From my understanding most of the tactics are nothing new it is just how it is done, no sleep no food, Ft benning conditions

I want to work on my ruck marching, troop leading procedures, opords plus PT.

Make sure you are in shape:
You need to be able to run without a ruck as well as march with one.
You can get the Ranger handbook from someone and look through it, that may help
Ranger School is 90+% mental, if you have the conditioning down, then it willl be up to you...
and the RI's

edit to add:  I was not saying that the RI's choose someone randomly to haze.  They will go after someone they percieve as a slacker.  If you do not pull your weight i.e. hump the 60 you will get peered.  


second edit:  I forgot about pre-Ranger course, very good idea.

Also get advice from someone guys who have gone in this decade, or even in the 90's





Good Luck.

I just finished reading "Coveted Black and Gold" by John Locke. I'm not headed for Ranger School anytime soon, but nevertheless a great read and probably a must for anyone going soon.

Quoted: I just finished reading "Coveted Black and Gold" by John Locke. I'm not headed for Ranger School anytime soon, but nevertheless a great read and probably a must for anyone going soon.

indeed, kinda took the secret mystique out of Ranger School, seems pretty straight forward basically it is going to suck balls!

Quoted: Make sure you are in shape: You need to be able to run without a ruck as well as march with one. You can get the Ranger handbook from someone and look through it, that may help Ranger School is 90+% mental, if you have the conditioning down, then it willl be up to you... and the RI's Good Luck.

+1, its all mental, but if they don't want you to pass you won't.

Quoted: Quoted: Make sure you are in shape: You need to be able to run without a ruck as well as march with one. You can get the Ranger handbook from someone and look through it, that may help Ranger School is 90+% mental, if you have the conditioning down, then it willl be up to you... and the RI's Good Luck. +1, its all mental, but if they don't want you to pass you won't.

You mean if you rub the RI's the wrong way?  What kind of people have problems cocky 2lt's? Blue falcons?

Most RI's are going to be more professional than to let a personal bias prevent someone from graduating if the student meets the requirements to pass the phase. If the student is just a complete dirtbag they may try to fail them, even then, the RI would have to be able to justify it.  What will more likely get you in trouble is being a spotlight ranger and getting bad peer reports.   Having an understanding of TLP's would help going in, but they will teach you what you need to know to pass your leadership positions as far as TLP's, tactics, and techniques go as it's mostly simple patrolling basics.  At Benning they will teach you TLP's and basic patrolling tactics and techniques at the squad level and build on it from there when you go to the next phase by going to platoon operations and adding techniques that are suited to the environment you are operating in i.e.: mountains or swamp/jungle.  Whether you possess the leadership qualities, can apply leadership principles, and have the mindset and intestinal fortitude needed is something else.  Know your basic soldier skills and navigation, Benning phase is not the place to learn how to navigate or operate a radio or machine gun.  It's been a while since I went through, but I'm sure it hasn't changed that much.

JD

Get into a pre-Ranger course, this will dramatically increase you chance for success.

Let us know how it goes once you graduate.

Quoted: Let us know how it goes once you graduate.

A friend of mine recommended trying to stay out of the winter class. He caught double pneumonia dropped out because of it.



Alvin


Good Luck

Quoted: Get into a pre-Ranger course, this will dramatically increase you chance for success.

Roger, how is the National Guard course?

Quoted: Quoted: Get into a pre-Ranger course, this will dramatically increase you chance for success. Roger, how is the National Guard course?

I've heard  it's an "ok" course but I don't know for sure.

I've been in the guard for some time now and never heard of a national guard ranger school. I guess ya learn something new every day.

Quoted: I've been in the guard for some time now and never heard of a national guard ranger school. I guess ya learn something new every day.

Its a pre ranger course, kinda like how alot of active army divisions have a pre ranger for their guys before they go.

Quoted: Quoted: I've been in the guard for some time now and never heard of a national guard ranger school. I guess ya learn something new every day. Its a pre ranger course, kinda like how alot of active army divisions have a pre ranger for their guys before they go.

There's also a Pre-SF course.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I've been in the guard for some time now and never heard of a national guard ranger school. I guess ya learn something new every day. Its a pre ranger course, kinda like how alot of active army divisions have a pre ranger for their guys before they go. There's also a Pre-SF course.

For the Guard?

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I've been in the guard for some time now and never heard of a national guard ranger school. I guess ya learn something new every day. Its a pre ranger course, kinda like how alot of active army divisions have a pre ranger for their guys before they go. There's also a Pre-SF course. For the Guard?

Yes. One of my NCO's who was SF on Active Duty was talking with me about it. He wanted to recomeend me for the Q course and said that there was a Pre-SF class the NG holds. Iasked what it entailed and the answer i got was mainly basics.

They make sure you can land nav, weapon skills, PT, hump a ruck that sort of thing. I never took it though. Blew out my knee.

I knew about the pre-SF course.

Never gone but know many that have. I'm probably repeating things but anyhow. You can learn material overnight but you can't be in shape over night so make sure your mind, body and feet are conditioned. You don't want to be out there in the woods, patroling etc with blisters on your feet. Make sure you have enough sets of boots that are broken in and they'll last you the 2+ months depending on if you recycle a phase. Socks are just as important. Make sure they work for you and try them out before you pack them away in your ruck.  Based on my own rucking experience and other things i've been told/read you are probably good with rucking around 60lbs for training purposes. This will keep you from possibly injuring yourself before the actual school.  Obviously you want to be able to pass the APFT which gets alot of people.  If they need to cut guys at first they'll do it here so make sure you can knock out required amount of pushups in perfect form.  

As far as everything else they will perform classes but the obviously the more you know now the better you will fare. Things like land nav are critical. Before you can do your missions you have all the mission planning so know how to do the WARNO's and the OPORD's. Know your basic battle drills, how to setup an ambush, raid, recon. Know patrol base activities etc..Certainly make sure you read through the Ranger HB many times and nkow the critical things.

This is going to sound strange, but on day one you want to be as fat as you can possibly be and still exceed the Ranger APFT standards by about 25% and run 5 miles in under 35 minutes.

As long as you get through the timed events in the first week, having some extra fat (what we would call a "SERE kit") will keep you healthier for longer.

When you start to smell ammonia when you sweat, your body is breaking down muscle for energy, which means there is no more fat reserve to be expended.  The longer it takes you to get to this stage, the better off you will be.

You need an understanding of TLPs, but they are the same as any other Infantry unit.

You will want to put in some miles under the ruck.  Even a lot of guys who are in killer shape PT-wise get beat down by the ruck.

The hard thing isn't that there is one or two excruciatingly hard events, it's that there are 72 (or whatever it is now) days of fairly hard events.  If you make it out of the first week, and don't get hurt, the cumulative beating is what will drag you down.

winter class 05-01

i'd definitely prefer a winter class to a summer one. easy to get warmer in the winter, impossible to get cooler in the summer.  do watch out for cold weather injuries though, a lot of people got pnumonia and chill blaine. i got it pretty bad on my ears and they got infected from me scratching them (thought there were mosquitos biting my ears in the appalachians ( ht
start with as much extra body fat as you can handle and still get a 300 on your apft. i was ripped at 180 lbs but put on an extra 25 lbs which helped me greatly. was down to 155 lbs with boots and uniform from 204ish in pt's.

also i'd recommend practicing with A LOT more than just 65 lbs in your ruck. if you get around 95 + lbs mastered then the rucking part of RS is going to be easy.  ruck sack runs with 40-65lbs (without lbv, etc) will help your endurance rise greatly too.

know the ranger creed to a "T". you have to say it before you go through the chow line during the garrison days.  familirize yourself with the handbook as much as possible.

attend a pre-ranger if available.  there you can learn all your knots, swim tests, ranger stakes and little b.s. stuff that can get you recycled just as fast as if you failed a patrol, not to mention it's a good way to get some easy major plusses.

most importantly, never fail your comrades.  do anything you can to make a patrol go better for your buddies and in turn your patrols will tend to go just as smooth (if you can call any patrol smooth, lol).  while people are writing the oporders, kiwi their boots, etc. anything to help them save even 5 minutes is going to help the whole squad save a lot of cumulative time and stress.

my secret to success was carrying the AG gear as much as possible and my ranger buddy carried the m240b when i was the AG.  if you are on the gun team you get to go into the prone on every security halt. saves alot of stress on the knees (and lets you pull 50% security hile, jk.

enjoy the sleep depravation, starvation, and hallucinations he RLTW

Quoted: enjoy the sleep depravation, starvation, and hallucinations the blueberry pancakes in mountains make it all worth while RLTW

Oh the pancakes......my mouth is watering thinking about it. Definitely the best part of school. I went to clas 04-94. Would never suggest anyone to go through the winter phase. It sucked.