SITREP- BmanG7

[BmanG7]

This will be my first letter from school so I will start with my pre-ship numbers as well. Before I left to Basic at Fort Jackson in August 2015 my PT score was as follows:
Pushups: 75
Situps: 85
2 Mile Run: 11:36
5 Mile time: 33:21
Basic training at Fort Jackson will be way too easy for anyone serious about the Rangers. PT is designed to make you pass the APFT at the 50% standard. If you don't push yourself in your off time, your scores WILL plummet! You will be around many unmotivated people who don't give a crap about discipline of the Army in general. You must find a solid group of guys who are willing to push themselves with you. Usually Option 40s and Officer candidates are your best bet. Luckily I had WyattH88 from this site in my platoon. Merely talking with other Opt. 40s and doing PT together will be huge in keeping up the drive to complete RASP and become a Ranger.
My final PT Test is as follows:
Pushups: 55
Situps: 78
2 Mile Run: 11:56
When the Rangers on this site tell you to lock your elbows out at the top of a pushup, they mean a complete lock out. 100% fully extended. If you're not already doing so, you need to change it. It's better for your numbers to go down now rather than once you get in to Basic Training and realize you've been doing pushups wrong your entire life.
I graduated BCT on 20151029. I am now in Fort Huachuca, AZ for my 15W training. If you have a support MOS, you will have LOTS of personal time. The best thing to do is, like basic, find other motivated soldiers to do extra PT with. If they are Opt. 40s as well, even better. If you waste all 3-4 personal hours throughout week days without doing an extra PT session you are wrong. Last week we took our first PT Test here.
Pushups-68
Situps-80
2 Mile Run-12:39
Personal 5 mile run time: 37:58
Fort Huachuca has a very high elevation, making it very difficult to breathe due to lack of oxygen. The Sergeants here say that our times will drop again once we get back closer to sea level. We're hoping so. I've been training with 3 other motivated Option 40s here. If you can find soldiers like that, you'll be fine.

[Jim]

Great SITREP! Keep involved with your PT, and never, never quit!

[BmanG7]

Rangers, the graduation date we've been given is April 29. This is assuming we don't continue to gets flights canceled due to weather. Once on flightline you really can't be recycled. The final washout rate for us was roughly 30%, most of it coming from Combat Identification. If you're not a visual learner, you will struggle immensely with that portion. Other than that it's not bad. We had our EOC APFT on Monday and I scored as follows:
73 Pushups
83 Situps
12:35 2 mile run
Only 2 others maxed the run here with the elevation coming in to play, and it is the other 2 serious Option 40s. If you want to do well on the APFT, there is no reason you shouldn't at this point. (5 months in to AIT training) Yet there are still a good amount of soldiers who can not pass their EOC run. Regardless, I am pumped with the idea that I could be in Fort Benning, Georgia for Airborne in under a month.

[Jim]

You will be in BAC and RASP in the Spring. That's a good thing. Never, never quit!

[IntelToad]

Fort Huachuca was awesome when I went there for AIT in 1985.

An added bonus is when you get to Benning, you will feel like you can run forever at sea level. I don't know if it was real, or just psychological, but after running in that high altitude moonscape, I breezed through all of the running at Airborne and RIP.

Good luck.

[BmanG7]

I have officially completed all requirements for graduation and the ceremony will be held tomorrow. Sergeant says he thinks Airborne will leave the following Thursday, giving us about a week to focus only on PT. Physically I am very confident, me and another Opt. 40 have been going to LIT PT (After the duty day, ran by a sergeant) and he has been giving us Opt. 40s different exercises to do. Usually they are real smokers. The only thing I am concerned about right now is Land Navigation. We had so little of it in Basic and none at all here. It is also frusterating that you can have all the drive in the world and still fail the course.
I will continue to post SITREPS throughout Airborne and RASP.

[CharlieRanger1FFV]

Great Sitrep, keep up your PT on your own time. . .it will pay off later.


RLTW!!!

[cams]

Practice as much of your land nav as you can beforehand. If you can't leave the barracks AO then practice map orientation, do it again in pitch black with a Chem-light, then smoke yourself and do it under a poncho, anything to get more comfortable with your compass skills, plot grids, azimuths and back azimuths on your map and take your measurements. Confirm your pace count.

Lots you can do to prep for it and be more confident.

Remember not to rush or try to force your way through the vegetation, it will work against you and slow you down quickly. Take a nice steady pace like you belong in those woods, quietly pushing it all aside as you move quietly and confidently through your course.

Most of all do not cheat or get caught cheating on your points. Just when you think you're alone in the dark and maybe speaking to another student, an instructor will pop up out of nowhere like a ghost. Do not cut corners and don't cheat. Just be prepared.

[BmanG7]

Roger Ranger CharlieRanger1FFV
Our class officially graduated on 29Apr2016. I graduated as Honor Graduate and Iron Soldier.
We were told graduation morning that the five of us who are Airborne had our spots taken, and it would be another week till we left. This morning we were told there are no slots for that week, so the earliest we will be leaving is 19May2016. I ended up not doing PT and not eating at the DFAC that Friday and Saturday as I was spending time with my family. Other than that, me and the two other Option 40s are going to morning PT, gym in the afternoon, and LIT PT after the duty day. I'm not unhappy with this long holdover process because we can purely focus on physically preparing ourselves for RASP. I have also been reading Back in the Fight by Joseph Kapacziewski.
Ranger Cams- I feel very confident doing much of that stuff. We had a 'Land Nav' portion of training where we had to identify terrain features, shoot a lot of azimuths, plot, and get orientated on the map. The big thing is actually putting it in to practice. (The important part) What killed me in the short basic Land Nav course was getting my pace count right when there are obstacles. Is that just something that comes with time or is there a way to prepare for that?
Also, one of our Sergeants said that he wouldn't bother getting our Aviation wings sewn on to our ACUs because we will be deploying quickly and will be issued OCPs. Asking someone who has been in the Regiment, is this a smart idea?

[Jim]

Noticed you have been on the site several times, lately. Anything new and exciting? Never, never quit!

[BmanG7]

Rangers, we now have our orders. We report to BAC 20May2016, begin class on the 23rd, and are slotted to graduate June 10. Other than that, today me and another Opt. 40 took a walk on-APFT. I tried doing all pushups chest to ground, and told the grader to not count them if my chest didn't hit. I got 60 with 2 where my chest didn't hit the ground so they didn't count. Run time was 1216 which was my fastest here at Fort Huachuca. Will continue to update as information comes.

[Jim]

So you should sign into BAC Tomorrow. Let us know when you start ground week. Never, never quit!

[BmanG7]

Rangers, I have finished ground week and we now have this 4 day weekend for Memorial Day. Ground week isn't bad, the PT test on the first day they strongly encourage you to stop after you hit the minimums on push-ups and sit-ups. I only got a 1209 on the run because I started in the very back and couldn't get around everybody to get my own pace going. My first mile was a 637 as the next was a 532. It's WAY easier to run here than Fort Huachuca! In training, we learned how to jump out of the plane, used the 34 foot towers, did PLFs, how to release your canopy, and how to pack it after you land. Nothing difficult yet. There have been a decent amount of people dropped for missing curfew. Last night well after curfew they called everyone down for accountability by surprise. Don't miss curfew, they will find you. It's not worth it.
We came with 7 15 Series option 40s and are down to 5. Had a Ranger liaison come in Wednesday to talk to Option 40s and volunteers and a handful dropped it then too. Will continue to update.

[BmanG7]

Tower week wasn't bad at all. You do a lot of PLFs, you will be an expert by the end of it. You also go over emergency procedures countless times. Sunday I ran my 5 miler and got a 32:57. The decrease in elevation is making a huge difference coming from Fort Huachuca. Monday weather didn't let us jump so yesterday we had our first 2. Unfortunately I injured my knee on it. Not sure at all what happened still. Had a violent, perfect exit, chute did exactly what it was supposed to, I landed and it felt good. I thought to myself, 'This really isn't that bad at all! Landing's easy' unstrapped my harness, got the chute in the bag and went to pick up the sack and my knee cap just felt like it slid. I dropped and tried it a couple more times but I couldn't put any extra weight on the knee other than my body weight. A captain helped me up and called the cadre. It was impossible to argue against going to sick call this morning (automatic recycle) since I couldn't run with the weight. We got back to the shack and I explained it to the jump master, he said I was cleared for another jump if I felt up to it so I got the chute and was rigging up when First Sergeant came over and said I was done for the day.
Today I talked to the doctor who said they don't recommend running for 1-2 weeks minimum, and Sergeant Airborne said that's an automatic Med Drop. It's possible I can recycle airborne if my orders don't get in before my profile expires but Sergeant said to not bank on it. I'm very sorry to all the Rangers on this sight for all the insight and help along my journey.

[Jim]

Tower week wasn't bad at all. You do a lot of PLFs, you will be an expert by the end of it. You also go over emergency procedures countless times. Sunday I ran my 5 miler and got a 32:57. The decrease in elevation is making a huge difference coming from Fort Huachuca. Monday weather didn't let us jump so yesterday we had our first 2. Unfortunately I injured my knee on it. Not sure at all what happened still. Had a violent, perfect exit, chute did exactly what it was supposed to, I landed and it felt good. I thought to myself, 'This really isn't that bad at all! Landing's easy' unstrapped my harness, got the chute in the bag and went to pick up the sack and my knee cap just felt like it slid. I dropped and tried it a couple more times but I couldn't put any extra weight on the knee other than my body weight. A captain helped me up and called the cadre. It was impossible to argue against going to sick call this morning (automatic recycle) since I couldn't run with the weight. We got back to the shack and I explained it to the jump master, he said I was cleared for another jump if I felt up to it so I got the chute and was rigging up when First Sergeant came over and said I was done for the day.
Today I talked to the doctor who said they don't recommend running for 1-2 weeks minimum, and Sergeant Airborne said that's an automatic Med Drop. It's possible I can recycle airborne if my orders don't get in before my profile expires but Sergeant said to not bank on it. I'm very sorry to all the Rangers on this sight for all the insight and help along my journey.

Please stay in touch with us. ArmyRanger.com is a great site where you can maintain your interest in what we do. Never, never quit!