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From: Sam Damon Jr.
Date: 27 May 2001
Time: 16:29:11
The U.S. Army Soldier on point today (NOT RANGERS playing here in CONUS), dying by the dozens each year has earned a beret in spades. If someone doesn't think so, he is an ungrateful and ignorant Courtney Massengale-type snob of those that keep him free so he can express such decaying fecal matter type views while living in a country made free by the U.S. Army, NOT rangers.
It's views like his that keep the Army from transforming itself to everyone a fierce and thinking WARRIOR by creating false "pecking orders" driven by zero-sum thinking instead of egalitarian, roll-up-our-sleeves lead-by-example and work-together-teamwork. Clearly some have succumbed to popular fad snobbery and is a symptom of the chest-beating hubris that has deceived many as to what true military excellence is. The rangers hubris failed utterly on October 3, 1993 when it didn't have light tracked AFVs in its force structure due to its light infantry mentality is unable to admit that attacking high value targets implies they will be heavily defended (duh) and need armored vehicle shock action to take down without undue casualties. Cisterna all over again.
In fact, the rangers still don't have it right by buying expensive PANDUR armored cars that will have their SUV tires toasted in direct action missions in MOUT just like the Malaysian Condor armored cars were trying to rescue the ingrates in Somalia at high human cost.
I remind everyone to reflect on WHO IS ACTUALLY DEFENDING THEM RIGHT NOW?
Who is on point defending America? An Army of snobs? A whining ranger association?
TODAY... In Korea? In Bosnia? In Kosovo? In Macedonia?
Who has died and been maimed the most in America's defense over the years?
Who has been in the most combat?
Who rescued the men trapped surrounding "Blackhawk Down!" in Somalia?
NOT Army Rangers.
Had it not been for the allegedly "unworthy" 10th Mountain Division Soldiers using armored vehicles to reach/rescue trapped rangers/delta operators, it would have been the "rangers last stand" (ie: everyone wiped out).
The U.S. Army SOLDIER has "earned" his black beret and he earns it every day in the mud and grime all over the world without fanfare or honor and the respect he deserves. He's dodging real bullets in the real world against REAL enemies and this should be a more important criteria for "worthiness" than playing make-believe prove-your-manhood games at ranger school. Look at the names of those who die each year in Army training events each year---most do not wear ranger tabs..are they any less heroic? Are they any less dead?
Some are fond of comparing things to the film, Gladiator; I direct them to the opening battle scene...you don't see image-conscious Army rangers or vain marines there..just mud-caked-Soldiers beaten up, bandaged and out-numbered on a cold forgotten hell-hole ready to die for the Republic....it is the so-called "common" Soldier who defends people like her from the vandals and the Milosivecs...and soon the Red Chinese at the gates...its been that way for over 225 years....how quick we forget it was the continental ARMY's mud-Soldier that won our freedom not Roger's Rangers...
He is America's defender.
And he deserves the honor of looking like the warrior he IS with a decent headgear NOW while he is alive not too late when he is in a flag-draped coffin. All rangers have done is earn universal scorn by those in the know. They might be able to fool ignorant Senators/Congressmen and out-of touch media and veteran's outfits, maybe even the ungrateful American public deceived by Hollywood...but the rest of the Army that is actually shouldering the load is not fooled. Next time Saddam invades Kuwait we should ponder sending rangers in rucksacks and their new tan berets to stop their tanks walking in the desert, let's see how far they get carrying all their food, water, ammo too---and support yourselves---and see who will end up rescuing them when they are surrounded ala Cisterna 1943 and Mogadishu 1993.
So the next time anyone thinks of themselves as America's "military expert" to determine who is "worthy" and who is not the honor of a distinctive headgear, I demand they spend some time in the mud with America's legion of honor, and mark with a pen and a clipboard the unit identification insignia of the thousands of Soldiers who are NOT ranger tab wearers deserving the honor of looking like the heroes they are.