Toughest School?

SSG(P) Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 22:10:07 -0500

So, me being an Infantry Recon type, I have had the opportunity to attend some very difficult schools. What I pose is a two part question -- a very tough short school and a very tough long school. I won't put any more restrictions on that. It could tough mentally, physically, financially, tough on family, tough on your body. You were the one going through it...so you get to talk about it.
Two of the most difficult schools? hmmmn...Amphibious Recon School was tough, classroom and PT, long hours, I barely remember some parts...and Army Ranger School. I hallucinated in the Mt. Phase and fell asleep walking in FL phase. Both of those are considered long schools. The toughest short course had to be SERE school at one week.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 4 at 2014 10:55 PM

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 22:55:54 -0500

I think any officer course......Power Point is killer....

Response by Lt Col Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 6 at 2014 12:19 AM

Lt Col Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 06 Nov 2014 00:19:17 -0500

1 year Undergraduate Pilot Training: Sometimes a full day at the flight line followed by hours of studying and studying to go to sleep late at night to sometimes fly with only 4 hours of sleep. I remember times when I was so out of it that when I landed I forgot some of the flight profile I performed in the practice area.

The next tough course was SERE, or at least the POW part. One course I can live the rest of my life never going again.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 6 at 2014 12:52 AM

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 06 Nov 2014 00:52:54 -0500

I would have to say Ranger. I also hallucinated in MTN Phase. I would stop and see kids in the woods. I would try to ask them what they were doing. I also had the Food hallucination. I thought I was eating but when I came around I was in the patrol base. I was pissed that I woke up and wish I could be hallucinating again. I did mountains twice. I did drop 30 pds there.

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 23 at 2015 12:48 PM

SSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 12:48:50 -0400

Weather...LOL

Response by SSgt Alex Robinson made Oct 23 at 2015 12:49 PM

SSgt Alex Robinson — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 12:49:01 -0400

Any of the SF schools... SEAL or Green Beret especially

Response by SSG Audwin Scott made Oct 23 at 2015 1:00 PM

SSG Audwin Scott — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 13:00:45 -0400

Probably War College

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 23 at 2015 2:19 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 14:19:20 -0400

I would say SFAS for physical and MG for mental.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 23 at 2015 2:24 PM

MAJ Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 14:24:14 -0400

What about that one "school" with the selection at Camp Dawson, WV - followed by OTC? That one might be fairly difficult, I think?

Response by Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS made Oct 23 at 2015 2:29 PM

Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 14:29:21 -0400

You've got Physically demanding schools, and you've got Mentally demanding schools. Tough is a subjective measurement though. Generally speaking we "try" not to send people to places to where we think they are going to fail. There's a lot of selection that happens before you even get "invited." There's even more that happens behind closed doors for the follow on schools for "advanced courses."

The command team is constantly asking themselves "can he pass?" and "is he worth sending?" which are not mutually exclusive questions. I knew guys who could pass anything you could physically throw at them... but wouldn't trust farther than I could see with anything more dangerous than they could personally carry. It wasn't a knock on them, it was just outside their capability set.

Response by SSG Warren Swan made Oct 23 at 2015 2:34 PM

SSG Warren Swan — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 14:34:23 -0400

I see it has a strong focus on combat (grunt) style classes. I'd wager Cyber series classes would be tough in the mental sense. Not quite as sexy as a tab school, but an effective hacker can wage more hell (larger scale) by himself than a company of hard as woodpecker lipped Green Berets. Wanna destroy or shut down a countries complete infrastructure and not leave your house? Call your local hacker. Wanna make cool explosions and look great with a beard....call SOF guys. If you just wanna hear the coolest noise in the history of mankind call the AF and bring in the A-10.

Response by COL Jean (John) F. B. made Oct 23 at 2015 3:03 PM

COL Jean (John) F. B. — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 15:03:21 -0400

SFC Kevin Bazurto - I don't think anybody can realistically determine that unless they have been to all the schools and have the ability to compare them based on personal experience. Even then, there would be a bias.

This article sates it is the Air Force Para-Rescue School. Really??? And that is based on the attrition rate? As the article points out, it may be because of the caliber of personnel who started the school.

The toughest school I went to was Ranger School, as far as being physically demanding. However, I have attended academic courses that I consider "tougher". My point is that it is simply an opinion ... and you know what they say about that... and varies with the person stating the opinion. Really does not mean much in the long run.

Every school is important and every school worth anything is tough.

Response by SGM Mikel Dawson made Oct 23 at 2015 9:33 PM

SGM Mikel Dawson — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 21:33:51 -0400

For me it wasn't a US school as I had no chance to attend one of the tab schools. For me it was the NATO LRRP school I attended in Germany. In U.S. schools if you failed a test, you got to retest. At the NATO school there was no retest, had to get it right the first time.

Then there was my BNCOC (12B), I wasn't good in math. By the time I learned all the demo formulas I had head aches, but I got it.

Response by SPC George Rudenko made Oct 23 at 2015 9:38 PM

SPC George Rudenko — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 21:38:28 -0400

Astronaut! End of discussion lol

Response by SGM Mikel Dawson made Aug 21 at 2016 8:20 PM

SGM Mikel Dawson — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 20:20:37 -0400

I attended the ILRRP school in 1997 when it was in Weingarten, Ge. It was a tough school. One thing I remember, unlike U.S. schools, there was only one test, no retests. Either you made it or you didn't. We had a SAS Colonel as the Commanding officer at the time. I felt privileged as an Army Reserve guy to attend this school.