To expand upon that, having a Ranger tab (or being “Ranger-qualified”) means that the tab-holder has attended Ranger school, which is a survival, tactics, and leadership school that is actually open to anyone in the Armed Forces. An “Army Ranger” is someone who has successfully completed the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program (RASP) and serves in one of the operational battalions (not HQ support staff like the “rear-echelon clerk” mentioned above). Rangers in the 75th are expected to attend Ranger School at some point but not necessarily before they complete selection. Anyone who is ‘tabbed’ has completed Ranger School, but only soldiers serving in the 75th Ranger Regiment can wear the tan beret or be inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame.
As for the film, I avoided seeing it when it came out in theaters at the recommendation of several veterans I knew, and only tried to watch it a few years ago. The movie makes absolutely no sense; as others have pointed out, a medivac helicopter should not be engaging in any attacks on enemy forces even if said forces are engaged in battle with other US units. I also can’t really imagine why it was equipped with ferry tanks while in an active medivac role, as you’d want as much deck space as possible to carry patients. I pretty much stopped watching after that scene but I understand that it takes a turn toward conspiracy-thriller genre with someone committing suicide rather than bear witness and a twist ending, because it’s an Edward Zwick movie and he pretty much hacked his way through melodramatic Oscar-bait films after Glory. There is a good film to be made that questions the politics behind such awards and the vicissitudes of war, but this wasn’t it.
Stranger