For 146 men, Monday was their day for "rejoining the human race."
Col. Keith M. Nightingale said the men could be considered alumni of an "eight-week Dale Carnegie course for the outdoor set." But the grueling training is better known as U.S. Army Ranger school.The elite infantry Rangers have been coming to Dugway since 1985 for the desert phase of their eight-week intensive training program, but Monday was the first time graduation was held at the Utah post instead of at Fort Benning, Ga.
And it most likely won't become a habit at Dugway, said Capt. Rich Prout - the graduation was held here primarily because Air Force flights weren't available as soon as hoped for to return the students to Georgia, and it was nearing time to send them back to their units.
Nightingale said the Ranger training is designed to produce "very disciplined, very competent and very confident" small unit leaders.
"It's supposed to be eight weeks - nine, starting in October - of stress," said Prout. And the graduation program explained: "Fatigue, hunger, the necessity for quick, sound decisions and the requirement for demonstrating calm, forceful leadership under conditions of mental and emotional stress are all contained in the Ranger Course. The physical condition of the Ranger student at times approaches exhaustion."
In the 58-day course, the students start with a basic phase at Fort Benning, followed by mountain training near Dahlonega, Ga. Then they go to Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, for counterguerrilla and jungle-swamp training. They finish at Dugway with the desert phase, which includes several live-fire exercises.
Sixty to 70 percent of the students in a Ranger course typically graduate, said Prout.
Monday's graduation featured a parachuting demonstration for the proud parents and other family members who came to watch their Rangers graduate.
Nightingale especially praised the support that Dugway and its commander have given the Ranger program. He said that in a year when Fort Benning took a 40 percent across-the-board budget cut, it's significant that the desert phase of Ranger training was one of only seven programs that the Army's Training and Doctrine Command specifically funded for continuation.