by 2lt oren abusch and 1lt jack hadley
You are reading: Books about army rangers
it’s 0200. our platoon charlie 1 is struggling to establish a patrol base. we just completed a seven kilometer night march, more than half of which involved multiple (simulated) casualties. It’s early April in Dahlonega, GA, and the temperature drops to the 40s. we are very tired. ranger instructors (ris) keep making us redo parts of the patrol base process. finally, at 0400, the ris tell us to eat dinner. at 04:15 we go to sleep, with a scheduled wake-up time of 05:00.
at 04:30, we woke up to one of the ris firing an unmanned machine gun, screaming.
“Is this how we keep it safe, ranger? this is a joke? security keeps your soldiers alive! don’t you care if your soldiers die in combat? let his words hang there for a second, while our minds race to shake off the daze and comprehend what is happening. then he accused us of deliberately sabotaging security because we didn’t care. then we were told to get up, with our gear ready, and wait for dawn.
And so we stood there, as the sun slowly rose over the Appalachian Mountains.
How do you prepare for a moment like this? for the most part, you can’t. many of the experiences of the ranger school must be lived to understand them. however, during ranger school, we both found ourselves going back again and again to various books we had read before reporting. These books, four of which we discuss here, helped us understand the nature of the learner-trainer relationship, reminded us that others before us had overcome the same (and worse) challenges, and, perhaps most importantly, some helped us find meaning on the most difficult days.
the things they carried by tim o’brien
This novel, along with starship troopers(see below), offers some of the best words and images to describe the experience of being a soldier in ranger school, from the minutiae of lists baggage to provoked nihilism. for the pain of carrying.
See Also: How To Organize Books On Kindle? Best Full Guide [2022]
Composed of more than a dozen vignettes linked by the imaginative memory of the author-character, this novel creatively describes the challenges of the Vietnam War. the specificity of the characters’ backpack contents is relatable to ranger students. but the style provokes the realization that, at least for soldiers, what you wear is what you are: guns, claymores, night vision goggles; knives and lighters, ropes and ribbons; lucky trinkets, letter-writing supplies, and pictures of loved ones. and what you wear can change you. heavy rucks can turn the toughest of rangers into the weepiest of kids. Just as some characters in the book are crushed by the things they carry (physically, emotionally, and morally), the Ranger students struggle for sanity and meaning under their heavy burdens.
The heaviest thing the characters in the book carry is the psychological burden of war: killing, being killed, and the uncertainty and injustice of it all. Ranger school, while very different from combat, places a heavy psychological burden on its students. this is the burden of working for a token: constantly fearing the physical demands, retraining or even being dropped from the course, and never feeling close enough to graduation. the strong parallels between the book and ranger school make this a great book for anyone preparing to carry a lot of weight physically or mentally.
flow: the psychology of optimal experience by mihaly csikszentmihalyi
Have you ever sought solace or escape under the weight of a backpack that crushes your soul by “turning off your brain”? the idea of turning off our brains to deal with pain and boredom is a common coping mechanism.
This book turns that idea on its head. Almost every moment of going through the ranger evaluation phase (“rap week”), struggling down the side of a massive mountain, or anxiously awaiting our graded patrols, we struggled to “flow.” that optimal experience of feeling in the zone, when we forget everything that is outside our cone of focus and lose track of time. the flow is strongest when an appropriately difficult challenge is skillfully met. therefore, when the challenges are too big (leading to anxiety) or too small (leading to boredom), an individual must creatively reframe their circumstances or adapt their skill level to the current challenges they face. . the author gives interesting and surprising recommendations to create mental stimulation in boring situations and to simplify complexity to reduce anxiety.
we strategize and play games with ourselves during ranger school to counteract anxiety and boredom, constantly seeking to move our minds toward the “flow.” when the weight of my mountain ruck crushed me, i (jack) would play counting, sing hamilton, or work on travel plans to eastern europe for next summer. When I was bored, I would (pray) make lists of cities around the world to visit, devise delicious dessert recipes (ask me about Merrill’s Manwich…), or write poetry. in all scenarios, we approach flow not by turning off our brains, but by turning them on. If you are looking for tangible skills and useful concepts that will improve the quality of your mental life during Ranger School, this book is an excellent choice.
memoirs and biographies of robert caro: working, the road to power, the intermediary of power
When ranger graduates describe the horrible or ridiculous moments of ranger school, implicit in their stories is a feeling of helplessness. First, there is the helplessness of a ranger in the face of the weather. the second is the terrain. Darby’s secret swamps, thousand-foot mountains, and Florida’s thick, humid vegetation wield great power over the minds and bodies of rangers.
third, there are the ris. the power dynamic between ris and students is similarly unbalanced. anyone who controls how much you sleep has great power. And while there are rules for calorie intake and grading standards, the hungry Ranger student pursuing his goal feels (and often is) completely subservient to the Ri’s mood and personality.
And finally, the most complex power dynamic exists between the student rangers themselves. graduated squad leaders unable to persuade tired team leaders to do their jobs; soldiers without a map who don’t know how far they have to go; squadmates mercilessly look at each other for unclear reasons and then lie about it. You may have all the tactical proficiency, natural charisma, and ranger school trickery in the world, but few rangers feel powerful or empowered.
See Also: 21 Awesome Kids Books About Feelings and Emotions
We both heard each other use the language of power frequently when describing our experiences, both during ranger school and ever since. identifying our frustrations as symptoms of helplessness gave us a better mental balance to deal with weather and terrain. We replaced the unproductive whimpering over ris’s unfair decisions with a genuine fascination with the various ways ris wielded his power. we gained a sense of power by coming to understand that even the most seemingly pointless actions were done intentionally to see how we would respond to the induced stress. the language of power also gave us tools to work with our squads: knowing who knew what, knowing when to shut up and when to speak, knowing how to give power and when to take it.
These thoughts on power stem largely from our reading of biographer Robert Caro. Caro’s selection criteria for the topics of his two Pulitzer Prize-winning biographies of Lyndon B. johnson and robert moses, it was simply that he thought they wielded more power, more effectively than anyone in modern American history. By studying these giants of history, Caro established himself as a world-class expert on the subject of power. If you can only make time for one Caro book before Ranger School, read Caro’s 2019 memoir working. is by far the shortest and will give you a lot of tools to think about power during ranger school. if you want more, he starts his lyndon b. johnson series. And then if you’re still hungry, go to the power brokeron robert moses.
starship trooper by robert heinlein
starship troopers follows johnnie rico, in a fictional future world, from joining the mobile infantry, through his training and into combat. Although this book is science fiction, it explains the training experience better than any other book we have read.
for example, heinlein understands the pain of the weather. his description of frozen soldiers standing in huddled masses, moving toward the center of the pack for warmth, but avoiding “others leaning on them and their halitosis,” will sound familiar to any winter ranger. he even captures the frustrating reality that “while the weather seems important right now, it seems pretty boring looking back.” If you ask someone about their worst day at ranger school, you can almost guarantee they’ll mention the weather. however, her inclusion of the weather in his story feels boring compared to his original, painful vividness. Heinlein’s insight is amazing.
Ranger students can also relate strongly to the mental challenges Rico faces from their coaches and training. Just as Rico’s coaches constantly remind him that he can quit at any time and be transferred to another branch, Ris entices students to quit during rap week with promises of hot meals and whispers of comfortable beds and freedom. Anxious rangers can find sympathy in Rico’s constant worry that he could be pulled from training at any moment. Finally, and most relevant to Ranger School, Heinlein captures the mental struggle of maintaining discipline during simulated combat, where no real lives are at stake. this despite the fact that ris will tell the ranger students over and over again to “treat it like the real thing”.
starship troopers voices the ranger school blowjob. she may be futuristic soldiers with portable nukes, but she embodies the feelings of the cold, wet, hungry and tired ranger.
prepare your body and mind
You can’t fully prepare for ranger school. The goal of the course is to take you beyond your physical, mental, and emotional limits, into uncharted territory where you must learn to perform and lead effectively. while you can never be completely ready, you can certainly prepare as much as possible. Just as there are dozens of pre-ranger fitness plans, we hope this article will serve as a useful pre-ranger reading guide; a guide to understanding the ranger school experience and, more importantly, to understanding yourself.
2lt oren abusch is an infantry officer currently assigned to 2-508 pir (2fury) at fort bragg, nc. He studied international relations and economics at Tufts University and was a commissioner of the MIT Army ROTC. In his free time, he likes to read, exercise, and spend time with his wife, Emma, and his puppy.
1lt jack hadley is currently completing his infantry officer training at fort benning, ga prior to his first assignment to 1-91 can in grafenwoehr, germany. he graduated and commissioned from west point in 2017 and then received a fulbright scholarship to go to turkey, where he earned a master’s degree in philosophy from bilkent university.
See Also: The New Testament Books – OverviewBible