The Youngest Ranger
Riley Woina recently had the experience of his life: he spent a week training with the Army Rangers at Camp James E. Rudder. What’s really cool about this story, is that Riley is only 14 years old, and he was able to do this because he made a wish.
You see, Riley suffers from cystic fibrosis and he told the Make A Wish Foundation that he wanted to train with the Rangers. He spent a week with these Soldiers, training in the mud, learning how to deploy parachutes, how to fire an M4, among other things. He received his own set of ACUs, ID tags, and a flight suit. And to top it off, the U.S. Army Infantry School’s assistant commandant awarded him the coveted prize: a Ranger tab.
And what did Riley have to say about the Soldiers who undergo the grueling training required to become a ranger?
And the 80-pound 14-year-old, weakened by his degenerative illness, said he doesn’t feel any sympathy for the physical punishment Rangers experience for 18 days at Camp Rudder.
“It’s a way of life for them; they are the ones that signed up for it so it’s their fault,” he said to the chuckles of the Rangers around him.
What he likes most about the Rangers: “Their determination to leave no man behind.”
That the Infantry School would take the time to give a sick kid his wish and take him in as a brother says a lot about the military and definitely shows a side that regretfully doesn’t get enough press. And that Riley was able to do any of the training and finish, is a perfect demonstration of the Warrior Ethos:
I will always place the mission first.
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade.
Well done, Riley and congratulations.
