Copyright John T. Reed

Rangers in the Night (sung to the tune of Frank Sinatra’s Strangers in the Night)

Rangers in the night
Exchanging azimuths
Wondering in the night
What were the chances
We’d be resupplied
Before the night was throooo.

Ranger Handbook (Sung to the tune of the refrain of Greenback Dollar)

A little background is necessary here. All Ranger students are issued a Ranger Handbook. At that time, it was an Army Field Manual which was about an inch thick and the dimensions of large post-it notes and held together by one or two big staples. We were required to carry it with us at all times including on patrol. You can buy the current version from Amazon.com and elsewhere.

We also got one C ration a day. That was a sort of box lunch that consisted of an entree can, a smaller fruit can, a tiny cracker or cookie can, one packet of non-dairy creamer, one packet of sugar, one packet of coffee, four cigarettes, and a one-day supply of toilet paper.

Here are our lyrics

And I don’t give a damn about a Ranger Handbook
Use it fast as I can
’Cause C-ration paper’s in short supply
And I ain’t gonna wipe it with my hand
Oh no
I ain’t gonna wipe it with my hand.

I know. I don’t plan to quit my day job.

John T. Reed

Link to information about John T. Reed’s Succeeding book which, in part, relates lessons learned about succeeding in life from being in the military