Rangers vs Special Forces: Hostage Rescue

A prospective client asked me all about scenarios involving airfield takedowns - all the who-where-what-why-when's & how many's . . . I told her it all depends on so many factors & variables, to include what kind of troops available . . . this led to a conversation regarding the difference between Rangers and Special Forces, and so I shared with her the following parable from the ancient sagas of US Army Special Operations . . . S.L.

The Chief of Staff of the Army asked his Sergeant Major - who was both Ranger and Special Forces qualified - which organization he would recommend to form a new anti-terrorist unit. The Sergeant Major responded to the General's question with this parable: If there were a hijacked Boeing 747 being held by terrorists along with its passengers and crew and an anti-terrorist unit formed either by the Rangers or the Special Forces was given a Rescue/Recovery Mission; what would you expect to happen?

Ranger Option

Forces/Equipment Committed: If the Rangers went in, they would send a Ranger company of 120 men with standard army issue equipment.

Mission Preparation: The Ranger Company First Sergeant would conduct a Hair Cut and Boots Inspection, while the officers consulted SOPs and held sand table exercises.

Infiltration Technique: They would insist on double timing, in company formation, wearing their combat equipment, and singing cadence all the way to the site of the hijacked aircraft.

Actions in the Objective Area: Once they arrived, the Ranger company would establish their ORP, put out security elements, conduct a leaders recon, reapply their camouflage, and conduct final preparations for Actions on the OBJ.

Results of Operation: The Rescue/Recovery Operation would be completed within one hour; all of the terrorists and most of the passengers would have been killed, the Rangers would have sustained light casualties and the 747 would be worthless to anyone except a scrap dealer.

Special Forces Option

Forces/Equipment Committed: If Special Forces went in, they would send only a 12 man team (all SF units are divisible by 12 for some arcane historical reason) however, due to the exotic nature of their equipment the SF Team would cost the same amount to deploy as the Ranger Company.

Mission Preparation: The SF Team Sergeant would request relaxed grooming standards for the team. All members of the team would spend a grueling afternoon at a quality spa ensuring physical abilities would be honed.

Infiltration Technique: The team would insist on separate travel orders with Max Per Diem, and each would get to the site of the hijacking by his own means. At least one third of the team would insist on jumping in HALO.

Actions in the Objective Area: Once they arrived , the SF Team would cache their military uniforms, establish a Team Room at the best hotel in the area, use their illegal Team Fund to stock the unauthorized Team Room Bar, check out the situation by talking to the locals, and have a Team Meeting to discuss the merits of the terrorists' cause.

Results of Operation: The Rescue/Recovery Operation would take two weeks to complete and by that time all of the terrorists would have been killed, (and would have left signed confessions); the passengers would be ruined psychologically for the remainder of their lives; and all of the women passengers would be pregnant. The 747 would be essentially unharmed, the team would have taken no casualties but would have used up, lost, or stolen all the "high speed" equipment issued to them.

STORMBRINGER SENDS

A WORTHY CAUSE

Junior's Bullet Pens - proceeds go to families of fallen military & wounded disabled veterans.

Junior’s Bullet Pen Company is dedicated to one of our fallen heroes, Staff Sergeant Chris Falkel, KIA, of the 3d Special Forces Group.

I met Chris's Dad this week at Fort Bragg, and he told me the story of his son, and the Bullet Pens.

SSG Chris "Junior" Falkel was weapons sergeant Operational Detachment "Alpha" 316. Between 7–9 August, 2005, Chris and his Special Forces team were involved in a 54 hour battle “that will live in the annals of Special Forces history. On the evening of 8 August 2005, Chris paid the ultimate price and died saving the lives of his team and 16 members of the Afghan National Army attached to ODA 316. SSG Chris Falkel was awarded the Silver Star for his bravery and heroism.

In early 2005, Chris attended Special Operations Target Interdiction Course – SOTIC - the Special Forces sniper school. After he graduated, Chris shared with his Dad the concept of making pens out of 7.62 NATO shell casings - the round used in US sniper rifles. Unfortunately, he never got the chance to make a bullet pen because shortly thereafter Chris deployed to Afghanistan for his fateful Rendezvous With Destiny.

Chris's Dad thought about Chris’ dream of making a “bullet pen” for a couple of years, and ultimately Junior’s Bullet Pen Company was created. These pens are dedicated to his son.

Most of the brass used to make Junior’s Bullet Pens is once-fired military brass.

Junior’s Bullet Pen Company is Veteran owned. Foundations supported by Junior's Bullet Pens include:

Special Operations Warrior Foundation

Task Force Dagger Foundation

Fallen Heroes Project

Operation Shower

Green Beret Foundation

AmericanSnipers.org

Remembering The Brave

Worldwide Rangers Inc.


When you buy a Bullet Pen, you help support a U.S. veteran and/or his or her family. If you are a veteran, you have just supported yourself.

- STORMBRINGER SENDS

RIP SSG JEREMY A. KATZENBERGER

This one came across the wire yesterday, from a personal friend:


Sean -

We buried this warrior on Fort Leavenworth this morning. The entire post, to include the Command and General Staff College student body, the School for Command Preparation (Brigade Commanders prep course) and the School for Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) emptied their classrooms and hallways to line the roads of the post to bid a proper farewell to this hero.

We are currently running a combined training operation with the Brits (over 200 here TDY) and have over 100 international officers from around the world, who are students in CGSC Class 11-02 and 12-01. They all participated in the event and based on the muted tones and lack of cohesive gaggles, I'd say to the last man they were in awe of the way we pay respect to our soldiers who have paid the ultimate sacrifice.

US Army Staff Sergeant Jeremy A. Katzenberger, 26, of Weatherby Lake, Missouri, died June 14, 2011 in Paktika province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia. SSG Katzenberger was buried with full Military Honors at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas yesterday, 28 June 2011.

"From a Grateful Nation."

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35 TERRORIST TRAINING CAMPS IN THE US

Incredible . . .

35 Terrorist training camps here in the United States - owned and operated by the Pakistani who lured Daniel Pearl of the Wall Street Journal to his kidnapping and subsequent beheading by al Qaeda.

This is not news - this Hannity report dates back to February 2009 - if anybody has an update on this situation since that time regarding any U.S. government actions against these compounds; please let us know.

All of you need to view this video.

"Keep your hatchet scoured, musket clean, sixty rounds of cap and ball and be ready to march at a minute's notice." Roger's Rangers Rules or Plan of Discipline, Major Robert Rogers - 1757

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RANGERS vs SF

The Chief of Staff of the Army asked his Sergeant Major, who was both Ranger and Special Forces qualified, which organization he would recommend to form a new anti-terrorist unit.

The Sergeant Major responded to the General's question with this parable: If there were a hijacked Boeing 747 being held by terrorists along with its passengers and crew and an anti-terrorist unit formed either by the Rangers or the Special Forces was given a Rescue/Recovery Mission; what would you expect to happen?

RANGER OPTION:

Forces/Equipment Committed: If the Rangers went in, they would send a Ranger company of 120 men with standard army issue equipment.

Mission Preparation: The Ranger Company First Sergeant would conduct a Hair Cut and Boots Inspection.

Infiltration Technique: They would insist on double timing, in company formation, wearing their combat equipment, and singing Jody cadence all the way to the site of the hijacked aircraft.

Actions in the Objective Area: Once they arrived, the Ranger company would establish their ORP, put out security elements, conduct a leaders recon, reapply their face cammo, and conduct final preparations for Actions on the OBJ.

Results of Operation: The Rescue/Recovery Operation would be completed within one hour; all of the terrorists and most of the passengers would have been killed, the Rangers would have sustained light casualties and the 747 would be worthless to anyone except a scrap dealer.

SPECIAL FORCES OPTION:

Forces/Equipment Committed: If Special Forces went in, they would send only a 12 man team (all SF units are divisible by 12 for some arcane historical reason) however, due to the exotic nature of their equipment the SF Team would cost the same amount to deploy as the Ranger Company.

Mission Preparation: The SF Team Sergeant would request relaxed grooming standards for the team.

Infiltration Technique: The team would insist on separate travel orders with Max Per Diem, and each would get to the site of the hijacking by his own means. At least one third of the team would insist on jumping in.

Actions in the Objective Area: Once they arrived, the SF Team would cache their military uniforms, establish a Team Room, use their illegal Team Fund to stock the unauthorized Team Room Bar, check out the situation by talking to the locals, and have a Team Meeting to discuss the merits of the terrorists' cause.

Results of Operation: The Rescue/Recovery Operation would take two weeks to complete and by that time all of the terrorists would have been killed, (and would have left signed confessions); the passengers would be ruined psychologically for the remainder of their lives; and all of the women passengers would be pregnant. The 747 would be essentially unharmed, the team would have taken no casualties but would have used up, lost, or stolen all the "high speed" equipment issued to them.

ROGERS RANGERS

Part of an ongoing series of posts about the history of US Army Special Forces to include more than 200 years of unconventional warfare history; "Swamp Fox" Francis Marion, the Confederate partisan cavalry raiders of Colonel Mosby and Colonel John Morgan, the WWII OSS Jedburgh Teams, OSS Detachment 101 in Burma, the Alamo Scouts, and the 8240th Partisan Infantry in the Korean War. Since 1952, Special Forces have served in Vietnam, El Salvador, Panama, Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, and in the current conflict in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Philippines, and the Horn of Africa.

Special Forces traces its lineage back to before the Revolutionary War. Rogers' Rangers was an independent militia company of Rangers attached to the British Army during the French and Indian War, also known as the Seven Years War. The unit was informally trained by Major Robert Rogers as a rapidly deployable light infantry force tasked with reconnaissance and conducting operations against distant targets.

Rogers' Rangers operated primarily in the Lake George and Lake Champlain regions of New York. The unit was formed during the severe winter of 1755 by provincial forces entrenched at Fort William Henry. The Rangers frequently undertook winter raids against French towns and military emplacements, traveling on crude snowshoes and across frozen rivers.

Their military tactics were so bold and effective that the unit became the chief scouting unit of British Crown forces in the late 1750s. Rogers' Rangers were one of the few non-Indian forces able to operate in the inhospitable region due to the harsh winter conditions and mountainous terrain.

Never fully respected by the British regulars, the Rangers were nonetheless highly valued for gathering intelligence about the enemy. Ironically, several members of Rogers' Rangers became influential leaders in the American Revolutionary War and a large number of ex-Rangers were present as patriot militiamen at the Battle of Concord Bridge.

After the events at Lexington and Concord,, Robert Rogers offered his help to the commander of the Colonial Army, George Washington. Washington refused, fearing that Rogers was a spy because Rogers had just returned from a long stay in England. Rogers was infuriated by this and did indeed join the British—forming the Queen's Rangers (1776) and later the King's Rangers.

Also claiming descent from Rogers' Rangers is the U.S. Army Rangers.

ROGERs RANGERS - STANDING ORDERS

Rogers Rangers was an unconventional fighting force stood up in the (then) British Colonies of North America, to fight the French and their Indian allies in the Seven Years War, a.k.a. the French and Indian War. Modern US Special Forces and Ranger units trace their lineage directly to this organization.



Standing Rules of ROGERS' RANGERS

1. DON'T FORGET NOTHIN'.

2. Keep your musket clean as a whistle, hatchet sharp and scoured, sixty rounds powder and ball, and be ready to march at a minute's warning.

3. When you’re on the march, act the way you would if you were sneaking up on a deer. See the enemy first.

4. Tell the truth about what you see and do. There is an army depending on you for correct information. You can lie all you please when you tell other folks about the Rangers, but never lie to another Ranger or to an officer.

5. Don't ever take a chance you don't have to.

6. When we're on the march, we move in single file, staying far enough apart that one shot can't go through two men. This also helps conceal the number of men in our party.

7. If we strike swamps or soft ground, we spread out abreast so it's harder to track us.

8. When we’re on the march, we keep moving until dark to give the enemy the least possible chance at catching up to us.

9. When we make camp, half the party stays awake while the other half sleeps.

10. If we take prisoners, we keep them separated until we have time to examine them, so they can't cook up a story between them.

11. We never return home the same way we went out. We use a different route, so we won't be ambushed. Be extra careful when we get close to home: the enemy may be
lying in wait nearby.

12. Whether we travel in big parties or little ones, each party keeps a scout 20 yards ahead, 20 yards on each flank and 20 yards in the rear, so the main body can't be surprised and wiped out.

13. Every night, you'll be told where to meet if we have to disperse to avoid being surrounded by a superior force.

14. Never sit down to eat, or stop to replenish water supplies, without posting sentries.

15. All hands shall be awake, alert and ready for action before dawn. Dawn's when the French and Indians like to attack.

16. If we find that somebody's trailing us we make a circle, come back on our own tracks, and ambush the folks that aim to ambush us.

17. When we’re on the march, we stay at least a hundred yards away from lakes or rivers, to avoid being trapped against a shoreline.

18. Never cross a river by a known, regular ford. These are prime places for ambush.

19. Don't stand up when the enemy's coming against you. Kneel down, or hide behind a tree or rock.

20. Let the enemy come till he's almost close enough to touch. Then let him have it, jump out and finish him with your hatchet.

To this day, these rules are found in the US Army Ranger Handbook, and are posted on barracks walls of every Infantry unit in the US Army.