“The desired result
of this Ranger unit is a group of cadets who train like the Rangers,
double-time like the Airborne, look like the Presidential Honor Guard, and have
more "Esprit de Corps" than the Marines. We are a proud group of
young men who are endeavoring to prepare ourselves more adequately to assume
the tasks of young army officers.” -Mission Statement of the Kentucky
Rangers
In
1964 a group of University of Kentucky Army ROTC cadets came together with
goals to train cadets in guerrilla warfare. Since then warfare has changed, but
so have their goals. They now train in subjects such as basic first aid; squad
and platoon tactics; communications; rappelling; basic mountaineering;
patrolling and weapons. This group is known as The Kentucky Rangers. Being a
University of Kentucky ROTC cadet, I was already emerged in the ROTC culture.
However, I have decided that I want to take it to another level – a more elite,
high-speed level that will help me excel as an Officer in the United States
Army. I believe I can do this by joining the Kentucky Rangers. I am curious
about joining this organization, but at the same time I am content with my
workload. Before this semester, I didn't take the initiative to look more into
this organization until I was more or less forced to look at an organization
for WRD-111 class.
Even
though I was supposed to sit in on a meeting for my class, I was in no hurry to
find an organization – much less a meeting time to attend. While standing in
formation about to be dismissed from my ROTC lab, the authoritative figures of
my platoon were giving us reminders about different things coming up. The
leader prompted all Ranger cadets to report to the meeting place, because there
would be a meeting held right after formation. Just like that this project fell
into my lap: a prime opportunity to sit in on a meeting – and for a group I was
already interested in! After we were dismissed from formation, I went outside
of the back room were the meeting was to be held and talked to the MSIV in
charge and asked if I could sit in on the meeting.
As
I walked in the room where the Ranger Meeting was to be held, it looked like a
room that would hold such a meeting. Army slogans, recruitment posters and all
kinds of military paraphernalia could be found anywhere and everywhere
throughout the room. Not literally, of course, but one is definitely bombarded
with Army pride walking into this room. Covering the walls were pictures of all
5 of the generals who have ever reached the rank of 5-star General. Over the
names and description of the generals were the 7 army values: Loyalty, Duty,
Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, Personal Courage. These words were
painted in black and yellow on the walls and are the foundation and mindset
guiding the soldiers of the United States Army. One wall of the meeting place
contained “The Warrior Ethos”. “The Warrior Ethos” is part of the soldiers’
creed. There are four of the many things soldiers live by found in “The Warrior
Ethos”. They go as follows: “I will always place the mission first, I will
never accept defeat, I will never quit, I will never leave a fallen comrade.”
These 4 lines of the soldiers’ creed, known as “The Warrior Ethos”, are an
important part of a soldier’s education, so it is understandable that such
words would be found on the wall of this classroom.
I
sat in the back, out of the way of the members, as they entered the room. One
by one as the cadets entered the room, I noticed they didn't enter the room as
if it were a serious organization. This completely contradicted my
expectations, because after hearing what they’re about, what they do and how
they do it, I expected this to be a mature, respectable group. They entered the
room like typical college students – joking and goofing around, and it was a
very relaxed atmosphere. People were sitting on desks; leaning back in chairs,
and chewing their gum loudly. This meeting obviously wasn't very formal or
strict like one might think of an elite group in the United States Army. The
only thing that made it Army-like were the uniforms and the male-to-female
ratio. Everyone had on his or her Army Combat Uniform also known as ACUs, and
there was 1 female compared to the 10 or so guys present.
After
everyone moved into the room, the MS IV's began with their meeting. It was
interesting to see the change in attitude and demeanor from this childish,
goofy behavior to a more serious, concentrated group of soldiers. They straightened
up in their seats, sitting with good posture (as compared to slouching and
sitting on desks 2 minutes prior). The amount of respect that the subordinates had
for the leaders appeared strange to me, as both the leaders and the members were
all students. That was another thing that surprised me about the Kentucky
Rangers: the fact that they are ran and organized by students. That fact is
intriguing to me. Every bit of the organization stems directly from the MSIV's
in charge. In this particular meeting, they were going over their schedule for
the next 6 weeks! Doing that really caught me off guard, because they have to prepare
so far in advance for seemingly menial meetings and activities. The MSIV's
actually make a schedule at the beginning of the year, and then give MSIII's
certain classes to teach. They make sure that the MSIII's have everything they
need to teach the class, give them a basic game plan and see that they are
sticking to the game plan as the time gets closer for them to teach their class.
They seem to do a lot for the MSIII’s to ensure their success, but the MSIV’s
also give the MSIII’s a lot of responsibility. As the MSIV's go through the
schedule, they make sure to ask the MSIII's that are in charge of teaching the
different classes if they have everything they’ll need and if things are moving
smoothly. Just like in any other class, there are always procrastinators. The
MSIV asked one cadet how his preparations were coming along, and he responded rather
nonchalantly, “Oh yeah! I have to get on that, huh?” The MSIV's concluded the
meeting by asking if anyone had any questions regarding the schedule or needed
anything in general. Once the meeting was over and everyone was dismissed, the
cadets went back to goofing around and joking with each other. It isn’t
apparent at all that an MSIV has superiority over an MSIII by the way they
interact.
Overall,
based off of what I saw in the meeting the Kentucky Rangers organization, it is
great organization. They seem to know the difference between when it's time to
be serious and when it's time to have fun. That is very admirable to me,
because they still leave time to enjoy what they are doing, while being
productive too. They are also full of members who have the same interest as me.
The Rangers have great leadership that helps build and encourage cadets to do
better. They encourage them to be prepared and successful, rather than
discouraging cadets and being demoralizing if they mess up. At the end of the
day, the Kentucky Ranger Association is definitely an organization that I will
strongly consider joining.
