[815C]

My son heads to the Army and RASP this summer. He enlisted with an Option 40 contract that will send him to RASP after basic training.

He has been working out 2 -3 hours a day for years, running to the gym and back with a 40 pound weighted vest, etc. and is built like a tank. He went thru police academy as part of the prep. But RASP looks pretty intense.

Any Rangers/former Rangers here with words of wisdom for him?

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RASP:

The training curriculum was specifically designed to "smoke" the trainees through endless punishment via constant physical training. In the second and fourth week of RASP, the class is sent to "Cole Range"; a remote training area of Fort Moore. It is designed to test the individual to their breaking point both physically and mentally; trainees sleep on average 4 hours total throughout Cole Range as they spend their nights doing tedious tasks such as the "hitting the wood line" for being incapable of meeting the given time standards. Although training such as patrolling and land navigation is taught at Cole Range, the main focus is to mentally and physically break down the individual. For classes held in the winter; it is not uncommon for 30–49% of the starting class to quit during the first night of Cole Range.

RASP is broken down into two levels of training: RASP 1 for Junior Noncommissioned Officers and Enlisted Soldiers (pay grades E-1 through E-5) and RASP 2 for Senior Noncommissioned Officers, Officers and Warrant Officers. Candidates will train on physical fitness, marksmanship, small unit tactics, medical proficiency and mobility. Training is fast-paced and intense, ensuring Ranger candidates are prepared to employ their skills in both continued training and worldwide operations upon reaching their assigned Ranger unit. Throughout the course all candidates will be screened to ensure that only the best Soldiers are chosen for service in the Ranger Regiment. Regardless of the course, all candidates must meet the course requirements in order to serve in the Ranger Regiment.

As of January 2010, the 4-week Ranger Indoctrination Program (RIP) became RASP (Ranger Assessment and Selection Program) and extended to 8 weeks long. There are two separate phases in the RASP program.

Phase 1 primarily consists of day to day, week to week physical and mental toughness training, and includes rigorous "smoke" sessions (blocks of time specifically geared toward using physical training as a tool for corrective training and instruction) that are used to train the group if a particular task, condition, or standard is not met, and also incorporate a necessary environment of the unknown to each soldier. Phase 2 training includes marksmanship and baseline breaching abilities. Ranger history is also the subject of training.