[El Gallo]

This is an old thread, but I thought I would add my 2 cents... Ranger School is excellent training for a PFC, young Specialist or butter bar, maybe a Buck Sergeant coming from a soft skill. Ranger School doesnt teach you anything any NCO worth his salt doesnt already know in the way of tactics. It teaches you about yourself. Any SF qualified person attending Ranger School is doing it for one reason and one reason only. It is for rapport building and mentoring. You can't tell that young admiring soldier looking up at the sun glinting off your unit crest affixed to your green beret that HIS first step in advancement in the Combat Arms is to attend Ranger School if you don't have that vibrant Black and Gold beacon on your own shoulder. Let's face it. Some really great soldiers go to Selection... and fail. That doesn't mean they aren't outstanding Infantry/Armor/Air Defense. It just means they weren't meant to be one of the chosen few, or at least not quite yet. Get your short tab. Not because some Rangerette will look at you starry eyed in the bar and say "Are you a REAL Ranger?" but because a young soldier, looking up at you starry eyed thinks you are the epitome of the Combat Soldier and you need to point him down a path he can follow until he is prepared to do his own map reconnaissance and blaze his own trail for his career.