Stewards of a martial heritage dating back to World War II, the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment is one of the service’s foremost infantry units. Before soldiers can count themselves among those elite ranks, they must pass the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program, or RASP.
Historically, RASP has a 50% attrition rate — sometimes higher. The training is designed to break a soldier down and build them back up.
Task & Purpose spoke with Rangers who oversee the unit’s grueling selection process about the qualities and traits they look for in future Rangers, ranging from willpower and resolve, to trainability.
To become a Ranger, a soldier must successfully graduate basic training, advanced individual training, Airborne School, and then make it through pre-RASP, followed by RASP. Only then will they don the tan beret and wear their respective Ranger battalion’s scroll on their shoulder.
Soldiers who enlist with an Option 40 contract have a guaranteed spot in RASP, pending successful graduation of initial entry training. Other new soldiers can request a slot through their Advanced Individual Training cadre, Airborne School cadre, or 75th Ranger Regiment recruiting noncommissioned officers.
As soldiers suffer and struggle through 8 weeks of RASP, which is broken into two phases, instructors and section leaders watch closely, singling out those who appear to have what it takes to join the 75th.
Adaptability ranks high among the characteristics they look for, said Staff Sgt. Zachary Hargrove, a RASP section leader.
“That’s what we’re looking for,” Hargrove said. “I mean, working in Regiment, you never know what you’re going to be asked to do. You could do a direct action raid, then you could go do a [personal security detachment]. We’re looking for people that can be successful doing a multitude of things.”
Master Sgt. Thaddeus Skaggs is a 75th Ranger Regiment Recruiting Liaison at Fort Gregg-Adams, Virginia. He runs “Ranger PT” for the soldiers going through various AITs at the base. For Skaggs, a soldier’s level of fitness and appearance isn’t a sure sign that they are Ranger material.
“I’ve learned not to be a gatekeeper of talent because I thought I could tell who’s going to make it and who won’t,” Skaggs told Task & Purpose. “But, the fact that one of the biggest dudes I’ve ever seen was top of his RASP class. Then a [paralegal specialist] that I never would have picked for my flag football team — they both made it.”
The big soldier was lacking on physical fitness, Skaggs recalled, but convinced the Ranger to give him a shot, saying, “I won’t let you down.” The anecdote, Skaggs said, demonstrates that it’s the attitude, not the build of a soldier that makes or breaks their chances of being a Ranger.
Both Skaggs and Hargrove said that playing sports of any kind before attempting to join the 75th can help, because it exposes recruits to working as a team and overcoming perceived physical barriers. And that leads to another one of the qualities that the 75th Ranger Regiment looks for in would-be Rangers: grit.
“If they make excuses, we know what’s going to happen,” Skaggs said. “If they don’t make excuses and they’re just like, ‘Hey, I’m your guy,’ or they start talking about all the adversity that they’ve already overcome, it’s usually a really good sign.”
Getting through assessment and selection
RASP is a two-month course divided into two phases. Phase one assesses mental and physical capabilities while phase two assesses trainability.
Prior to RASP, soldiers must also attend and pass pre-RASP, which is a six-week crawl, walk, run training event that helps soldiers lacking in physical or mental strength prepare for what they’ll face when they get to the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program.
“Every morning has to be a conscious decision whether you want to be there or not,” said Hargrove. “Pre-RASP has done such a good job preparing soldiers for the training over the past six months. As cadre, I’m not worried about guys being physically fit or understanding how to climb a rope because they’ve already crushed all of that. It’s literally: ‘Will they hang on and do what it takes for eight weeks?’ Because physically, they can do it.”
Admittedly, the training is difficult and there are plenty of soldiers who “self-select,” meaning they voluntarily quit, Hargrove said.
One test of intestinal fortitude involves carrying the “worm,” a several hundred-pound tubular sandbag that five or more soldiers equally share the weight of. The ordeal can involve left-to-right shoulder lifts, a static hold overhead, or carrying it on the shoulder while walking. Skaggs said the worm will test the strongest-willed.
“The worm puts pressure on everybody, and you have to work as a team,” Skaggs said. “It’s something that they use in RASP just to wear you down.”
For those who make it through phase one, they must prove they can hack it with shooting and demolition skills during the second phase of RASP. Hargrove said soldiers just need to arrive ready to train and not worry about what training they had before RASP.
“I’m the markmanship instructor, and I assumed that your top shots in the class would always be [infantry], just because they shoot more. What I found was a lot of times my top shot will be like a [Human Resources Specialist], or some other soft skill [military occupation specialty] that you wouldn’t expect,” Hargrove said. “It’s because they pay attention to the training, and they put forth their best effort, and they’ll surprise you.”
Both Hargrove and Skaggs echoed the sentiment that it’s anyone’s guess who will make it through the months of rigorous training to become a Ranger.
“I would say, you can’t predict it. You just have to let the program run its course,” Hargrove said. “You can sit there and judge, day one, on who you think will or won’t make it, but you’re going to be surprised every time.”