I rolled my eyes at Kevin as I shook my head. I was pissed, but not because Kevin was breaking my balls, rather I was irritated with myself because I knew that he was right. We were instructed to conduct an ambush in the fictional nation of Pineland (actually located in North Carolina) and I was walking point. Getting angry with some of the junior guys on the team because of a land navigation error, I told them to shut up and follow me. I charged off through the woods and made enough noise that the role players guarding the road we were supposed to ambush heard us.
Going from this in Ranger Battalion… (w/ Isaiah Burkhart)
What happened after that was everything not described in the Ranger Handbook. Blank fire was popping off every where and I ordered Keven, playing an Arab foreign fighter attached to our team, to fire his AT4 Anti-Tank rocket. In real life the rocket would not have even armed because we were so close to the “enemy” but I figured it would scare the hell out of them if nothing else.
When we maneuvered up to the road there were “bodies” laying everywhere. We were supposed to ambush an enemy supply truck at a specific time but with our patrol compromised and the shootout that ensued, it didn’t look like we would be completing that objective anytime soon. Big facepalm moment for yours truly.
It was the youngest guy on our Robin Sage team that suggested to me that we just hide the “bodies” in the bushes and set up our own checkpoint, masquerading as the enemy when the supply truck came through. He was an 18-Xray, one of the kids who was able to come in right off the street and into the Special Forces pipeline. While I was still thinking Ranger School, this guy grasped the unconventional warfare mission faster.
Damn, that was a good idea! It worked perfectly. We stashed the “dead” role players in the bushes, set up a checkpoint, and captured the supply truck.
To this in Special Forces…
Kevin’s words stuck with me. Being a Special Forces soldier requires a very different mentality than being a Ranger but I still had a hard time shaking off old habits. In Ranger Battalion everything is usually dress right dress, and done to THE STANDARD. When you attempt to graft this work ethic onto the unconventional warfare mission it simply does not work. Yelling at indigenous troops and demanding that they behave like Americans will get you no where. Expecting them to perform like American Light Infantry is also ridicules.
Stomping off into the woods while on patrol isn’t a good idea regardless of what unit you are in, but being a hot head is even less effective while running Special Forces missions.
The point of this article isn’t to ask which unit is better or make some childish comparison. The Ranger Regiment and Special Forces are different and what I hope to point out is that they have to be different. This difference stems from the fact that they have different missions that require different approaches.
More to follow on that later…
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