U.S. ARMY RANGERS

The U.S army rangers or United States army rangers or Army rangers are special American troops, basically light infantry. Originally these Army rangers existed in the 17^th century and were employed as full-time soldiers to signal and warn about any possible raids on the colonies. In worst situations, the Army Rangers took up the role of locating the targets for the military soldiers. The rangers got a new element added to their present responsibility, thanks to Benjamin Church, in 1676. Rangers mixed with local people to counter enemies when the usual soldiers were found ineffective. So effective were his rangers that, his memoirs were published in the America’s first military manual.

In the US, Rangers were generally considered for local frontier security, mostly because George Washington felt the issue of frontier security was local. The military soldiers were used for battles against the British and others. The continental army formed only two rangers during the American revolutionary war, namely Knowlton’s rangers and the Whitcomb’s rangers, which were basically light infantry. In 1863, during the American civil war, John S.Mosby commanded the partisan ranger, but soon became unpopular because of their frequent raids on the union territory’s soldiers, supply trains and even capturing their officers.

The first ranger battalion was formed during the World War II, and began training in Scotland under the British commandos. Later on came the 2^nd, 3^rd, and so on. Each was formed for a special purpose and was engaged in a different battle. An 8^th army ranger company was formed in 1950 for a unique purpose of the Korean War. This Ranger served as a prototype for the future rangers, and differed from the former rangers in that they are separately created as special units or companies and then merged into the larger military units. 16 more rangers were formed in the next months. A school was formed to train rangers for the combat during the Korean War and the school still continued its operation even after the war.

The 75^th ranger infantry regiment was formed in 1969 by the US army rangers under the Combat Arms Reorganization system in Vietnam. The companies were given different names like C, D, E, and many more. Rangers performed different functions like planning and directing air strikes, executing hunter-killer missions at night, assessing bombing damage in enemy-controlled areas, among others. After the war, it was felt that the rangers needed a light infantry for rapid deployment, so the 1^st ranger battalion was formed in 1984. The 75^th ranger regiment was formed in 1986. The 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th ranger battalions were re-activated from the Vietnam War and acted as instructors for the modern Ranger school. From then on, the rangers were involved in numerous missions in Somalia, Haiti, Grenada, Afghanistan and the recent Iraq war.