I want to be an Army Ranger...

Last week I went down to Ft. Benning, GA. Otherwise known as home of the Army Ranger, also known for Basic Training and thus called Benning School for Wayward Boys or Ft. Beginning. Charming isn't it?

So, a dozen of so of my fellow Congressional staffers with a few Army liaison folks hauled down to GA. As an aside, it rained the entire time we were there.

I don't believe I had ever been to Georgia, other than the Atlanta airport and I just don't think that counts. It is lovely, and I hear they make a mean sweet tea, although I was eating in the Mess Hall and MREs, so I didn't get any sweet tea.

Army Ranger training is pretty much two months, 61 days, of hell. They take you out into the wilderness (a variety of wildernesses actually, swamp, mountains, desert) and see if you can survive. (My sources tell me that no one has died lately, you just get sent home from Ranger school, which is a fate worse than death.) Also part of Ranger training, repelling off REALLY high cliffs, jumping out/off of things and getting over any fear you may have to do about anything, including killing another human being with your index finger and so forth.

Being sure to make our experience as educational as possible, we all got to jump out of a 34 foot tower, simulating jumping out of a plane. We repelled down a wall that I don't even want to know how tall it was. AND the best part, was climbing up a 72 foot tower and taking a zip line across a lake and then dropping into the lake. (See video below) A few people didn't do this, not sure why. Fear I guess (more on that later).

A particular highlight was the plank walk. You climb up a 55 foot tower, and then walk across the suspended plank from one end to the other and 3 steps in the middle...over water. Just think of walking along a curb 55ft in the air knowing that if you fell it would be one hell of a long way down, into water. After you get done with the walk, you shimmy down a rope, give the RANGER sign a good wack and then FALL into the lake. Thusly...

















So, other than playing around and taking zip lines into the lake, we were able to watch a class of Rangers graduate. This included a demonstration of skills the newly minted Rangers now posses. It was really cool to see what a person can do if they apply themselves. It was kind of like watching a cross between a Jacki Chan and Luke Skywalker. These guys are serious. But the point to it all is self discipline.

Our Colonel escort and I were chatting as we were waiting for the others to jump (or not jump, as it were). He said everyone is afraid of something. Most people are afraid of walking across a plank over water. The point is not the fear, the point is what you do with it. Army Ranger training is figuring out your weakness (fear, hunger, pain, exhaustion) working through it and coming out the other end stronger.

It was a very enlightening 48 hours.

RLTW.