Prepping For Ranger School - Carlos Tech

I just arrived in Hawaii where I was posted to my reconnaissance platoon. My 1SG right off the bat asked "when are you going to Ranger school?", in which I replied "I haven't gotten my household goods yet".

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He said "that doesn't matter we can let you borrow the equipment", he explained to me that in his recon platoon all leaders will go to Ranger school, no excuses. I sat down with my new PSG for an interview, where he asked what were my goals for my career.

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I said first I want air assault school, then Ranger school. He assured me that he will give me air assault as long as I go to Ranger school. It was a deal. I started with cutting my gym down incorporating a lot more rucks since I am on the shorter side.

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To prepare for air assault. My PSG and I decided that I had to get the positive ball rolling after failing my first time at air Assault school and that I have to go back to the next class date.

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I tighten my shoot group and regrouped to go back, crushing it the second time there. My 6 miler was 1:13 with no technique just go out hard and hold on for as long as possible. I was on pace for sub 1 hour til the wheels fell off.

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Again readjust the plan for the 12 miler, with the goal to hit the first 6 miles under 1:20 then start going. The goal was to negative split and build that confidence, I came through in 1:16 slightly faster pace then I intended.

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I started my slow progressive drive for the next hour with 2.5 to go, there I saw my PSG at 3:30 am! That is all I needed to push through. I crossed the finished line he was there, 2:19. He was there yelling at me not to lose focus because I still had the layout to go. Once the layout was done he came over to me and said now you owe me a tab. 

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Pre-ranger date came and I pass the physical aspect because I was prepared by doing rucks on the course prior to going out of the gym and focused the basics of rucking, running, push up/sit-up and pull ups.

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When graduation came around the corner I was in a place where I have failed 5 times on the way to the big show.

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What did help me looking back at it now was my mental outlook of a can do attitude, every time I said "I want" to do something my PSG would correct me and say "you will". It was that spark that got the ball rolling in a positive direction.

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On the physical aspect I wish I would have incorporated more structured workouts, instead of going off feel. If I knew about the 3/3 concept of rucking I would have finished a lot faster.

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The key takeaway for me from Techs story is that you must never give up. What if after he failed the first time he didn't go again? It would eat him a live for the rest of his life. 

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The WA team would like to thank Tech for taking the time to share his story. We aim to help all of you join the units you want to join, there is no better way than to get tips and stories from those who have walked the path.

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You can follow tech on Instagram @tech_nasty