Ranger Handbook [Paperback]

U.S. Army (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0873640446 | ISBN-13: 978-0873640442 | Publication Date: November 1993 | Edition: Revised

Paladin is now offering the most up-to-date version in print of the famed U.S. Army Ranger Handbook. This manual draws from bloody lessons learned from two centuries of special operations combat. Crammed with info on demolitions, booby traps, communications, patrolling, tactical movement, battle drills, combat intelligence and much more.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Paladin Press; Revised edition (November 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873640446
• ISBN-13: 978-0873640442
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 4.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #142,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Small for a Reason, March 23, 2006

By 

Ben "Ben" (Texas, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ranger Handbook (Paperback)

I went to Ranger School in 1973. After that the SF Q course. This book, so everyone knows, is small because it was not meant to be read in an armchair and sit in a library. It is the book that fits as the sole field reference book for a Ranger or Infantryman in general, in his BDU pocket. It is pocket sized for that reason only. Real Rangers and Infantrmen who would carry it to the field would put it inside a ziplock baggy to keep it dry and clean and stuff it in his rucksack or pocket and consider it a luxury item! I have about 6 or 7 editions/versions of this over my 30 year career. The book is printed by the print shop at Fort Benning, Georgia, and each Ranger school student gets a copy, and you can pick up a copy for free at the Fort Benning post publications center. You can also buy copies off base for a premium. The print of the Fort Benning issue copies is of course small, but very readable. And they are stapled together. Anything else is probably some publisher taking a copy, photocoping or camera copying the handbook, putting the resolutions in a computer, and printing their own version. The originals are printed under the USAIS (U.S. Army Infantry School) of which the U.S. Army Ranger School is a part of. This is a book that every member of the 75th Ranger Regiment )(the unit involved when someone says Army Rangers did this or that...). Going to Ranger school is not the same thing as being in the 75th Ranger Regiment, though nearly all members of the 75th RgrRegt have been to Ranger School, or will go as soon as they get a school slot. In the 75th all leaders of any rank have been to Ranger School. Only some of the newest privates who have volunteered to go, but not yet had a school slot have not been. Ranger School is just he "basics" of Ranger training for those in the 75th Ranger Regiment. Ranger school trained soldiers are common and in many units of the Army. The 75th Regt has a very elite and challenging work and training ethic befitting who they are and the missions given to them. This handbook is not their sole reference, not even close...FM 7-8, FM 7-10, FM 7-20, etc, etc are also their guiding books...but this is a handbook every Ranger has and often carries. If for no other reason that it is a lot simplier to look up the calculations, placement, and detonation for a specific demolitions charge for a specific target than try to memorize the tables. LOL The rest of the stuff in the book is trained on so throughly every Ranger pretty much could recite it, and more importantly, implement it when under fire in combat, automatically without hesitation and a second thought. Interested civilians might find this interesting. The handbook is a compilation of bits and pieces of information available in many other Army references (Field Manuals, Training Bulletins, etc) but is gathered together in the Ranger Handbook so it is in one small and useful resource.

36 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The real thing, but wait..., November 20, 2001

By 

Ryan Jones (Cos Cob, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ranger Handbook (Paperback)

I was disappointed when I first saw this book. It's small, and by small I mean almost impractically so. The pages look as though they have been simply photocopied and stapled into the cover. What I'm trying to say is that that quality of the actual book is terrible. I found the type very difficult to read and the diagrams even harder to read. With some practice, however, I discovered the tremendous worth of this volume. It's lengthy, but this is a tribute to the army's reputation for covering every base and contingency. It covers everything that a member of the elite Army Rangers would encounter in the field, and this is both fascinating and useful. Rangers are some of the best soldiers in the world, why not learn what they know? This is a must for any enthusiast of the military, as the advanced infantry maneuvers described are brilliant. You will learn everything in this book from survival and camping skills to ambush tactics and night maneuvers. This got me excited, and if you feel the same way then you should definitely pick this up today. My only warning is in regard to the quality, as I mentioned. Don't say that no one warned you!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A pocket-sized look inside an elite military organization, June 28, 2005

By 

vfrickey (off in the mountains somewhere) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ranger Handbook (Paperback)

This is a great document. The editors distilled an incredible amount of information about being not only an infantryman, but an elite infantryman into a book about the same size as a copy of Reader's Digest.

And it begins well, with Major Robert Rogers's original admonitions to his troopers ("Standing Orders, Rogers' Rangers") when they were fighting in the French and Indian War.

To quote from the editors' notes:

"Ranger techniques and methods were an inherent characteristics of the frontiersmen in the colonies, but Major Rogers was the first to capitalize on them and organize them into a permanently organized fighting force. His "Standing Orders" were written in the year 1759. Even though they were over 200 years old, they apply just as well to Ranger operations conducted on today's battlefield."

And the Standing Orders themselves:

"1. Don't forget nothing.

2. Have your musket clean as a whistle, hatched scoured, sixty rounds powder and ball, and be ready to march at a minute's warning.

3. When you're on the march, act the way you would if you were sneaking up on a deer. See the enemy first.

4. Tell the truth about what you see and what you do. There is an Army depending on us for correct information. You can lie all you please when you tell other folks about the Rangers, but don't never lie to a Ranger or officer.... "

and so on, for a total of 19 standing orders.

The rest of the book (the part Major Rogers DIDN'T write) is more grammatical, but no less down-to-earth, mostly. Lots of information about how to be a combat leader, and detailed lists of lots of things (probably not everything by a long shot) expected of a Ranger, lists of standard operating procedures of our Army's elite infantry troops - even down to informal advice on when to set booby traps and how to rig dipole antennas for long-range radios.

What's so great about this book? It allows the reader to more fully understand the way of life of troops who train so hard that many trainees don't complete the Ranger course. And in this day and age that is no bad thing, because in Afghanistan and Iraq and places we'll probably never learn the names of, people who must read, mark and inwardly digest what's in this book defend us and destroy our enemies.

The Ranger Handbook got 4 stars because it is an authentic example of a rare genre, a military training document that transmits knowledge from elite warrior to apprentice elite warrior with no bureaucrats or technical writers in between. As such, it's a reasonably good, candid peek at the training of a member of an elite military organization.

Perhaps lots of military organizations have books of this sort, but the US Army Rangers seem to be the only organization whose informal in-house document is widely circulated outside its parent organization without a lot of fiddling around with the text, changes to the art, etc. Any book purporting to be "The Official US Armed Forces (whatever)" probably isn't.