Last Summer we received a reader ‘War Story’ submission titled My “Ranger Tab” Identity Crisis. This SOFREP reader writes:

“I hear you noticed this,” I said, as I removed the Velcro and handed the small patch over to the boy. He immediately clutched it to his chest, obviously protecting it and savoring the idea of whatever that word – Ranger – meant to him…

While I was on active duty my tab wasn’t noticed. It was something that was expected to be had. Only the absence of the tab was paid any mind among us, ordinary line Infantry officers. So I stopped noticing, stopping caring about it, and stopped remembering what it meant. The Creed, once shouted at the top of my lungs at 0230, faded from memory and my heart.”

Continue reading My “Ranger Tab” Identity Crisis and find out how this soldier rediscovered the meaning and value of the Ranger Tab.

***

And in a related story, here are a few photos from DVIDs capturing Riley Woina, a Make a Wish Ranger, as he receives his tab.

(Images Courtesy DVIDS: 14-year-old Riley Woina, of Plymouth, Conn., became one of the Army’s newest Rangers during a graduation at Fort Benning today. Col. Michael Linnington, United States Army Infantry School’s assistant commandant pinned him with a coveted Ranger tab. Woina, who has been diagnosed with cycstic fibrosis, stood in the ranks with other Ranger students at Fort Benning with the help of Fort Benning’s Ranger Training Brigade and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. As part of his wish, Woina spent a week training with the Ranger students at Camp Rudder, during the “swamp phase.” Swamp phase is the school’s final phase of training prior to graduation. While there, he observed an Airborne operation, negotiated a Zodiac boat on a river operation, crossed a river on a one-rope-bridge, went on an orientation flight in a UH-1V helicopter, participated in snake handling and rappelling demonstrations and toured Eglin Air Force Base.)