Inside the Team Room: US Army Rangers – Learning on the Fly

Welcome to Inside the Team Room: US Army Rangers. With us today are four former 75th Regiment Rangers: Jack Murphy, Nick Irving, Isaiah Burkhart, and Clyde Carmody.

Today’s topic is “learning on the fly,” which is learning by doing and through experience. Picking it up as you go along, you get the idea.

Murphy starts out talking about how he did aerial platform support on Little Birds (light helicopters) for the first time. He asked his squad leader if there was anything he should know about the best way to hit his targets. His squad leader went on to tell him about the counter-intuitive process of a “negative lead” where, since you are moving so fast, you don’t “lead” or shoot in front of the target; you now shoot behind them. This left Murphy scratching his head, and it’s one of those things you just have to learn by doing. In his case, literally on the fly.

Pop open a cold one, sit back, and listen to the guys talk about learning how to be a Ranger by being a Ranger.

It’ll all make sense once they start talking.

 

 

A Little Bird demonstration at SOF Week. See you guys in Tampa!