Who needs simulated hell when the real one is available? That’s the attitude of many in the U.S. Army who are skipping the service’s elite Ranger School at Fort Benning, Georgia—where soldiers endure 60 days of simulated combat under grueling conditions—because they’ve already been to Iraq and/or Afghanistan to fight a real enemy.

 

With fewer candidates attending the school, the Army is experiencing a “critical” shortage of Ranger graduates needed to fill hundreds of combat leadership positions. Noncommissioned officers are especially in short supply, forcing commanders to fill slots with soldiers who don’t have Ranger training.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Is Combat Experience Making Ranger School Unnecessary? (by Kevin Baron and Megan McCloskey, Stars and Stripes)