if anyone is curious, i ran across a book on delta written by Charlie Beckwith (Col, army, ret.) the guy literally re-wrote the book on Ranger school, SF training, and invented/commanded delta force. also spent some time early on with the brittish SAS, which led to a lot of his ideas. good reading.
I totally agree that it is a great book but it most certainly is not new, it was written sometime in the 80s I believe. Beckwith and Haney's books are essential reading for anybody interested in the unit.
hm, i never saw it before...oh well. ol' beckwith was a piece of work alright. the stuff he did back then, especially with ranger school is still in use today. even the tombstone he had put by the in-briefing bleachers is still there
it reads:
here lie the bones or ranger jones, a graduate of this institution. he died last night in his first firefight, singing the school solution. Therefore, be flexible!.
i love that.
Beckwith died in 1994 thus he was not deceased yet, that is probably why you never saw it. Now please refrain from turning me into a pile of rubble for being somewhat of a smartass.
first heard of the thing through a buddy in 3rd batt. it's also mentioned in a couple books (long grey line, the one this topic is about). if it aint here, well then someone oughta make a new one. normally i'd discount anything from a book, but when its written by beckwith and it's about a school he helped run, that sounds like a damned good source to me
Prior to 1988, Ranger school was in the old area of Harmony Church, and 3/75 was where Ranger school now is. When 3/75 moved closer to the airfield on main post, they moved Ranger school into their old area. A lot of the class rocks, and other stuff never moved over to the new area. I even found some class rocks in the woods by the old area. If this is pre-1988, it may not have been moved to the current location of Ranger school.
It was def prior to 1988. By 1980 Beckwith was with Delta Force so he didn't have anything to do with Ranger School anymore. I've never heard rumors that its still out there today. But MSG Dman sounds like a much better source than I am.
well if you read a book called "the long grey line" (usma_scuba im rather sure youve at least heard of this book), it mentions the sign being there in 1966 when beckwith ran phase 3 of ranger(jungle/vietnam orented training) the book is about west points' graduating class of 1966. one member of the class, whos even mentioned in the book, is gen wesley clark who many of you probably know is running for president(or at least trying to)
Just Kiddin - Yeah its a really good book, but then again I AM a little biased. General Clark was also on a team that I used to be a member of the Army Debate team. But I'm off to the rak, have a good night.
if i remember right, in the book they mentioned some sort of prank involving him and the navy goat...could be wrong though, i havent read the book in years
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new book on delta force
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