Vincent H. O'Neil

On April 3, 1986 I graduated from the Army's grueling Ranger Course s part of Class 5-86. It was the toughest school I attended in the Army, but it was also a tremendous growth experience. I wore my Ranger tab tee shirt to the gym this morning to mark the 40th anniversary of our graduation.

In the Ranger course, you don't get much sleep or food and you're constantly on the go, patrolling in rough terrain with heavy rucksacks. You're frequently harassed by the Ranger Instructor (RI) graders. When I went through, the school started at Fort Benning, Georgia and then went to the mountains of northern Georgie before shifting to the frozen wasteland of Dugway, Utah and finishing up in the swamps of Eglin AFB, Florida.

You're out in the elements most of the time, and our class was in winter time. You get chosen at random to lead patrols, and your pass-fail record decides if you complete individual phases of the course. If you don't do well enough, they offer you the choice of quitting or doing that phase over again. It's called recycle, and many Ranger students get recycled more than once. 

I walked, starved, and shivered every step of the way with Class 4-86 and came out of the swamps believing I'd completed the course. That night I learned my pass-fail percentage was exactly 50-50, which meant I would not graduate with my class. I was offered recycle and took it without hesitation, going back into the swamps with Class 5-86 and coming back out with them on Easter Sunday, 1986. Resurrection Day.

Everyone who's been through this course has a different take on why it's so tough, so I'll skip that and just say I learned more about myself in that school than at any other time of my life. As rough as it was, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I'm a novelist now, writing everything from mystery to horror to science fiction. In the first book of my military science fiction Sim War series, Glory Main, I wanted to write a book that was based on my Ranger experience. So I took four people from different backgrounds and marooned them on a planet that's much like Dugway, Utah. They have no food, no weapons, and no idea where they are. They have to walk many miles, footsore and hungry, dodging the predators that exist on the the planet. They have to come together as a team, or die as individuals.

Glory Main is the first book in a complete five-novel series, and I hope you like it.

Rangers Lead the Way.

https://www.amazon.com/Glory-Main-Sim-War-Book-ebook/dp/B00IRCZGK2