RS Class 5-88
Please accept this admittedly lengthy post as my introduction. I served on Active Duty as an infantryman from September 1982 until September 1992. My initial assignment was in the Joint Security Force Company - Panmunjom, ROK.
In those days the normal process for Infantry LT's that had served in Korea was to rotate back into a TRADOC assignment. I drew Fort Knox. Hell on earth for an Infantry LT. The one bright spot was the chance to serve as an adjutant for LTC (later BG) Ray Brownlee, a Ranger that was a super leader and the source of much wisdom that I've tapped into in the years since.
I eventually was able to be asssigned to the 101st Abn. I requested assignment to whichever Bn was headed to the MFO next. I had the good fortune to be assigned to the 1-187th (Rakkasans).
I left Active Duty in 1992 (2 days after my 10th anniversary in the service). The years since have been a blur - marriage, 3 boys, getting a career as a IT guy and then as an IT manager off the ground.
Over the last 14 years I've tapped into the Ranger "lessons" more times than I can count. The reality is that even when you are not wearing green clothes and taking long walks in the woods, adherance to the essential Ranger lessons - Integrity, Flexibility, Loyalty, Teamwork, and a refusal to surrender (although in the civilian world this is manifested as a refusal to take the easy way out or a refusal to stop pushing forward to complete a project even when all avenues to progress appear to be blocked) - are still key to success. I believe that I owe much of the success that I have been fortunate enough to achive to a willingness to keep these lessons at the heart of all that I do.
Additional Items of Possible Interest:
My original RS class was 10-82. This was a composite class of active duty folks and ROTC cadets. In those days there was 1 class every summer that had about 50 ROTC cadets. Although the class was a composite, the school was, in every respect, full-fledged RS. Competition for one of the 50 slots was, as you can imagine, fierce. The deal was that you went to Ranger School in lieu of the ROTC Advanced Camp (the Advanced Camp was a very easy ride that was intended to give Cadets, many of whom had attended less than steller ROTC programs some sort of exposure to the military. BRM, D&C, minor leadership training, etc. Advanced Camp (or it's equiv. was prerequisite to a commission). If you completed the first 19 days of RS you were given "constructive credit" for Advanced Camp.
I had medicalled out of Advanced Camp the previous summer (the normal timeline was to go to AC between your junior and senior years of college and then pin your bars on at graduation). I had had my fill of AC prior to being medicalled the previous summer so I decided to compete for one of the RS slots so that I could attend right after college graduation (and prior to my commissioning at the end of hte summer). Although it was a great opportunity, the program was also something of a "crap-shoot". If you got seriously hurt in RS (to the point that you could no longer pass a commissioning physical, you were out on you ass without any benefits (other than the experience). As I understand it, this program was discontinued sometimes in the 80's. Although I had earned my Abn and AA wings as a ROTC cadet, RS was my first exposure to field oriented training. I was essentially a civilian when I walked onto the grounds of the Ranger School at Harmony Church. A rude awakening to say the least.
Although I was fortunate to have a good Ranger qualified Captain and Major as mentors who trained me to pass the "Ranger Stakes", I was, needless to say, woefully unprepared from a tactical perspective. I made it Day 10 of Florida (just prior to planning for the Santa Rosa Island raid) at which point I, and several others, were unceremoniously called out in front of the company and told that we were down on patrols to the point that we couldn't graduate with our class. What can I say - they were doing the right thing to maintain the standards of the course.
I eventually went back to RS as a 28 year old CPT with class 5-88 and made it through w/o recycling. I will say however, that RS physically hurts a LOT more as a 28 year old than it does as a 22 year old.
RLTW - (even in the civilian business world)
Dad_of_3Boys
Please accept my introduction. I have browsed this board for some time and decided that it was finally time break "radio listening silence" and to enter the ORP.
