The first week of Ranger School

Hello everyone!  I am pleased to report that Patrick completed RAP week!!!!  This is a huge accomplishment, as most Ranger School recycles occur during this time.  As soon as I receive his mailing address, I will post it, as I am sure he would love to hear from everyone.  Below is the rest of what he did/is doing this first week of Ranger School.  The beginning of this week was posted two blogs earlier, if you missed it and want to check it out.

Day 5:  The main event for this day is the Darby Mile and the Malvesti obstacle course.  The Darby Mile is approximately 1.5 miles of light hills and various obstacles that you will have to either jump over, crawl through, or maneuver around.  You will conduct this event with your Ranger Buddy.  After completing the Darby Mile, you will move directly over to the Malvesti Obstacle Course.  The Malvesti Obstacle Course consists of the following events in order:  cargo rope climb and descend, monkey bars, low crawl under barbed wire, and chin-ups.  The Malvesti Obstacle Course is completely in water so you will be wet for the entire course.  In the afternoon, you will receive your first 20 board class on crossing danger areas, formations and order of movement, ambush, and reconnaissance. 

 Day 6:  The main event for this day is the Airborne jump.  If you are not Airborne qualified (Patrick is not), you will assist on the ground.  Following the jump, all students will be loaded onto buses and be transported to Camp Darby.  Once you arrive at Camp Darby, the RIs will give you a short tour of Camp Darby, showing you the bathrooms and planning bays, and giving you the rules of the camp.  At some point in this day, you will receive a shot.  Later that night you will receive classes on Warning Orders, Operational Orders, and Fragmentary Orders.

 Camp Darby

Day 7:  The Darby Queen is the first big test at Camp Darby.  It will be conducted before noon on this day.  The DQ is an obstacle course consisting of 20 obstacles.  This is not a timed event.  You will execute the course in a buddy team, but complete the obstacles individually.  After the DQ, you will likely receive 20-board classes in the afternoon and a practical exercise in which you walk-through actions on the objective for an ambush and a recon.  Later that night you can expect to do a practice Operations Order.