U. S. Army Rangers

After basic Army training, voluntary enlistment into the 75th Ranger Regiment will train the recruit for the HALO parachute jump, SERE, languages, elite combatives expert, mountain warfare, combat diving, in addition to all the weapons qualification training. After nine weeks of this, they enroll in Advanced Individual Training, to become masters of their chosen fields, then immediately enroll in the Army Airborne School, then in Ranger Indoctrination or Orientation Programs. By the time they’ve graduated, they’re so well trained that members have reported waking up screaming from nightmares about Ranger school to be relieved that they are only in Vietnam. But then, they lose a few points for an incident a Ranger told me about: he was the captain of a tank regiment on maneuvers in the Amazon jungle. Just an exercise, but because of the sweltering heat, they had to open their tank hatches. This captain, who shall remain nameless, heard a thump behind him, and turned to see a Goliath Bird-eating Spider crawling toward him, raising its front legs and hissing. He admits to screaming like a girl, knifing the tarantula, jumping out of the tank and running off into the jungle for a mile and a half. His buddies still rib him about it.