"The Official US Army Ranger Handbook, as used in Fort Benning" -- Amazon website.

The history of the American Ranger is a long and colorful saga of courage, daring, and outstanding leadership. It is a story of men whose skills in the art of fighting have seldom been surpassed. The United States Army Rangers are an elite military formation that has existed, in some form or another, since the American Revolution. A group of highly-trained and well-organized soldiers, US Army Rangers must be prepared to handle any number of dangerous, life-threatening situations at a moment's notice-and they must do so calmly and decisively. This is their handbook. Packed with down-to-earth, practical information, The Ranger Handbook contains chapters on Ranger leadership, battle drills, survival, and first aid, as well as sections on military mountaineering, aviation, waterborne missions, demolition, reconnaissance and communications. If you want to be prepared for anything, this is the book for you. Readers interested in related titles from The U.S. Army will also want to see: Army Guerrilla Warfare Handbook (ISBN: 9781626542730) Army Guide to Boobytraps (ISBN: 9781626544703) Army Improvised Munitions Handbook (ISBN: 9781626542679) Army Leadership Field Manual FM 22-100 (ISBN: 9781626544291) Army M-1 Garand Technical Manual (ISBN: 9781626543300) Army Physical Readiness Training with Change FM 7-22 (ISBN: 9781626544017) Army Special Forces Guide to Unconventional Warfare (ISBN: 9781626542709) Army Survival Manual FM 21-76 (ISBN: 9781626544413) Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual (ISBN: 9781626544246) Map Reading and Land Navigation FM 3-25.26 (ISBN: 9781626542983) Rigging Techniques, Procedures, and Applications FM 5-125 (ISBN: 9781626544338) Special Forces Sniper Training and Employment FM 3-05.222 (ISBN: 9781626544482) The Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad FM 3-21.8 / 7-8 (ISBN: 9781626544277) Understanding Rigging (ISBN: 9781626544673)

Written by an expert on modern Special Forces units and the operations they undertake, this book explains the evolution of the Rangers' missions in Panama, the first Gulf War, Somalia and the post 9/11 invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. It reveals the training and organizational changes that the unit has undergone and investigates in particular how their doctrine and tactics have changed during the 14-year war in Afghanistan. At the beginning of the war the Rangers were an elite light infantry unit of picked men tasked with short duration recon raids and securing ground behind enemy lines in support of Special Forces; they have since evolved into a special-mission unit themselves – on the cusp of being assigned to the Joint Special Operations Command.

"A gloriously good writer...Ranger Games is both surprising and moving...A memorable, novelistic account."—Jennifer Senior, New York Times Intricate, heartrending, and morally urgent, Ranger Games is a crime story like no other Alex Blum was a good kid, a popular high school hockey star from a tight-knit Colorado family. He had one goal in life: endure a brutally difficult selection program, become a U.S. Army Ranger, and fight terrorists for his country. He poured everything into achieving his dream. In the first hours of his final leave before deployment to Iraq, Alex was supposed to fly home to see his family and beloved girlfriend. Instead, he got into his car with two fellow soldiers and two strangers, drove to a local bank in Tacoma, and committed armed robbery... The question that haunted the entire Blum family was: Why? Why would he ruin his life in such a spectacularly foolish way? At first, Alex insisted he thought the robbery was just another exercise in the famously daunting Ranger program. His attorney presented a case based on the theory that the Ranger indoctrination mirrored that of a cult. In the midst of his own personal crisis, and in the hopes of helping both Alex and his splintering family cope, Ben Blum, Alex’s first cousin, delved into these mysteries, growing closer to Alex in the process. As he probed further, Ben began to question not only Alex, but the influence of his superior, Luke Elliot Sommer, the man who planned the robbery. A charismatic combat veteran, Sommer’s manipulative tendencies combined with a magnetic personality pulled Ben into a relationship that put his loyalties to the test.

From the deadly shores of North Africa to the invasion of Sicily to the fierce jungle hell of the Pacific, the contribution of the World War II Ranger Battalions far outweighed their numbers. They were ordinary men on an extraordinary mission, experiencing the full measure of the fear, exhaustion, and heroism of combat in nearly every major invasion of the war. Whether spearheading a landing force or scouting deep behind enemy lines, these highly motivated, highly trained volunteers led the way for other soldiers -- they were Rangers. With first-person interviews, in-depth research, and a complete appendix naming every Ranger known to have served, author Robert Black, a Ranger himself, has made the battles of WWII come to life through the struggles of the men who fought to win the greatest war the world has ever seen.