Photo By Capt. Kara Siepmann | Second Lt. Jorge Ramirez, a member of Joint Task Force Domestic Support-Counterdrug,...... read more read more
MATHER, Calif. -- “Surrender is not a Ranger word.” The newest California National Guard Ranger tab bearer, 2nd Lt. Jorge Ramirez, lived this part of the Ranger’s creed years before graduating from the U.S. Army’s premier leadership course.
Ramirez returned home from his first deployment to Iraq in 2004, energized and eager to improve his warrior skills. For his next deployment, the military intelligence specialist vowed that he’d return to the Middle East as a Ranger.
“It’s the best training you can get,” Ramirez said. “Rangers are the crème de la crème of tactical infantrymen.”
Lisa Ramirez, his wife, said Jorge thought about Ranger school for nearly a year before he approached his chain of command with the request. Once committed to the idea, Ramirez made it his goal to attend and complete Ranger school.
“Jorge would run four to five miles every day,” Lisa said. “Earning his Ranger tab was all he could focus on.”
Ramirez knew his training tested his wife. “Lisa grew tired of me getting up at 4:45 in the morning for ruck marches. What a sight the neighbors had”
Ramirez said Lisa would often accompany him on those training marches. While he carried a 75-pound rucksack, she would follow along with their son, Diego, in a baby-carrier.
“She knew what this meant for me,” Ramirez explained. “The fact that she understood the importance of these schools was the biggest way she was supportive.”
The Army National Guard sends relatively few Soldiers to Ranger School. The coveted slots are competitively-based. National Guard troops must attend Fort Benning’s Warrior Training Center for a two-week school called Pre Ranger before being accepted to the actual U.S. Army Ranger School.
The California National Guard has sent one Soldier to Ranger School per year since 2006, said Master Sgt. Bernadette Larosa, State Quota Source Manager.
“When the California National Guard does nominate a Soldier to attend Ranger School, he has already demonstrated he is one of the best,” said Maj. Charles Hancock, Joint Task Force Domestic Support-Counterdrug Northern Region commander, a Ranger himself.
Ramirez is a member of Joint Task Force Domestic Support-Counterdrug, where he works as a linguist analyst. It was here that Hancock met Ramirez and quickly became his mentor, Ramirez said.
Ramirez’s journey was long and hard-fought. First, Ramirez had to join an infantry unit. The buck sergeant completed an accelerated officer commission course and became a light infantry platoon leader with Delta Company, 1st Bn., 160th Reg. of San Pedro, Calif. After completing Basic Officer Leadership Course II and Infantry Basic Officer Leadership Course, Ramirez took two weeks off and returned to Fort Benning for Pre Ranger and Ranger School. After months of training, he was still focused on his goal. At 32 years old, the 9-year veteran was no stranger to Army schools. Ramirez recognized, “there’s a lot of luck involved. I wasn’t without some doubt I’d get through, but I sure wasn’t going to quit.”
Hancock explained that a Ranger student will average less than 3.5 hours of sleep a day for over two months; the other 20+ hours a day, they are moving by foot and typically carrying upwards of 90 pounds of weapons, equipment, and ammunition.
“When I completed Mountain and Florida phase, I experienced exhaustion like never before in my life,” Ramirez said. “I had blurry vision, ringing in the ears, and headaches - common for a combo of dehydration, hunger, and exhaustion. The stress caused from anxiety was also a factor.”
Despite the pressure, Ramirez said he was 110 percent sure he would not quit.
“I would have had to die to leave that school,” Ramirez said.
“Ranger students are given a clear mission,” Hancock explained. “But it is up to them to determine how to best execute it – and they had better get it right.”
Ranger students plan and execute daily patrolling, perform reconnaissance, ambushes, and raids against dispersed targets, followed by stealthy movements to new patrol bases to plan the next mission. Ranger students conduct about 20 hours of training per day, while consuming two or fewer meals daily.
Since food and sleep are at the bottom of an infantryman's priorities of work behind security, weapons maintenance, and health care and hygiene, it is the last thing Ranger students do - most students lose upwards of 20 pounds by the end of Ranger school, explained Hancock.
After more than 60 days focusing on tactical leadership under severe combat conditions, in various wooded, mountain, and swamp terrain in Georgia and Florida, Ramirez graduated, a first time go in every phase of training, he said. Ramirez’s class started with more than 400 Soldiers and by graduation day, July 16, only 156 remained.
This determined mindset is typical for Ramirez. He received a bachelor’s degree from California State University, Hayward and recently purchased his first home.
“Admittedly I’m old for a second lieutenant and to attend Ranger school,” Ramirez said. “But I’m in shape. Everything I accomplish is because I work hard at it.”
“He has drive,” Lisa said. “He pushes me because he’s always on the go.”
Ramirez recognizes that he hasn’t always been a shining example of motivation. He graduated as valedictorian from high school and headed straight to University of Southern California. But after three years, he was caught up in fraternity party scenes more than academics, he said.
“There’s a big hole in my heart for not finishing at USC,” Ramirez admitted. “Everything I do now, I push myself harder and harder to make up for that.”
The California National Guard will reap the benefits of this new Army leader’s training for years to come. Ramirez plans to make serving in the California National Guard a career, he said.
What does he tell his soldiers in the 160th Reg’s Delta Company? “You can do anything you want, you just have to fight. Go out and get what you want!”
Ramirez hopes word of his accomplishment spreads throughout the California Army National Guard so that other deserving candidates can have the same opportunity.
“Having people who believed in me was half the battle,” Ramirez said. Convincing his leaders to fund the investment was the other half. “But I’m a true believer of ‘where there is a will, there is a way.’”
| Date Taken: | 07.16.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 09.17.2014 12:21 |
| Story ID: | 142421 |
| Location: | CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 710 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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