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Subject: Physical Requirements for Rangers.
"Z"    10/29/2007 9:34:32 PM
I am 15 years old and plan on joining the Army after college (West Point, VMI or Oregon ROTC), I am in pretty good shape, but I was wondering what the physical requirements were for the Rangers. I believe that I could train in the 7 years that I have before I join the Army I could work up to these requirements. If somebody knows things such as; how many pull-ups/sit-ups/push-ups you have to do in a row, mile-times, how long of distance for runs, any water activities. Thanks in advance.
 
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Horsesoldier       10/30/2007 10:12:15 PM
Standard boilerplate statement on officers and special operations:  Bear in mind that officer slots in all SOF units, including the Rangers, are fewer and further between than enlisted slots.  There are, for instance, hundreds of enlisted slots in a Ranger battalion, and dozens of officer slots.  Even fewer of those are entry level slots, and with SOF being the hottest thing going right now, a good tour with the Rangers or in SF or with a SEAL team, etc., can make an officer's career.
 
So, as an officer, you'd have to go through Ranger Orientation Phase, the minimum requirements being as follows:
 
1) Minimum 80% score on APFT (57 push ups, 66 sit ups, and 14:24 two mile time)
2) 6 Pull Ups
3) 5 Mile Run in 40 minutes
4) 12 mile road march with 45 pound ruck and weapon in 3 hours or less
5) Combat Water Survival Test
6) 70% on written exams and quizzes on various ROP related topics.
 
But those are the minimum standards, and, as competitive as those slots are, don't think that doing the minimum will get your foot in the door.  You also have to have completed (with flying colors) a tour with a conventional unit as a platoon leader before you can be assigned to the 75th as a PL (if I'm not mistaken). 
 
In summary it can be done, but it's not the easiest route into special operations as an officer.  As an enlisted guy, going in with a ranger contract is one of the best ways to get into special operations.
 
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dirtykraut       10/31/2007 12:01:48 AM
My question is why would you want to be an officer in an SOF unit? I never understood that.
 
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"Z"       10/31/2007 12:39:18 AM
My answer to you dirtykraut is that I would like the army to be my career. The difference in pay between enlisted and commissioned soldiers is substantial enough that it is worth the time and money spent in college. But I still want to work to be a Ranger. I want to help the country in any way possible so joining one of the most Elite forces in the world sounds like a good idea to me.
 
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Claymore       10/31/2007 4:07:02 AM
Do recruiters just let as many people as possible in with Ranger, SOF, Airborne contracts even if they know they wont cut it?
Then after these people wash out the Army can put them where they want?

 
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Horsesoldier       10/31/2007 9:26:54 AM

My answer to you dirtykraut is that I would like the army to be my career. The difference in pay between enlisted and commissioned soldiers is substantial enough that it is worth the time and money spent in college. But I still want to work to be a Ranger. I want to help the country in any way possible so joining one of the most Elite forces in the world sounds like a good idea to me.


An alternate course of action you might want to look at would be:
 
(College first)
 
Enlist with Ranger contract, preferably as a medic (training includes Phase 1 of the SF 18D Q course, opens a lot of doors), infantry as a secondary, most any other MOS third.
 
After three or four years with one of the batts you can:
 
1) Apply for OCS
2) Apply for Physicians Assistant school on the army's dime (if you've gone medic) (this includes a commission if you've already got college, if I understand the pipeline correctly, otherwise you go warrant officer)
3) Go to Selection for SF
4) Go try out for CAG/Delta
 
Any four of those will involve significant pay increases.  If you've already got batt time, you'd have a much easier time getting back into the Rangers as a platoon leader as an officer, also.  As a PA you get pro-pay plus officer/warrant pay.  As an enlisted guy in SF or CAG you've got SDAP and serious re-enlistment bonuses these days (up to six figures) to keep you in uniform, which means you're probably going to be making more as a Sergeant First Class than, say, a captain in the Big Army.  In SF you can always apply to go Team Technician and become a Warrant Officer, which gets you pretty good pay and also means you'll get a whole lot more team time over the course of a career than an officer (team leader may get 24 months of team time if he's lucky, these days)  As for CAG, their officers don't do much hands on stuff at all, but as an enlisted assaulter you'd be making rank faster than most anyone else in the military.
 
If you're set on commissioning first, I'd say give it 100% an try for infantry as a branch (which implies Ranger School in pretty short order) and do any requesting and applying for Ranger batt you can.  Even if you can't get a posting for the Rangers, you can still apply for SFAS and try to go Special Forces as an officer a bit further into your career.
 
I'd also mention, just for the sake of being sure you're aware of some other options that:
 
A) With a college degree, you'd qualify for 18X direct to SF enlistment, as well as the straight to SEAL program the Navy has, or the USAF's training pipelines for Pararescue or Combat Control.  If I'm not mistaken you can apply for OCS/OTS through either service (I know you can with USAF) after getting your foot in the door as an enlisted guy in special operations.
 
B) No idea on how Navy ROTC approaches things for SEAL officers, but I had a friend who did Air Force ROTC in college a few years back and from what he said the USAF ROTC department at his school basically pushed everyone who was a hard charger into either aviation or the USAF's commissioned special operations career tracks.  Being a combat control officer or combat rescue officer would be pretty choice duty from what I've seen working with the AFSOC guys, and would have you working with everyone else in the SOF community on a regular basis.
 
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Horsesoldier       10/31/2007 9:33:52 AM

Do recruiters just let as many people as possible in with Ranger, SOF, Airborne contracts even if they know they wont cut it?
Then after these people wash out the Army can put them where they want?



You have to be pretty unimpressive to not cut it at Airborne school.  Gravity does most of the work for you as long as you can pass the PT test and keep up during the runs. 
 
Anyway, more generally, all recruiting consists of the army, navy, whoever, deciding they need X number of slots quarterly.  Those slots are then filled by qualified applicants until they are full.  So if, say, you want to join with a Ranger contract, you might have to check back when the next quarter kicks off before they'll give you the contract (and definitely don't join if the recruiter just promises you "they'll get you into RIP/SFAS/BUDS/INDOC when you get to basic training" or anything like that).
 
Now, presently, all SOF units are screaming for manpower, so while I don't know the actual quarterly quotas they're setting, I'd imagine they're pretty high for most units.  Now is definitely the time to try and get into special operations, with the big expansion currently going on.  I'm not saying standards have been relaxed, but there is a serious need for people right now.  I've heard some real horror stories from back in the 90s about guys trying to go SF and some simply being sent back to their unit without even getting into selection, much less passing or failing it, because there simply was not that big a need for personnel, and "picky" got to be downright "arbitrary."
 
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Ehran       10/31/2007 11:49:50 AM
you might want to do some prep for sleep deprivation before you get there.  functioning at a high level while measuring your hours slept on the fingers of one hand and having several fingers left over must be just a joyous task. 
 
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dirtykraut       10/31/2007 12:35:03 PM
If you want to make the army your career, I don't see what's wrong with enlisting. You would probably make SFC in about 12-15 years and be making close to the 40,000 a year mark in basic pay only. Throw in housing and food allowance, and your free healthcare, and your making upwards of almost 60,000. As horsesoldier said, if you can get into SF or CAG, you will get all kinds of special duty pay, reenlistment bonuses, and deployment pay. A senior NCO could, with all the above  make 100,000 a year. On the flip side, in the long run it is easier to make full bird Colonel than pass SFAS and the Q course. And it's easier to get promoted to General than passing CAG selection and OTC.
 
But keep in mind that the role of the officer in SOF units is that of a pencil pusher. That's pretty much what officers do everywhere. Management and paperwork. Nothing wrong with that, and that is how most people in the world make a descent living. And quite frankly, officers have the worst job in the military. They have to take care of their enlisted men, play the political game, and impress the hell out of their superiors to survive. The US Army uses intimidation to keep it's officers in line, and to get them all on the same page. You will perform to the standard of your superiors or you will get the axe. It might not be the best work environment and many  stressed officers can only fine solace in the bottle...
 
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mough       10/31/2007 1:08:23 PM

 If somebody knows things such as; how many pull-ups/sit-ups/push-ups you have to do in a row, mile-times, how long of distance for runs, any water activities.

Thanks in advance.

The other lads have laid out the technical requireents needed better then I could so I'll take this,  your 15, live for a few years enjoy life, there will be plenty of warfighting to do when your old enough, 2, there are basic numbers to reach in  the PT sense, so many PU's,run times ect, you don't worry about the minimum pass rate, your  aim is to not even exceed it, it's to shatter it into a million little pieces, you want easy work at Mcdonalds, you want to be  a Ranger, you do everything better,  if you can do 15 PU's, you set your sights on 20, you reach that, the level goes up, if your 2 mile run time is 15 minutes, you work untill it's 14:50, 14:40 ect ect, ok is never good enough and contentment is your enemy, I don't mean to be harsh or put you off, but it's a warfighting organisation your going for, one of the finest, and they can't afford second best or could have tried harder types
 
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