 From New York City, where the American stage begins, here is another program with a cast of outstanding players. Public service time has been made available by this station for your Army and your Air Force to bring you this story. As proudly we hail the United States Army. Our story is entitled Ranger Tab. This is the story of the modern ranges of the United States Army, the rugged, versatile officers and men who've measured up to the infantry school's most challenging tests. Our first act heard and will rise in just a moment. Right about now, a good many of you young men are thinking in terms of starting a career, getting into a promising trade or profession with no delay. Why don't you find out about the career opportunity now open to you in the United States Army? The Army school program was especially designed for ambitious young men like you. Here's how it works. Once you've been accepted, you're trained for the job and type of outfit you're best suited for. Then advancement depends directly on your job skill and efficiency. You go up the Army ladder on your own merit. Become financially independent with unlimited security now and for the future by joining the United States Army. Learn about your special enlistment opportunities now at your local United States Army and United States Air Force Recruiting Station. And now your Army and your Air Force present the proudly we hail production Ranger Tab. Right, Galzano. There's your brook and the bridge ahead. Pull up under the trees just off the road. This bridge, Sarge? You really figure this is the one the Lieutenant meant? This is it. Pull up. If Sergeant Logan had been blindfolded all the way from camp, he could still near this rendezvous point. Faster than you could pick pumpkin from Parsley. What's the big idea if you've been doubting it? Let it go, Corporal. We're here. Good 20 minutes ahead of schedule. Let's get out and stretch our legs. Hey, Corporal. Look at those big fat perch down in the brook. Don't taller. You'll scare them. Oh boy, would I give for a fish line at some bait. Galzano? Yes, Sergeant? I told you we had 20 minutes to wait here. If you want some of those fish, what's stopping you? What's stopping me? No line, no hooks, no bait. That's all. Outside of that. You could rig a snare, couldn't you? Where would I get a cord? Well, we just passed spruce back there. Work up some of the fine roots. You could twist yourself a cord in no time. You can make cord from spruce roots? Spruce? Indian hemp? Well, half a dozen plants you can see from this bridge. Or if you wanted to net the fish or spear them while you could. Oh, wait a minute, Sergeant. Okay, okay. You got me on the ropes. But all I wanted to do was put down a hook with some bait on it. And when those perch latch onto it... You worked with a company clerk this morning, didn't you? Yeah. You happen to have any paper clips in your pocket? Well, sure, I guess so. Here, here. Got a half a dozen of them. Thanks. Now if you just straighten out this first one, say this way, and bend back the end, you got your hook. And if we open out the rest of them... Hey, Galzano, you're in business. It's a hook and a 12-inch leader-logans rig for you. Yeah, and for paper clips. Hey, come on, let's grab some grasshoppers or find some worms. What I don't get, Sarge, is how you learn. You're losing your eyesight, Calzine. Did you ever see the Ranger tab over Logan's divisional patch? Ranger tab? What's that got to do with fishing? You know, how to live off the country. While the rangers can find food where crows will be lining up for K-rations. Come on, tell them about it, Sarge. We've got time here till the tenant catches up with us. That's time enough, Galzano. There's a lot more than plain survival techniques. It's an eight-week course, and from the day each candidate hits... Fort Benning, Georgia, where the Ranger Training Command of the Infantry School welcomes selected volunteers drawn from the United States infantry, airborne, armored, and combat engineer units all over the world. Addressing a squad of the new class that included Sergeant Jim Logan, Tactical Officer Ben Thompson outlined the challenge of the eight weeks ahead. What? At ease, man. I'm Lieutenant Thompson, your attack officer for the duration of the course. Chiefly, I'll be observing and appraising the job you do during the three weeks here at Benning, the two weeks at our Florida camp, and the final three weeks in the mountains. You'll be instructed by specialists. You'll operate through your own leaders. Now, most of your learning you'll get by doing. We aim to pack a great deal of it into these next eight weeks. How to eat, move, and fight effectively under all kinds of conditions. Heat, cold, traffic, mountains. But the main thing you'll learn if you make the grade is that a good man can always do a lot more than he might think he can. Now, this course is a challenge. Meet it, and you can put that Ranger tab on your shoulder. And when you do, you'll know that you're rated with the best fighting men on earth. You'll find training schedules posted in the mountains. Man, they really figured to keep us jumping around here. Look at that schedule. Three mile runner, bayonet drill, hand-to-hand fighting, and then they shove in some straight exercise. So you figured they'd haul us down here for eight weeks in the sack, Sergeant? Get that organized, fellow, and I'll sign up. My name's Logan. Jim Logan. Well, you got my sympathy, Sergeant. I'm Danny Marlowe. Are you teamed up with anybody yet for this buddy system they want us to follow? Logan, you've got yourself a partner if you'll put up with me. But, uh... But what? I haven't had time to get the Carolina sand on my boots yet. Here I am tucking out just looking at this schedule. If you get left in orphan next week, don't say I didn't warn you. Now, the next exercise is the hide jumper. We'll take it in cadence on cumulative count and by mass command. To the starting position, met. Starting position. Oh! The exercise at your command. Met. In cadence. Exercise. Cut. Two. Beautiful defense. When surprised up close, you don't lift for a full aim. You snap off a pair of shots fast, then see if you need me more. In your crouch this way, you just jump to face the sound of the enemy and let your body do your aiming for you. All right, let's try it individually on the dummies as I call your target. Logan, first dummy. Hey, Jeff. Yeah, Danny. I figure we've run clear over to Tennessee yet. I'd call it going into the fourth mile. Back on that third mile. I was calling my pack 500 pounds even. Since we started up this hill, I'm going for the world's weight-toting record. You can't make it, Danny. Where my pack feels, I'm lugging all the lead in the world right now. All right, Marlow, suppose you'll orient the map fours this time, huh? May I do it, Lieutenant? How'd you arrive with that? No inspections, sir. Set it on that knob over beyond the gully. The knob isn't named on the map. Are you sure how Marlow picked it out? You mean contour lines, Lieutenant? Check. Delaney, get your compass on the knob and give us the azimuth. He'll use it to get over there. All right, call it 305 degrees, sir. We had a patrol on that knob, Marlow, and you wanted to report back in position. How would you write it in terms of this map? I'd use an overlay. Coordinates on our thrust line if we'd set one up. Know what a thrust line is, Logan? I can't say I'm all the way straight on over, Lieutenant. Which means you don't know. All right, let's get you straight on it. If a report made with standard grid coordinates fell into enemy hands, they might nail our patrol in two minutes. For any given area, a commander can get extra insurance against that by picking any two points at random and calling a line drawn between them the thrust line. Now, for this area, we might call it from the head of its gully On a night compass course, when you hit a swamp or an enemy outpost or a river that the hand is around, you've got several ways of making the detour and getting back on your azimuth. One's to right angle off, counting your paces when you're past the obstacle. But a faster one, even when it's too dark for landmarks, is to try averaging the angles of departure and return. Have you got that? All right, let's try it on a double. Logan, you lead us on a 45-degree swing to the left for 10 minutes and then get us back on the original azimuth. Let's see, your first checkpoint is that split pine up ahead. We'll start off easy this morning. 50 push-ups apiece. The position. Move. Start push-ups. Exercise. As ranges, you men will be doing more on less than the enemy expects of you. You'll travel faster to live a more firepower at any given spot in time if that's your assignment. When I say ranges, of course, I mean you and the men of your own outfit you'll be working with on return. A ranger gets top use out of every weapon, every piece of equipment carried. On demolition, if a job calls for a half pound of explosive material, you don't sock in two pounds and you don't try to get away with two ounces. Remembering your beehive principle, you shape and pack your charge where it'll do what you want it to do. You ready there yet, Logan? All right, get your cap in. What's your fuse set for? One minute. Check it, Marlo. Set up looks all right to me, Lieutenant. Light it, Delaney. Fire in the hole. Lieutenant, aren't we starting out of here? We can get into our ditch and behind those sandbags in 15 seconds and that's walking. Lieutenant, you... All right, let's get over and back to some color. But we're walking there, Marlo. What's this, Lieutenant, made out of ice or something? It's a one-minute fuse, Danny. I got it myself. Okay, but what if you... All right, down back to the sandbags here. Things to remember about explosives, Marlo. You don't underrate them and you don't overrate them. They're a tool. Use them right and they're no trickier to handle than a sharp axe might be. All right, Logan, let's see if your tree comes down. I shouldn't have come to Ben and Jim. They're trying to get more out of me than I got. Ah, cut it out, Danny. You weren't a good man. Your company commander never endorsed you for here. What's really getting you down? Well, snakes, for one thing. Ah, I've hated them since I was a kid and saw a man die from a rat and a bite his face all black and hollering. They haven't lost a range of candidates yet from snakebite, Danny. Well, they can always start with me, can't they? Have you ever been near a snake since you were a kid? I'm crazy, of course not. Look, it could be like explosives. If you know enough about them, maybe they're not so tough. Look, Jim, if we were in combat and had to do something, might be I'd make as good a try as the next guy. But to keep beating your brains out and walking into 98 kinds of trouble just for practice... Nothing we get into here's worse in combat, Danny. You know, I had a year and a half in Korea, I ought to know. But if you have enough tough dry runs and, of course, like this, there's a lot less can throw you off balance later. Off balance? Man, I get knocked down every time I try to get out of my knees. I wake up 10 yards behind my goal post and keep being shoved back all day long. You just watch down in Florida, Jim. If I don't wind up smack at the bottom of the thickest, blackest, most alligator-ridden muck a man ever got himself in. Man, you've been doing so well on your patrol problems. Tomorrow, you're going to have a special Florida-type beach party. Picnic, short dinner, all the trim. What do you know, Jim? Oh, Simon will agree, Thompson, break into that. Only catch is that you're going to have to cover 20 miles of swamp and scrub to get to the beach. You're going to promote your own picnic on the way. You can find your food wild, run it down, or pull it out of the sea with a tackle you won't provide yourself. So, Danny, you mean we don't even get to take off? We don't take off. All the shower lines tomorrow are ranges and no rations packed. You get a machete and a compass of peace and you're on your own for the day living off the country as you go. You are listening to the proudly-we-hailed production Ranger Tab. We'll return in just a moment for the second act. What's your interest? Is it radio, photography, motor mechanics, metalwork? If you'd like to learn a highly skilled, well-paid trade like pharmacy, watch repairs, photography, motor mechanics, or electronics, there's no better place to learn than in the United States Army. The Army offers training in dozens of highly specialized jobs, jobs that will pay you well for the rest of your life. Many veterans have already used their Army training and experience to build profitable careers for themselves. Out of the skills, the Army taught them. You can do the same. Visit your local United States Army and United States Air Force Recruiting Station today. Talk it over and find out what's in it for you when you serve your country as an American soldier. You are listening to Proudly-We-Hail and now we present the second act of Ranger Tab. In a world where the defense of freedom can call American troops anywhere to the Arctic, to mountainous countries, to deserts, or to tropical lowlands, all soldiers have to expect the unexpected. In the rangers where stress is put on self-reliance and resourcefulness, candidates learn to find food and water and to operate with relative ease under conditions where untrained men might panic or starve. Some more out-of-head plants, Danny. Want to dig for the bulbs? Look, dear, if it's all the same to you, let's just keep on with these bone spears we made, or we'll scare up some rabbits. You don't take to the out-of-head bulbs? All right. I can get the cattail roots on the dandelion down. I'm glad to know about them if I ever get into a jam, but I'm getting hungry. Hey, we're in, Danny. You hear that? What? My frog's legs would cost you five bucks a plate back in restaurant country. Come on, we'll rig nets out of this fiber we lined up and catch ourselves a dozen of them. Hold it! Hold it! What is it? Don't move. There's a snake right behind you. We made it. We're gonna get him a black jib. It's a car. I'll take it easy, Danny. I can chop him with a machete. Jim, don't go near him. It's bait. Let me get the show and start fishing, Danny. Thanks for tipping me off. Jim, I wouldn't have gone near him for all... You handled the rotten one class the other day, didn't you? No. No, I... Delaney stepped out of position and covered for me. He had its head while I just faked handling the body. Danny, you're not helping anybody when you're talking. Okay, okay. I know I watched the rest unit. It should be all right. Well, I'm still giving snakes plenty elbow room. Well, they don't have elbows, and they don't have... All right. Let's get better than an assist on that one. Come on, let's get collecting our frog's legs. Jim, there could be moxins in that water. Let's just keep going. The lunch menu says frog's legs and frog's legs we're having. Get a fire started. The ranger candidates fared better that day than they thought they would. Rabbits, turtles, berries, edible plants and wild fruit on the way. Crab, mussels and fish at the shore in plenty. Enough to feed them five times over. They even learned that some kinds of seaweed can be a nourishing delicacy. And in the great Smoky Mountains of northern Georgia, as the training moved into the last three weeks, the men found that food, shelter and supplies can be improvised high as well as low. And forgetting down sheer cliffs quickly and safely, the rangers in training learned the mountaineer's art of repelling. Now, we told you not to try going up or down a cliff unless you have to. In mountain country, you generally either be following the ridge line or a valley, not trying to keep cutting across the ridges. All right, if there's a way around a cliff, take it. If there isn't, then you have ropes. Repelling can help you. Now, the trick's based on the friction of rope against your body. Okay, Marlowe, get your rope around this tree. Tying it around? No, no, no, the free end around. Then haul till your two ends are even. And you want to be sure you pick a good solid tree or rock, one that won't snag the rope when you want to haul it down after. Right. All right, Marlowe, back now, four or five feet from the tree, straddling your rope. Keeping it full tide? Yeah, this way. Reaching in back of you, you wrap a pair of ropes around your left thigh, up across your chest, over your right shoulder, and take your free end in your left hand and back. Now, the other you take with your right in front. All right, dropping down this cliff, you take it and spurts. Facing in, feet against the rock when you make contact, paying out line with both hands. You're asking us to drop down that cliff now, Lieutenant? Go to the edge and get the feel of it. I'll lean back now. In that rig, you can't break loose unless you panic and let go of the rope. Luke, Lieutenant, I wouldn't let go of this rope. All right, Marlowe, pull back and let Logan get the feel of it. And Eleni, rig your second rope on that other tree. I'll drop down the cliff once and climb back, and Ollie, you get a shot at it in turn. Man, this is fun. Come on, Jim, I'll race you to the bottom of the cliff. Each man out on the plank in turn and jump on command. Jim, that's a 30-foot drop there. They've got a grenade chargeway. The grenade, the blanket's in the water, Danny. Or you can get it wet, isn't it? Marlowe, out, Logan on deck. Every time. Drop! Logan out, Ortega on deck. From the days of Rogers Rangers, Morgan's Rifleman, and a handful of unstoppable Kentuckians who followed George Rogers' clock to the capture of Cascasque and Vincennes, through to the memorable combat exploits of modern American army rangers in the Sicily landings at Anzio, Cisterna de Latoria, Omaha Beach, Luzon, and in Korea, Ranger tactics have always stressed the shock value of swift-traveling, highly-trained units delivering an outsized punch in proportion to the numbers actually used. Today, that extra punch and those special skills are being added to all infantry units as increasing numbers of Ranger-trained non-comes and officers return to their outfits and not as lone wolves. The Rangers are trained for leadership and cooperation with others at all levels from battalion to six-man patrol. So, Danny Marlowe learned in Georgia after his surprise selection as first-dazed patrol leader on the important final mission to simulate destruction of the Blue Ridge power installation. Okay, guys, hit for cover. Chrissy, no takeout on flanks. Travolta out on point. We ought to wait for that first aggressor out for us, Danny. Yeah, pass the first one. There'll be lots more between here and those turbines we're looking for. It's pretty slick, Danny, making that first faint down below the bridge to draw off most of the aggressor patrol. Ah, it's four-leaf clover stuff, Jim. No, not lucky, Danny. You've figured it out and made it work. Big problems are still ahead. That's why I wanted to check this map again. Well, I got an idea. But maybe all of you better hear it first. It'll be coming straight out of your hides if we try it. Out of our hides? How? I was thinking of taking a wide swing and hitting the dam from the northeast. The northeast? You mean going clear around the river? Right, right. The other side of the reservoir. Wait a minute, Danny. I could be out in 20 miles of tough, up-and-down country to what we have to cover. Well, that's why I think it would work. The aggressor's got an air looking at the same map we got. They know how tough the terrain is, but we're getting there. Oh, but we're on a time schedule, Danny. We've got to get there, hit the turbines, and then get back to the base by over. I know what the schedule I'm saying. We buy those extra 20 miles out of our sleep. Keep pushing all of the day and most of tonight. And then hitting them from the side, they'd figure we didn't have a prayer of getting to. I said it could work. How about you, Ortega? Well, we'll cross them up. Okay with me. You, Clark? Well, we can catch up on our sleep after we blow the turbines. I'm in. I'm pushing. I got those extra 20 miles to cover. We'd better keep driving all the way. Jim Logan was patrol leader the second day, and he kept the squad pushing ahead at the headlong pace they'd maintained from the start. Moving fast, but with points out and keeping security all the way. This was applying all the techniques they'd learned in the hard weeks behind them. Covered, deception, rock work, survival tricks, math use, river crossings, and a dozen more, and the chief truth they'd gained all through the course. When men lick their own doubts, there's almost nothing that can stop them. There was a near ambush and a chase late on the second afternoon, but the patrol was coming from the unexpected side. And after they'd swerved and pushed on through, their last miles to the dam were through the thinner defense lines they'd hoped for. Greeting and crawling the last 300 yards, their exhaustion forgotten in the excitement of the showdown, they'd been stifled, the outcry of the one aggressor sentry between them and the objective, slipped into the designated target point and placed their simulated charge. Hey, Jim. Jim, light up and let's get out of here. No, it's not right yet, Delaney. You've got to put on something to make sure the charge will blow in against the turbines. Look, this is a fake charge. Those aggressor babies are tough. They're just getting fancier around here. We need packing to make the demolition sure. Jim. The same bags, Hill? Yeah, we came this far and might as well do the job up. Right. We've got these sandbags from that, uh, God box. They make it a number one job, Delaney. Let's get them packed on, all right. Okay. All set. Oh, and just remember, guys, fast and quiet on the way up. But there's a fight round the booth at the security position. Here she goes. Fire in the hole. Let's go. Ranger, candidate Logan. Candidate Logan, sir. You're a ranger, Logan. We've earned this tad and we're proud to have you wearing it. Congratulations. Thank you, sir. Ranger, candidate Marlowe. Now, look, Sarge, maybe I shouldn't ask after hearing you tell what it takes, but how does a guy get picked for this ranger's school? Well, it deals open for anyone in the Army, Carlzano, from PFC to captain. If you're under 33, qualified as a sharpshooter or better, and have some other qualifications, I'll tell you about. The main thing, though, is that no one gets picked to try. Yeah, but, Sarge, and if you just said... No, all rangers are volunteers, Carlzano. If you want to try for this tab, you do the reaching yourself. And you're the one man who decides whether there's one waiting for you at Fort Benning. Here's a special message to all Army veterans. You are urged to find out about the special enlistment opportunities now available to you. You can now enlist directly for the chemical corps, engineers, infantry, armor, ordinance, Army medical service, artillery, quartermaster, military police, signal or transportation corps, any of those technical services. This is an opening made especially for you and is not available to everybody, only to those of you who have had prior Army service. Of course, you will have to pass the other qualifications to the age limits and mental and physical examinations. But as an Army vet, you're already acquainted with the high caliber of men who meet the test. This applies also to the paratroopers. Only you men with prior service in the airborne are privileged to enlist directly for it now. Get full details about these opportunities today at your local United States Army and United States Air Force Recruiting Station. This has been another program on Proudly We Hail, presented transcribed in cooperation with the station. Proudly We Hail is produced by the Recruiting Publicity Center for the United States Army and the United States Air Force Recruiting Service. This is Kenneth Banghardt speaking and inviting you to tune in the same station next week for another interesting story on Proudly We Hail.