Posted on 04/29/2007 10:03:53 PM PDT by World_Events
Inspiring video clip of a 42 year old medic who graduated tops at Army Ranger School, one of the hardest if not hardest military training schools available. Hoo-ah!
IIRC, Martin had a big ol’ heart attack at age 38 during the filming of “Apolcalypse Now.” Too many Marlboros and late nights.
Congrats. I avoided strenuous things in the Army and flew helicopters.
I had a hundred questions for him while at Benning that weekend. He stayed for the Mortar Leaders Course after Ranger School. Two of his answers stick in my brain. I asked him if he had ever fallen asleep while on duty during the course and he said, “Dad, I fell asleep while we were moving on foot.” The other answer came when I was trying to find out how they put them in different leadership roles, and how they debriefed after an operation. Since they get graded on everything, he said you just tell them what went good and what didn’t. If someone screwed up, “you just tell them they were f’d up, and to un f themselves.”
The graduation was the best. Retired Rangers and families showed up from all over the place. Everything was okay, but the hand-to-hand demo was awesome.
I spent 21 years in the Army and didn’t know what RLTW meant until his graduation.
That is an amazing feat for a man of 30. It’s exceptionally tough for the young.
I’m definitely impressed.
Jump School was easy...compared to Ranger School, it’s a three week vacation from your regular unit.
SEALs lead the way, Rangers just follow ;-)
Thanks for posting.
There is a PA at the base hospital I see from time to time. One day he had on his cammis and lo and behold there on his shoulder was a RANGER tab!
When I asked about it he said he earned it in a diferent lifetime. I told him he should be proud of it, very few in the USAF have been there/done that.
Good for them. I watch the Best Ranger competition each year just to see what new devilment they come up with to test the men.
With all due respect to any other posters...
There's no such thing as "no excuse".......I can find one for anything
Let me know what you think after you read it! I laughed all the way through...
Our soldiers, sailors & airmen are AWESOME!!
It was made easier during the mid-eighties to accomodate the females, but it’s always been less rigorous (and lengthier) than Ranger School.
I ordered it too. Just the cover made me chuckle. Thanks for the suggestion.
I went through in 1986 so there you go.
Smiling at you Hot Tabasco...
No excuse now, get down and do a hundred of those sit ups for me.
If you said it fast enough and slurred it a bit you could sometimes get sneak it by when saluting an offcer.
OK, just did two but the phone rang so will finish the rest in August............ LOL!
GIggling...you’re in the remedial exercise program now.
August...why the rush? I would think you’d at least have until the end of the year.
No doubt about it. I was in the best shape of my life after graduating from Jump School, and a number of friends and classmates were urging me to go Ranger.
As the saying goes, "a man's got to know his limitations." I knew plenty of men that wore the tab, and they could all run 5-6 minute miles all day long. I also knew men who didn't make it through Ranger School, and they were good men, too.
I simply didn't have the burning desire necessary for Ranger School.
Yes. I think by that time they eliminated break-area procedures, ‘running to Alabama’, the initial windsprint two miles or until 30% of the class dropped out and the flat out run up cardiac hill. It’s a shame but it was the only way to assure significant numbers of females would pass the course.
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