Ranger mind-training

E

erminio

New member
Hi everybody! I hope it isn't a silly question, but I know that lot of you have an Army experience.. well, I just saw the extras in "Black Hawk Down" about ranger mind-training, I mean "Be aggressive", "Slow is smooth and smooth is fast" and so on.
I wonder if there is the way to know more, I mean, if somehow the Army made this stuff public, cause I think that this could be helpful in "civilian" life too.

Thanks.

Erminio.
 
The real question is, is there a book available that lays out the Ranger mental conditioning techniques? A lot of the shooting books talk about it to some extent, but who has written about how the Military SOCOM does it?

This reminds me of a book offered by Paladin that claims to teach you how to learn a language like the Green Berets do. It sounds like an excellent way to get marginally proficient (not expert) in a short time. Never tried it so I can't say for sure.

Still, I'd like to hear more about Ranger exercises, if there is such an animal. Otherwise, I'll stick with my other books....and plenty of practice.
 
erminio,

Go to www.soc.mil

Click on the regimental crest link for 75th Ranger Regiment.

Read Rogers Rangers Standing Orders and the Ranger Creed.

There is also a concise little history of the Rangers.

Short of spending three miserable months at Ft. Benning and other locations, that should pretty well do it as to how they think and motivate themselves.

In terms of a book, go to any Army/Navy Surplus Store and see if they have a copy of the Ranger Handbook...I can't remember which FM it is...it's just the Ranger Handbook. It won't do any good to go to the U.S. Army website and get into the Reimer Library...any and all FMs dealing with ARSOF (SF, RGR, CA, PSYOP, Aviation) are not available to civilians or even DOD contractors or GS employees w/o certified need to know. FOIA will not work either.

The rest of it is pretty much airborne light infantry tactics with emphasis on airfield takedowns, recce and direct action missions (raids mostly). If any of that will be applicable to your civilian life, your life must be pretty interesting.

Stay safe...
Mike
 
In a general way

there are two components to this, the physical and the mental.

The physical part is hard/easy.

The mental part is hard/hard.

What I mean by hard/easy is, it's easy to figure out things that will get you in excellent physical shape, but hard to do.

Hard/hard follows from that. If you ask any spec-op type, I think (know) that some part of the answer will involve mind-set, or attitude, if you will. The physical training helps in this area, as does the continual challenges these folks present themselves with. You can't teach this, but you can look for the things that may motivate people to achieve the right mind-set, and then do them. In the process, (hopefully and usually), you weed out those who don't have it.

Although the mental part can be done solo, it is a very, very, very rare thing (along the lines of an Olympic Gold Medalist's comittment). This process mostly takes other people and some time, along with a deliberate effort on the part of all involved. If this isn't clear enough, I'm sorry. If it was easy, everyone would/could do it.
 
You might pick up "The SAS mental Endurance Handbook" by Chris McNabb (Lyons press). It's $19.95 and available at bookstores like Borders. It's one of five or six such SAS books. Some good tips in there for cake eaters like me. :)
 
I don't believe there is anyway to learn the lessons of Ranger School or SF except to attend. You must be in the situation first hand to know if you can live and think during sleep deprivation trials along with starving. Then, lead your patrol to set up and employee an ambush and deal with any WIA/KIA's. Read all you want, but the gain you are looking for can only be taught in a longterm field environment. Good luck.

AIRBORNE!
 
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