Hey folks, I posted a while back last year about deciding to whether to try to go active duty and do my best to get a Ranger contract or stay in the Guard and try out for 20th Special Forces group out of Chicago.
well, I stayed in the guard. Since then I've become airborne qualified and been to the pre-Ranger course down in Benning that's required for all national guard soldiers wanting to go to Ranger School.
i messed up down there, on both the land nav and RPFT. did the RPFT twice and missed the push-ups by 3...and then I knew I had to absolutely nail land nav to have a chance.
got done with one week of the course and right before we were starting our ftx I got booted out because I missed 2 land nav points, not because I didn't find the points, but because I didn't right down the number along with the point punch assigned to them.
here's the down and dirty: I needed to find 5/5 land nav points for the day to stay in the course. I did find all of them. 2 of the points had both a number on them as well as point punchers, and my dumb a*s decided to just mark the point punchers on my score sheet and leave out the numbers. I got done, and ran back to the SP and see an RI.
RI: "Hey Ranger, where the hell are the numbers with these two points you punched in?"
Me: "I just punched in them in sgt since they had them"
RI: "Damnit Ranger you're supposed to f*ckin write down the number to it too!....You know what Ranger, NO GO, failure to follow instructions".
on the flip side of things I didn't quit. we started off with 120 and by the end of the first three days we had less then 80. obstacle course was fun, the worm pit sucks when its 30 degrees outside tho. but I learned a lot and can't wait to go back when I can get another slot.
More recently, a couple of weeks went to the 20th SF tryouts out and got pulled off the ruck march because of a back injury (got a herniated disc that I'm working off). I didn't quit so I was told I could come back for second shot at their training team next March. I am very grateful for going and getting to see just exactly what it takes to earn a spot on an ODA team.
so what now? I'm about to re-enlist for a year, I just passed the second phase of the FBI selection process for Special Agents and waiting to see if I made the list on their Hostage Rescue Team.
Ups and downs but that's what life gives you. We'll see how things work out but so far so good.
Hope all is good with you all and with your families.
