Ranger Class 8-16

[Jim]

From CSM Jeff Mellinger. There were no women in the class.

Ranger Class 8-16.

435 wannabe Rangers walked through the door, and only 61 (a mere 17%) of the 192 graduates went straight through and stand here today to get their Ranger Tabs pinned on. The rest (131) were recycled from previous classes and took the long course. Amongst the graduates today are students from Belize, Ireland, Iraq, Poland, Sweden, and a lone Marine.

A special treat was introducing the Colombiam officers present to the man who started their Lancero School - COL(R) Ralph Puckett.

Guest Speaker is CSM(R) John Burns.

[fatboy]

CSM Burns was a good guy to work with as a team then squad leader. He definitely cared and encouraged leadership at the lowest level.

One of the first things he did was send out an alert for every team leader, section leader, squad leader, platoon sergeant, and 1sg to show up for first call at 0930 so that officers and the junior enlisted not in a leadership positions had to take charge. A lot of junior officers had their eyes opened that day as to what NCO's do behind the scenes.

[Jim]

435 wannabe Rangers walked through the door, and only 61 (a mere 17%) of the 192 graduates went straight through and stand here today to get their Ranger Tabs pinned on. The rest (131) were recycled from previous classes and took the long course.

That is a very high attrition rate. But the latest RASP class had a high attrition rate, too.