As there are no women currently doing "combat," than I'm questioning why the push to go through this school. Seems to come down to just getting a tab, which makes me a bit sick of our badge/tab chasing community.
If career combat specific MOSs and the Combat Branches (specifically Infantry Branch) is to be opened to women by 1 January 2016, then career means NCOs and Company Grade officers which is the chain of command leading small unit combat capability. It then follows regardless of gender the leadership development must be equally available to service members of both genders as the quality of leading is part of units having combat effectiveness.
The Ranger Course was conceived during the Korean War and was known as the Ranger Training Command. The Ranger Training Command was inactivated and became the Ranger Department, a branch of the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Ga., October 10, 1951.
The first Ranger Class for individual candidates graduated on 1 March 1952.
Its purpose as identified in Army Regulation 611–1,
Enlisted Assignments and Utilization Management, pare 5.2 objectives, “The objective of the Ranger Program is to maintain Army readiness through ranger-qualified Soldiers (SQI “G” and “V”)”, has changed little since its inception.
In an effort to better achieve this goal, in 1954, the Army required all combat arms officers to become Ranger/Airborne qualified. Unfortunately the additional Army goal to have one Ranger qualified non-commissioned officer per infantry platoon and one officer per company was seldom achieved during the period from 1954 to the early 1970s.
In February 2005 the Army implemented policy changes to Ranger School attendance policy that disconnected requirement combat support and combat service support soldiers no longer needed to be assigned against a Ranger authorization to gain eligibility to attend Ranger training.
As the Army has no Ranger Branch or Ranger MOS the Ranger School is actually small tactical leader development utilizing situational field training scenarios to exposing students to must lead situations rather than being a commando, ranger, raider, Guerrillafighter, or marauder. However as the MOS and Branch eligibility expanded to integrate service members holding combat support and combat service support MOSs, the frequency of students arriving lacking skill and knowledge competencies in basic infantry skills and lacking adequate physical fitness began increasing. This resulted in 1979 of the formation of pre-ranger courses which have become a prerequisite to getting placement in a Ranger School class training slot.
Regardless the purpose of the Ranger School is to develop combat skills of selected officers and enlisted men. This requires them to perform effectively as small-unit leaders in a realistic, tactical environment, and under mental and physical stress; approaches that are found in actual combat. Emphasis is placed on the development of individual combat skills and abilities through the application of the principles of leadership, while further developing military skills in the planning and conduct of dismounted infantry, airborne, airmobile, amphibious independent squad, and platoon-size operations. Graduates return to their units to pass on these skills.
WWII historical perspectives:
When developing and deciding if U.S. Army should have commando type units and forces, Major General Dwight D. Eisenhower (who was in 1942 Chief of the Operations Division, War Department General Staff) told Colonel Lucian K. Truscott, Jr., such units and forces should be named something other than “commandos” because that name was so strongly identified with the British. Truscott chose “Rangers” a name that had been carried by a number of American units before, during, and after the War of Independence. The new unit was thus designated the 1st Ranger Battalion.
The 1st Ranger Battalion was officially activated on 19 June 1942. Subsequently the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Ranger Battalions were formed. All were the Ranger Battalions were deactivated at the end of WWII.
Korean War influences:
Throughout the period of their existence the Ranger Companies during the Korean War these forces were mostly employed as general infantry rather than as a raiding or marauding force as initially envisioned by Army Chief of Staff, General J. Lawton Collins who ordered the creation of the Ranger Companies of the Korean conflict.
Envisioned by General Collins to be "Marauder" units to operate behind enemy lines, attacking their tank parks and assembly areas, this utilization never happened. The Ranger Companies were generally utilized in Korean conflict as just another infantry company rather than for conducting special missions as raider, marauders or commandos. By June 1951 the Department of the Army decided to inactivate these units and accomplished this by 1 August 1951. Although the Army Staff and major commands saw no need for Ranger units, they did see a need for ranger trained personnel. This resulted in the formation of the Ranger School concurrently with the inactivation of the Ranger Companies.
Generally personnel reports exposed several difficulties pertinent to combat units, in general, having difficulties in maintaining combat effectiveness pertinent to having competent leaders (trained and or experienced) and having leaders willing to lead others in combat. Put differently, those put into positions involving tactical leading were inadequately prepared to deal with the quickly changing tactical situations encountered on the Korean battlefields.
- officers continued to arrive with combat MOS's who were physically incapable of handling the jobs indicated by the MOS, it was necessary for FEC replacement installations to screen officers for age and physical condition as well as for experience and training in verifying their MOS's.
- Eighth Amy complained that a number of officers were reluctant to command troops in action and asked that remedial or punitive steps be taken, but in February there was still evidence that proper disposition was not being made of substandard officers. As late as June 1951, commanders were encouraged to make use of their powers under AR 605-200, 615-369, and 615-368 to eliminate ineffective or undesirable personnel.
