Soldier becomes 'Ranger ready'

Published May 24, 2012
By Army Capt. Antonia Greene
174th Infantry Brigade Public Affairs

JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. -- Army Capt. Michael Patti, 1st Battalion, 307th Infantry Regiment, always wanted to be a Ranger, but the operational tempo of a deploying unit and job assignments always took precedence. Soon after arriving here, Patti was presented the opportunity in November of last year to attend the elite school.

"When I got to the brigade eight months ago, Captain Patti wasn't exactly in top physical condition," said Col. Craig A. Osborne, commander, 174th Infantry Brigade, during a town hall meeting. "Now he's an Army Ranger; that says a lot about him and his ability to train hard and accomplish his goals - that's the type of leader the Army needs."

"Our battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Lee Elmore, gave me the opportunity to attend the course," said Patti, a six-year active Army combat veteran and an armor officer from Hawthorne, N.J. "It was an offer I couldn't refuse."

Patti and another soldier in the battalion trained for the next 10 weeks before and after duty hours, weekends and holidays, preparing for Ranger school. It is something worth striving for, putting in the work, said Patti.

"As a combat arms officer, I've always viewed the Ranger tab as something that distinguishes an expert within the combat arms profession," said Patti. "I've worked with several peers and friends who are tabbed and there has always been a correlation between them being tabbed and being proficient in what they do."

When asked what it takes to be a Ranger and what he would say to comrades considering Ranger school, Patti stressed two main focuses. The first is train hard.

"Train to the standards of Ranger school and prepare as best as possible. Develop a realistic training plan that will help you meet the physical standards of Ranger school, but won't injure you in the process," said Patti. "Set immediate goals for yourself and maintain the discipline to reach those goals."

The second important factor for making it through Ranger school is finding your motivation, said Patti.

"Ranger School is designed to weaken you, physically and mentally. If you can maintain the mental part, the physical part will fall into place," said Patti. "For me, there were two items that were the key to helping me maintain my motivation; a photo of my wife that I've carried with me during both of my deployments and a ranger tab that was given to me by a good friend. I would use these items on a daily basis to remind me why I was putting myself through school and to help me focus on a successful end state."

Sixty percent of all Ranger School failures occur in the first three days, according to the U.S. Army Ranger School website. The first week of school is called Ranger Assessment Phase, or RAP week. RAP focuses on events designed to test Ranger students both physically and mentally through a variety of events. This phase includes but is not limited to the Ranger Physical Fitness Test, a Combat Water Survival Assessment, a 12-mile foot march, day and night land navigation, and a number of demanding obstacle courses.

"Many of these events are graded on a Go/No-Go basis, so failing an event will get you dropped from the course" said Patti. "In my specific class, we began Day 1 with over 300 students and finished the day with approximately 200."

The next stage of Ranger school is Darby Phase. Seventy-five percent of trainees who complete RAP week will eventually pass the Darby Phase, according to the Ranger school webpage. The potential Ranger tabbers conducted basic squad-level patrolling techniques and the operations orders process during this phase.

"This phase was challenging in several aspects; as a captain, I found myself having to re-learn things that I hadn't touched on in years," said Patti. "Dismounted movement techniques in the squad and fire team were almost foreign to me and going from a combat leader to a rifleman felt near-impossible at first."

Adding to the stress, trainees operate as part of a 13-man squad comprised of soldiers of various ranks with a mixture of experience from different units. This variety of perspectives means that everyone has a different way of doing things, but the course demands that each squad come together collectively and quickly figure things out, said Patti.

"Our squad had a hard time trying to figure 'it' out and unfortunately, less than 50 percent of us passed the course requirements and continued to the next phase," said Patti.

Potential Rangers enter the Mountain Phase after Darby Phase. This phase covers platoon-level operations and basic mountaineering skills with an increasing operational tempo. It is known for its grueling physical challenges. Ninety-four percent of those who start the Mountain Phase will move on to the final phase, according to the Ranger School website. The phase is conducted in the Tennessee Valley Divide mountain range. This is probably the most well-known phase of Ranger School and produces the most 'Ranger Stories,' said Patti.

"These stories usually entail falling asleep while walking through the woods and having hallucinations due to the lack of sleep," said Patti. "I can confirm these stories to be true in most cases, and at times experienced much of this for myself."

At the completion of Mountain Phase, Patti weighed 20 pounds less than when he started and reeked terribly of ammonia, a smell produced by the rapid burning of muscle.

If a soldier makes it through Mountain Phase, he enters the final phase of Ranger School - Florida Phase. Ninety-eight percent of those who start Florida Phase will eventually pass and graduate Ranger School, according to the Ranger School webpage. It takes place at Eglin Air Force base near Pensacola, Fla. During Florida Phase, Ranger instructors teach the soldiers how to maneuver forces through rivers and coastal swamps, all while continuing grueling platoon-level operations. This phase is considered the 'run' phase of Ranger school. Missions are much more intense and complex than previous phases.

"Overall, my biggest mental challenge was Florida Phase," explained Patti At that point, we had been in the course for 40 days, had two weeks of training exercises remaining, then another week until we graduated. The patrols were significantly harder, more complex, and more was expected of us since it was the last phase of training. Meanwhile, the only thing we could think about was graduation, the family and friends we had waiting for us, and anything but being at Ranger school."

The U.S. Army Ranger School has a 50 percent overall graduation rate over the last six years according to the Ranger website. During each phase, potential tabbers are evaluated on leadership performance. Graded positions included platoon leader, platoon sergeant, and squad leader. If a Ranger student did not perform well during a graded patrol, he would either hope to receive another chance to lead a graded patrol or he would fail that specific phase, said Patti. Approximately 37 percent of Ranger graduates recycle at least one phase of Ranger School.

Another part of the course's evaluation process is the peer evaluation. Each phase ends with peer evaluations. Each Ranger student is rated by his fellow squad members, answering such questions as, "Would you share a foxhole with this Soldier?"

"If a Ranger student received below 60 percent on his peer evaluations then he would fail that cycle and would either drop from the course or rejoin the next class through," said Patti. "Most of the people who failed during my specific class either failed multiple graded patrols or were given poor peer evaluations. We had relatively few injuries, and most occurred during the first phase of school."

Patti said his high point was standing at Victory Pond on graduation day with his wife, his father and battalion commander. The second highest point was the night after graduation, when he was able to eat his first good meal and sleep in his own bed, said Patti.

The hardest physical challenge Patti faced was the lack of sleep.

"I trained hard for the RAP week events, considering most of them were graded events, but one thing I couldn't simulate in my training was the lack of sleep we were given," said Patti. "Even minute tasks such as climbing an 8-foot wall are seemingly much harder when you're working on thirty or forty minutes of sleep."

A constant mental challenge was the intentional lack of information flow, said Patti.

"Ranger instructors would purposely keep us in the dark as to specific timelines or schedules. As students, we only had a vague idea as to what our next event would be, and never had insight on more than an hour or two ahead of time," explained Patti. "As a leader, I struggled with this and constantly found myself asking for information only to be frustrated when I couldn't get clear guidance. I knew it was a calculated campaign that the Ranger Instructors played, but it was tough for me to adapt."

Another challenge was the lack of communication with the outside world, said Patti.

"Phone conversations were extremely limited and during the 62 days of Ranger school I spoke with my wife for a total of 15 minutes," said Patti. "Hand-written mail was the primary means of communication, but was found to be extremely unreliable. At times, we waited up to 10 days for our mail to reach our loved ones and incoming letters and care packages were given to us only at the completion of each phase."

As far as lessons learned, Patti mentioned two major points: ensuring you develop an effective operational rest and chow plan and making sure you push as much information as possible down the chain.

"I clearly remember a day where we conducted a patrol, but were purposely given little food or sleep - less than what we were normally given - prior to execution in order to teach us the importance of planning considerations," said Patti. "The lesson worked; we performed horribly."

"Every member of your organization needs to understand what's going on," said Patti. "One of the biggest morale-crushers of Ranger School was when a new platoon leader would take command of our platoon, but would fail to disseminate key information."

But you know the cold, rainy and sleepless nights spent traversing the Tennessee Valley Divide weren't for nothing, said Patti.

"I definitely learned that my physical limits were much higher than I initially perceived. Ranger school had a way of pushing us to our limits, without bringing us over the edge," said Patti. "There wasn't an individual event where I walked away and thought 'wow that was the hardest thing I've ever done' but each event had a significant impact on me and was hard enough to keep me from feeling like I was operating at 100 percent."

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Soldier becomes 'Ranger ready'