Page 109 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Fall 2016

Russ, Pappas, you—my first doc in the Ranger Regiment Later that night, I was getting ready to go take a shower
way back when I showed up as a Private in ’91. I still re- and I was walking in the dark. From a nearby tent I heard
member you grilling me on questions, and I was like, some young Rangers talking. One of the Rangers was
”They didn’t teach me that in AIT [advanced individual complaining because he was getting his combat scroll
(medic) training]!” I was in survival mode; I had just arrived and he didn’t get into a big firefight or engage the enemy.
at the Regiment. So he felt that he didn’t deserve his Ranger scroll [combat
patch]. I couldn’t help but think that at the other target
When you first get there, you’re in a probationary period. we had a brown-out when one of the birds flipped over
There are a lot of guys getting kicked out. Attrition rate on the target and two Rangers got crushed and killed.
back then was that out of the 15 guys to make it through I remember thinking when I was a young Ranger that I
RIP [Ranger Indoctrination Program], only five or six would wanted to go to combat to see what it was about. I real-
still be around 6 months later. We had a high attrition rate. ized that once you’ve been to combat and you’ve had a
That first year, I was just focused on making sure that I serious experience, you go to combat because it’s your
didn’t get kicked out of Ranger Regiment. I was following job, not because you want to do it. Most of the time, war’s
what my squad leader told me to do. I loved it! boring, but when it’s high intensity and you lose people,
you don’t want that again. The first time is naiveté. The
In the 2001 initial insertion into Objective RHINO, TC3 second time—that’s bravery. It doesn’t matter how ba-
principles allowed for the collection of data that [were] dass you are, sometimes you’re just in the wrong spot. I
later published in Dr Kotwal’s Eliminating Preventable wasn’t going to say anything to the young Rangers but it
Death [on the Battlefield]. Those TC3 principles equipped kept bugging me, so I stepped into the tent. I told them,
the Ranger Regiment with the capability of producing “You know what? You might think that you didn’t do any-
those results—eliminating preventable deaths. But that thing to earn that scroll. There were two guys that died
success hinged on the fact that we had the training, the on this operation that gave their lives for that. So when
equipment, and the command endorsement prior to go- you’re thinking and you’re looking at that scroll, just keep
ing to war. in mind that two Rangers died. Maybe that will give you
a better sense of what that scroll on your shoulder really
One of the most powerful things that was done (though it means and you can be proud that you earned it.”
may not seem as glorious as some other things because
nobody else wants to take the time to do the paperwork), I remember in 1993, Private First Class Marcus
was the work that Sergeant Montgomery did to make sure Muralles [a peer PFC Ranger Medic of FLO] . . .
that those programs became legacy programs that are died in Operation Red Wings [mentioned in the
still in effect today. Prior to these lessons learned, we were book, Lone Survivor]. He was the SFC 160th SOAR
seeing the first friction point in a mission occur when we medic in the Chinook helicopter.
started sustaining casualties. We got bogged down. We He took me under his wing. I was really impressed with his
didn’t have a good plan, because we had only conducted intelligence. He was a smart guy and he had a happy, smil-
medical rehearsals for actions on the target. It happened in ing, laughing personality. He had such a big presence. I
Somalia: we had not planned casualties in the other phases remember that I tried to talk him out [of leaving]. We were
of the operation. So when PFC Blackburn fell during fast- doing a fixed-wing [bilateral operation]. We were on Law-
roping, it became an unforecasted requirement. We had son Army Airfield. He was sitting there, and he told me he
not war-gamed taking a casualty during [infiltration]. was thinking of going to Task Force 160. I tried to talk him
out of it because I didn’t want him to leave the Ranger
Somalia was a catalyst. We learned that we couldn’t just Regiment. He told me, “I’m tired of road-marching every-
focus on casualties [on] the objective. We needed to look where. I just want to get into a helicopter and fly around.”
at casualties from the moment we left until the moment When I last saw him, I was down on the [San Antonio]
we came back. Those were the things that made us better, Riverwalk and I ran into him while he was at [Advanced
because we were honest with each other and we didn’t try Noncommissioned Officer Course]. He was getting ready
to hide our faults. We identified and fixed them. to deploy—his last deployment. The funny thing was that
he had a few beers and got the great idea to call our old
When we jumped into Objective Rhino, one of the main Battalion Surgeon, Dr Kotwal, at [0200] so that we could
missions where I was on target, we had minimal resis- have lunch with him the next day. His sense of humor is
tance. It was the one they showed on TV [television]. I was one of the things that Marcus was known for.
on the third bird going in. I never expected that this was
going to be in the news. I thought it was just going to The quality of people that I have been privileged to work
be another Ranger mission that nobody would ever hear with—to me, it’s humbling. I feel fortunate that I can call
about because that’s just the nature of the stuff we did. guys like Rob [Miller], John [Holcomb], Russ [Kotwal],
We came back from the mission, and they had it in the John [Detro], and you, friends. Think of all the things that
chow hall on the big screen. I was surprised and thought these guys have accomplished! Their hearts have been in
to myself, “They didn’t even tell us that we were going to the right place and I think that’s what sets them apart. It
be on TV!” We had a sense of pride. always starts with the heart. Some guys want to do stuff,

Special Talk: An Interview 91