FORT JACKSON, S.C. (Nov. 20, 2014) -- About five weeks into Ranger School, Staff Sgt. Matthew Vitug was ready to surrender.
It was during the second stage of the program, dubbed the Mountain Phase, that Vitug said he began to doubt his ability to follow through on his plans to become a Ranger. The Mountain Phase takes place miles away from civilization at Camp Merrill, located near Dahlonega, Georgia. He was tired, hungry and, during the night, fatigue was beginning to take its toll.
But fatigue alone wasn't what haunted him.
"I started missing my kids and wife," he said. "We had been walking, and it seemed like forever. Every step I took I wanted to quit. I started thinking about my kids and remembered watching 'Frozen' before I left."
While making his way through the darkness, Vitug said he began to sing some of the songs from the Disney film, songs he had sung for his young daughter.
"There was this grown man singing songs from 'Frozen' in the middle of the night," he said. "And I started thinking about what my wife would think if I quit. It was my 'Come to Jesus' moment."
Ultimately, Vitug not only finished the course, but graduated with honors. He said it meant more than just crowning a three-year stint as a drill sergeant at Fort Jackson. It also meant realizing a professional goal he's envisioned before joining the Army.
"I've been trying to get into Ranger School since about six months after I became a drill sergeant," said Vitug, who is assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 60th Infantry Regiment.
Vitug said professional and personal obstacles were preventing him from participating in the elite school, located at Fort Benning, Georgia. A chance encounter with Fort Jackson's commanding general changed that, though.
Vitug said he met Maj. Gen. Bradley Becker during Victory Forge, am extended exercise that caps Army Basic Combat Training.
"He recognized that I was a third-year drill sergeant and asked me why I was doing a third year," Vitug said. "I told him it was for Ranger School ... and that nobody wanted me to go."
Becker personally signed off on Vitug's request to attend the school, he said.
Vitug, whose military occupational specialty is military policeman, received the enlisted leadership award in his class.
"I could not be more proud of Staff Sgt. Vitug, though I am not surprised by his superior performance at the U.S. Army Ranger School," Becker said. "Ranger School is the Army's premier small unit leadership school, and Fort Jackson has some of the Army's very best NCO leaders. Vitug is a perfect example of the high quality NCOs we have training and developing our next generation of Soldiers. Not only did Vitug complete one of the Army's toughest schools, he stood out as the best of the best."
Vitug said he appreciated the commanding general's support.
"It was definitely a cool experience for General Becker to take a shot in the dark on this non-infantry, non-combat-arms guy who just wanted to go to Ranger School," he said.
Vitug said his responsibilities as a drill sergeant did not allow him time to prepare for the physical and mental rigors of Ranger School. It might not have mattered if he had, though, because the physical challenges had little in common with the physical training tools found elsewhere in the Army.
Some of the physical training exercises are actually considered obsolete today, he said. That didn't stop the instructors from demanding the best from their Soldiers, though.
"I remember looking back and thinking, 'We're in TRADOC. They have to stop.' But there's no repetition where they have to stop," he said. "There's no exercise they can or can't do. They have their own way of weeding out the weak."
The nature of the challenges varied throughout the 61-day course, but were always exceptionally challenging. Unsurprisingly, Soldiers began to wash out almost immediately. The class began with 386 people, he said. 31 graduated straight through; 85 Soldiers graduated in all.
"I don't think there's a way to prepare for the 'suck' of it," Vitug said. "The rucksacks were just ungodly -- the winter packing list was 110 pounds and 160 pounds, depending on your place within the platoon. I didn't prep for that here. My time as a drill sergeant didn't allow me the time to prepare."
The first day was a shock, he said. The majority of the Soldiers who wash out of Ranger School do so during the first four days, but Vitug said he was surprised when people began to drop out of the program within minutes of being rousted out of bed on the first day.
"The whole day I saw people getting dropped, for lack of attention to detail or quitting," he said. "It was pretty insane, but it wasn't much different than what we do as drill sergeants, providing organized chaos to a private. It was just amplified for us."
He said the tone changed radically on the last day of testing.
"It was like we'd joined a brotherhood," he said. "The guys who were inflicting this hell upon us were suddenly calling us by our names. They were trying to guide us, telling us what our obligations are now that we're Rangers. It should be something we embody."
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2nd Battalion, 60th Infantry Regiment
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