This is a great document. The editors distilled an incredible amount of information about being not only an infantryman, but an elite infantryman into a book about the same size as a copy of Reader's Digest.
And it begins well, with Major Robert Rogers's original admonitions to his troopers ("Standing Orders, Rogers' Rangers") when they were fighting in the French and Indian War.
To quote from the editors' notes:
"Ranger techniques and methods were an inherent characteristics of the frontiersmen in the colonies, but Major Rogers was the first to capitalize on them and organize them into a permanently organized fighting force. His "Standing Orders" were written in the year 1759. Even though they were over 200 years old, they apply just as well to Ranger operations conducted on today's battlefield."
And the Standing Orders themselves:
"1. Don't forget nothing.
2. Have your musket clean as a whistle, hatched 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 what you do. There is an Army depending on us for correct information. You can lie all you please when you tell other folks about the Rangers, but don't never lie to a Ranger or officer.... "
and so on, for a total of 19 standing orders.
The rest of the book (the part Major Rogers DIDN'T write) is more grammatical, but no less down-to-earth, mostly. Lots of information about how to be a combat leader, and detailed lists of lots of things (probably not everything by a long shot) expected of a Ranger, lists of standard operating procedures of our Army's elite infantry troops - even down to informal advice on when to set booby traps and how to rig dipole antennas for long-range radios.
What's so great about this book? It allows the reader to more fully understand the way of life of troops who train so hard that many trainees don't complete the Ranger course. And in this day and age that is no bad thing, because in Afghanistan and Iraq and places we'll probably never learn the names of, people who must read, mark and inwardly digest what's in this book defend us and destroy our enemies.
The Ranger Handbook got 4 stars because it is an authentic example of a rare genre, a military training document that transmits knowledge from elite warrior to apprentice elite warrior with no bureaucrats or technical writers in between. As such, it's a reasonably good, candid peek at the training of a member of an elite military organization.
Perhaps lots of military organizations have books of this sort, but the US Army Rangers seem to be the only organization whose informal in-house document is widely circulated outside its parent organization without a lot of fiddling around with the text, changes to the art, etc. Any book purporting to be "The Official US Armed Forces (whatever)" probably isn't. |
Ranger Handbook Books In Print, Audio Books.