Why Did the U.S. Army Keep Disbanding the Rangers?

**Bob Crawford** (0:00)
So Brian, if a young person came to you and said, I want to be an Army Ranger, what advice would you give them?

**Brian Halstead** (0:06)
God bless you.

**Bob Crawford** (0:11)
You've reached American History Hotline. You ask the questions, we get the answers. Leave a message. Hey there, American History Hotliners, Bob Crawford here. Thrilled to be joining you again for another episode of American History Hotline. It is the show where you ask the questions, and to get us a question, you can send a voice memo or a video to our brand new website, americanhistoryhotline.com. That's americanhistoryhotline.com.
Today's question comes from Carolyn in West Virginia.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:47)
We think of the Army Rangers in our country as a continuous elite force, but their history is full of restarts. Why did the Army keep shutting Ranger units down, and what role did the Irish influence irregular tactics play in the eventual revival?

**Bob Crawford** (1:05)
This is a great question, Carolyn, and I see your son is currently serving in the 75th Ranger Regiment. Be sure and thank him for his service for us.
I'd like to also thank our guest today for his service to our country. It's Brian Halstead. He's president of the US. Army Ranger Association. Brian, thanks for joining me today.

**Brian Halstead** (1:29)
Thank you. Happy to be here.

**Bob Crawford** (1:30)
Brian, there's so much to talk about when it comes to the Rangers. But I wanted to ask you something. I know I came up when I was doing my research, and I just want you to tell me if this is accurate or not.
Was Abraham Lincoln an Army Ranger?

**Brian Halstead** (1:47)
Yeah, so in 1812, President Ray's six companies, Rangers, many famous men were in Rangers in the 18th and 19th centuries, including Daniel Boone and Abraham Lincoln. Now, they were probably used a lot more like Washington used them. They're scouts in reconnaissance more than today's Rangers, which are really almost always part of a strike package.
But yeah, apparently, that is accurate.

**Bob Crawford** (2:14)
Amazing. Where I come from in North Carolina, Daniel Boone has some history around here, so it's really cool to hear that. I know some of our audience will know a little bit about the Rangers. Others may have a foggy idea or not know anything.
Maybe you hear them in the same, a lot of people think about the Rangers and they think about the Navy Seals and the Green Berets. Can you separate those and who are, what are the Army Rangers?

**Brian Halstead** (2:43)
Yeah, great question. So Navy Seals, I can't speak to with as much precision, but I was both an Army Ranger and a Green Beret during my couple decades of service. So basically the Seals are part of the Navy's, what I call, strike packages. And I'm sure some Seal summer is going to take umbrage at that. But in the Army, the Rangers are just that. They are almost always on offense, almost always hitting something, almost always in the advanced stages of any sort of military kinetic activity that we take.
Whereas the Green Berets, it's a lot harder, I always joke, it's a lot harder to make a movie at Green Berets because a big part of what SF does is show that they are fully capable of being everybody's kinetic as the Army Rangers, but they tend to operate in much smaller elements. And they tend to, in a perfect world, they would go in, much like I did in Afghanistan, went way up to the north, started building rapport with the local governor, his militia, started building rapport with portions of the Afghan National Army, and then we trained them to a standard where we could utilize them, and then we would lead them into battle. But it's not as sexy and it takes a long time.

**Bob Crawford** (4:16)
So getting to Carolyn's question then, it sounds like there have been some restarts of the Rangers, maybe some disbandings. Can we go back to the beginning and tell us, when did the Army Rangers start?

**Brian Halstead** (4:31)
So, yeah, boy, and you have to go way back. So the Army Rangers predate this nation. George Washington in the French and Indian War.
So famous guy, Robert's Rangers. Robert's Rangers were fighting the French and Indian Wars. So then you come after that, and then we start getting into the Revolutionary War, and George Washington starts to sing what she calls Carlton's Rangers. So, and again, this is used more for espionage and reconnaissance than it is like today's Army Rangers are very much, you know, go that way, kill people and break things.