Pre-Ranger and Ranger School
Ranger School was hard because of hell week, no sleep, minimal food, all work. Follow that hell week up with almost three months of Ranger School . . . Never sleep more than 3 hours a night . . . Except on the two occasions you get to jump out of airplanes, and on those nights . . . You get 8 hours. Go from 220 lbs to 185 lbs. By the end your so week you can barely run a mile . . . By the end, you throw up if you eat too much but your brain forces you to eat more when you get the chance, . . . You write diaries . . . Pages and pages of notes about what you’ll do and what you’ll eat when you get out.
You dream about woman with huge thighs and gargantuan breasts because you’re so cold at night you’d want them to warm you up . . .you’re so done that just standing up is a chore, and you can’t stand up as any normal person might, no, you have to roll over on your hands and knees and eek yourself up slowly . . . Love fully 50% of the Rangers you start out with by the end . . . sleeping on the ground the majority of the time and eating over 75% of your meals, when you get to eat, in the form of MRE . . . Or how about the ammonia smell? You body gets so little food that it starts eating your own muscle and the Ranger Instructors can find the patrol just by the smell.
THAT was hard.
But THAT was only 90 days tops.
Ranger Battalion/Regiment
Don’t get me wrong, just getting into Regiment was hard. MEP first then that silly holding cell for weeks on end before even getting to Basic . . . sure that sucked, but hard? Just silly. The never knowing what’s next, the confusion, the boredom, the sleeplessness . . . Then there’s airborne and having to follow those silly rules, and finally getting through RIP and getting into Regiment . . . PT tests, road marches, hunger and jog jog jog everywhere. PT at 0500 that includes 30 min of duck walks cause someone decides to forget to say “Roger Sarnt.”
Then when you’re in Regiment it only gets worse . . . I’ve never done so many pushups. Pools of sweat gather under you as a private in Regiment. Doesn’t matter what Battalion you’re in, it’s hell being a cherry private, and it stays that way till you get your tab. Two years of that.
THAT was hard.
But THAT was mass hysteria. You’re around a bunch of insane door kickers and shooters who love to workout and curse. You fit in quick. It’s tough, but do-able.
MBA
This hardly ranks. Was it tough? Sure. Is it up near the top? Nope.
Pre-Scuba
This might be out of order. Pre-Scuba was HARD. It could be that I didn’t really train for it . . . But I was in my second year at Battalion. I was in primo shape. Sub 6 min miles were ordinary for me . . . Oh we’re running a ten miler today? And we have to do it in under 70 minutes? Sure . . . No prob. Oh, you want me to swim 100 meters under water with no breath? Sure . . . Just gimme a sec. . . . I have to swim out to that island towing these huge twin 80’s then get back and do flutter kicks while you stick a hose up my nose under my face back, basically water boarding me, until I’m able to suck in water and just spit it out? Sounds fun.
You’re going to tie my hands and feet and throw me in the pool and I just have to survive for 30 minutes? Make it an hour . . . I need to wake up at 0330 and report by 0400 so I can do 3 hours of PT before breakfast, then be wet the rest of the day wearing nothing but a pair of silly looking shorts and a brown shirt that turns pink from the sun and chrlorine and not be done working and being wet until 1900 at night? Get home and collapse but force yourself to eat cause you have to do it again the next day? . . . You want me to push a 50 lbs weight around the bottom of a pool from one side to the other? Oh you didn’t like that I basically drowned, started to convulse, but still finished the task? You want me to get in line and do it again? Sure thing Sarnt . . . You want me to be only 1 of 4 surviving through to graduation day among a class of 21 Green Berets and Rangers? You got it.
THAT was hard.
It was only two weeks though. Plus we got weekends off.
Best Ranger
This one broke me. I only finished the first day. Got leveled out before day 2. Almost re-enlisted to try again. I came in 25th. HARD. I’ve described this before, so I won’t get into it now.
Only three days. And I did it to myself. I’m still not sure why I didn’t eat anything? Who the fuck hordes their food for 3 days? Didn’t I think that would effect my ability to finish a timed 28 mile road march while toting an 85 lbs ruck?
Getting a PhD (and Comps)
There’s been other hard things in my life I’m sure. But these past 3.5 years I think has em all beat. Why? There is no mass hysteria. You’re doing it alone. There is no cohort . . . Only the one or two friends you can make who may or may not hang around. Of the 20 or so we started with . . . We are down to just 4. Quals/comps are the final mind fuck cause it’s not just about the oral exam it’s the culmination of the past year of writing as well . . . Oh you just wrote a paper for a year? Tell me why you did it this way? . . . Two or three classes a semester . . . Five or six books per class . . . 30 to 50 articles and studies per class . . . Come interact with your class every week as well . . . Get a study group for group projects . . . On and on and on.
3.5 years and then quals/comps . . . Tough tough work. Beats the others, if only for the loneliness, and the duration.
Now though I’m no longer a PhD Student, I’m a PhD Candidate. Worth it.
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