of being a soldier -your hobbies, then I honestly think you become more than the traditional “Subject matter expert”.

Honestly, with some google-fu and desire.. you can fucking ACE RASP! Especially if you are a DEP. Check it out. Here is the answer to all of your questions:

Become Bad-ass at the following:
RUNNING
RUCKING
SHOOTING
RANGER HISTORY
and COMBATIVES

So That means ENGULF yourself in those things. Join an MMA Club, Buy a Carbine and a pistol, and go to a shooting course or learn from the many DVDs out..shit here…www.vikingtactics.com – your welcome.. Run to your MMA Class.. Run Home.. Ruck once a week to get your feet good, build on the weight.. don’t just throw 100lbs on and go kill yourself. Study Ranger History..make it fun for yourself.. and workout regularly.. Make schedules..eat right.. and have a good moral compass…and honestly.. fuck.. you’ll be not only ready to go.. you’d be an awesome guy… haha at least in my book.

I’ll think of some better shit to write, but I wanted to pop in.. sorry its been awhile guys.

These posts were written by Ranger Chuck3/75 starting November 18, 2008 as part of the Ranger Mentoring Program/Project.