Two More Female Marines Dropped from Infantry Course

[hawk]

These days there is a great emphasis on IBOLC as a prep for Ranger School, particularly for active duty officers, who are constantly reminded they are expected to continue on to and succeed in RS. No doubt RS is much more rigorous than IBOLC, but IBOLC is not for slouches. Current physical requirements include a timed 12 mile ruck march, which must be completed in under 3 hours (I believe this is identical to the RS RAP week requirement), as well as a 16 mile march which must be completed. There are other timed and untimed ruck marches as well. Also, Leader Forge is longer than the five days you were out in the field.

I've seen multiple IBOLC/RS write ups by recent USMA & ROTC grads indicating that they'd definitely dialed up IBOLC as prep for Ranger school.

Specifically, comments indicating that the mini-RAP in IBOLC was more challenging than the real thing. Don't know if the same holds true for RTAC (Pre-ranger), but there does seem to be more coordination between the schools on prep.

Given that significant RS attrition is still PT related early on (RPFT & RAP phase?), it probably makes sense to better prepare and even screen during IBOLC.

As an aside, it's pretty amazing to read these accounts. My respect for those who complete it has gone up even further. I've not shared accounts these with my wife... she'll worry enough next winter/fall while DS is in RS even without the details. (Assuming no injuries, etc while in the pipeline)