Jimmy Blackmon - Ranger School: Discipline, Direction, Determination

Advance Praise for
Ranger School

Raw, funny, at times painfully descriptive, but always inspiring, Jimmy Blackmons book Ranger School will make every American proud of the warriors that wear the Ranger Tab.

Admiral William H. M c Raven , Admiral, USN

One of the identifying qualities of a good leader is the ability to lead a felt life. In his new book Ranger School , Jimmy Blackmon takes us inside the Armys most arduous and difficult small unit tactics and leadership school, a course which only a few dare to attempt, and lets us feel it. A well-written story of overcoming adversity. Many life lessons in these pages.

General Martin E. Dempsey (Retired), 18th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Also by Jimmy Blackmon

Pale Horse: Hunting Terrorists and Commanding Heroes with the 101st Airborne Division

Cowboys Over Iraq : Leadership from the Saddle

A KNOX PRESS BOOK

An Imprint of Permuted Press

Ranger School:

Discipline, Direction, Determination

2021 by Jimmy Blackmon

All Rights Reserved

ISBN: 978-1-68261-981-0

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-68261-982-7

Cover art by Cody Corcoran

Interior design and composition by Greg Johnson, Textbook Perfect

This is a work of nonfiction. All people, locations, events, and situations are portrayed to the best of the authors memory.

Although every effort has been made to ensure that the personal and professional advice present within this book is useful and appropriate, the author and publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any person, business, or organization choosing to employ the guidance offered in this book.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author and publisher.

Permuted Press, LLC

New York Nashville

permutedpress.com

Published in the United States of America

Contents

4th Ranger Training Battalion
Fort Benning, Georgia

7th Ranger Training Battalion
McGregor Base Camp, New Mexico

5th Ranger Training Battalion
Camp Frank D. Merrill, Georgia

6th Ranger Training Battalion
Camp Rudder, Florida

Y ou hold in your hands the single most important book to read in order to understand military leadership, the US Armed Forces most elite warriors, and their role in the decades-long wars after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The first thing to understand is that Ranger School is a leadership school . Not all Rangers go from the school to the 75th Ranger Regiment. Many of them (like Jimmy Blackmon) go to other units. But all of them bear the Ranger Tab on their uniform, and that patch is a universal symbol of leadership excellence.

Ranger School: Discipline, Direction, Determination delves into the fearsome forge that takes mere mortals of flesh and blood and hammers them into the quiet professionals who wear the Ranger Tab. Along with Jimmy Blackmons excellent books, Cowboys Over Iraq and Pale Horse , this book is the first volume in an amazing trilogya triad of masterful storytelling that illuminates and informs the reader about military leadership, the Global War on Terror, and the remarkable career of one of the most extraordinary front-line combat leaders in US military history.

In the 1980s, I had the honor to work with Jerry Ledzinski, who had been a Special Forces A-Team leader during the Vietnam War. For many years during that long and brutal war, US Special Forces (a.k.a. Green Berets) operated behind enemy lines in Cambodia, Laos, and North Vietnam. Serving as a captain in command of one of these A-Teams has been recognized as the single most dangerous job in that war. Only one man had survived two six-month tours of duty in this position. And then one man survived six tours. That man was Jerry Ledzsinski.

I asked Jerry, How did you survive six tours in this position? I expected him to say something about his experiences at West Point or his Special Forces training. No. Maybe it was some influence of his family or his upbringing. No. Maybe it was his previous combat experience as a young lieutenant, leading paratroopers in the 82nd Airborne Division in the Dominican Republic. No.

Jerry said, It was all Ranger School. The military troop-leading procedures model is the most powerful problem-solving process the world has ever seen. Ranger School carved that problem-solving process into our neurons, and it works. It is all that kept me alive, year after year.

Jerry (who left the army after the Vietnam War) went on to say, Today I run a multi-million-dollar investment business, and I do it with the tools I was taught to use in Ranger School.

In the 1990s, I was able to touch base with Jerry Ledzinski again. He told me about a new Templeton Investment Fund that was accepting bids in a worldwide competition to select the individual who would manage this multi-million-dollar endeavor. Jerry won the competition by submitting a five-paragraph operations order that, he said, blew Templeton out of the water!

That is the secret of Ranger School. The skills that we learn and successfully apply under great stress (as per Ranger School) are carved into our neurons and indelibly woven into our existence. And that is Ranger Schools gift that keeps on giving.

The result, represented by the Ranger Tab on a soldiers uniform, is an unbreakable never quit attitude and absolute mastery of that military problem-solving process. It is a form of leadership magic that is carved into your soul.

The battlefield is the most unforgiving, deadly, dangerous field of endeavor known to man. The process of military leadership that has evolved across centuries of warfare is the end product of a deadly Darwinian evolution.

That is why US military officers were chosen to lead the vast majority of our corporations in the post-World War II era. Today, former US military officers still represent a disproportionate amount of corporate leadership positions, and officers leaving the US military are heavily recruited for corporate leadership.

And that is what Jimmy Blackmon teaches today in his Executive Leadership Series, dynamic and engaging keynote presentations, and training seminars for business leaders worldwide.

I graduated from Ranger School in 1979, and it was the single most powerful military experience in my career. I have authored many books, but I could never have written this book. Jimmy Blackmon has an amazing memory (while for me, much of Ranger School was a dull blur), and his later books combine to make his literary contributions greater than the sum of the parts.

One of my favorite World War II authors is John Masters. His book Bugles and a Tiger gives great insight into a British Gurkha unit and British officer professional development, pre-war. Then his Road Past Mandalay followed Masterss experience in a Gurkha unit during World War II. The impact of these two books is greater than the sum of the parts. It is truly a transcendent combination, a war story to the second power, giving a deep and profound insight into a soldiers life and the British military experience in World War II.

And that is what Jimmy Blackmon has given us in his books. Read this bookand then read his other books, if you have not already done so. Read, experience, and understand the most brutal, effective, and powerful leadership school known to man.