The Lion's Pride Lion's Pride Volume 12 (Spring 2019) | Page 15

The percentage of soldiers in the United States military who signed
up to strap on their boots and be on the frontline is an underwhelming
one percent. Which Ranger Regiment made up of only twelve hundred
highly trained and motivated men. Attending Ranger School had become
a way of passage for the lower enlisted soldiers once they entered their
respective battalions. They would tell us that we proved nothing by
making it to our battalion, that the hard work had just began.
From the moment you step into the door, you are taught to not give
up, but the way they teach you is by simply training to make you quit, to
weed out the men that didn’t have what it took. My time as a private was
no different. We were always treated with respect, but every single day
was an uphill battle, a competition of who was going to come to the
forefront of the pack and prove themselves worthy to go to ranger
school. Of the thirty lower enlisted men I showed up to my battalion
with, I was the first to get sent to ranger school.
I had become lost in the moment, lost in the praise of my team
leaders. I never stopped to look at the men that stood to my left and
right. I never quit; I never felt sorry for my circumstances or passed
judgement on others for stopping when the going got tough. But I never
quit; I’m not claiming to be better, stronger, or more of a man than
anyone. Just as I believe that man is created with the innate sense to quit,
I learned that he is also programmed to keep going. To push past the
limits and boundaries created by those before him. This I believe in