Hey List,
Thought you might be interested in this tidbit, although it's not much about
vehicles,
it is about the reason we indugle in historical remembrance and preservation.
I just returned from graduation ceremonies for the US Army Ranger Airborne
Class 09-00, 4th Ranger Training Battalion, Ft. Benning, GA. It was a
fantastic ceremony attending by some pretty great people of our time,
including a few former members of Merrill's Marauders and decorated Korean
War Ranger elements.
We saw a lot of talent displayed, including typical Ranger hand to hand
combat, rappelling, air assault, demolition's and more. With all the
criticism of our troops it was really good to see we still have totally
squared away Rangers, good to go at a moments notice.
FYI: This was a 61 day course with the primary mission to engage the enemy
at close combat, direct fire battle. The class is divided into three phases
beginning at Ft. Benning, that includes training at Camp Rogers and Camp
Darby. A mountain phase at Camp Frank D. Merrill, then on to the Florida
phase at Camp James E. Rudder, Elgin AFB. Training is grueling, 19 hours or
more per day, seven days a week. Rangers travel between 2 and 20 km. per day
for 61 days straight.. no breaks, in a constant state of severe fatigue and
hunger. About 240 troops started out and as I recalled only 53 finished.
Our man, Nick had zero no go's and finished top of his squad. Not bad, eh?
He also wore out two pairs of jump boots in the process! By the way... Nick
is soon to be a member of the MVPA too.
As part of my trip, I collected some good photos of captured Iraqi, Cuban
vehicles (Kuwait-Grenada), etc., and will be available on request for those
interested. Will try to get them up on a web site for easy downloading or
you can e-mail, just give me a couple days to get it all together. This was
a 5000 mile trip to Ft. Bragg (82nd ABN) and Ft. Benning, over the past 5
days under less than ideal tourist conditions... I'm getting too old for this
stuff! lol
The Battle of Britain Anniversary e-mail was duly noted and acknowledged ...
thanks for the heads up Nige and Richard. Much appreciated. I read Nige's
e-mail to a few of the troops up at Benning, needless to say, they were very
moved as was I when I read it.
One last thing. The Discovery Channel is presently filming the 10-00 Ranger
Class and it will be aired in a few months. Also at this time, the Crocodile
Hunter was with the 3rd Rangers in Fla. doing an episode on Florida snakes.
Jack Lee
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