The reason I feel differently than you about whether the tab or scroll is the marker of the Ranger is because of the lifestyle these guys live nowadays. Ranger Regiment is 100% SOF. Those guys are kicking down doors at a really high level, working with USASOC and JSOC to complete highly sensitive and important missions. They train and deploy like any SOF unit would, and their shit is dialed. Ranger School is the thing, a rite of passage, that E-3's and E-4's do between combat deployments so that they can get promoted, stop getting harassed, and fit in with their more senior Ranger brethren. From what I understand, the guys in Regiment consider you a cherry until you have your tab, but the tabbed guys not in the Regiment aren't Rangers. I'm not in their unit, so I won't speak to how they do things. I worked with Regiment guys at USASOC HQ, so I know a little how they think, but I'm not one of them. Anyways, the same standards and commitment to training simply can't be said for a regular Infantry unit. That IN unit can have super tough dudes that have great training and would fit right in with any SOF unit (we all recruit from somewhere), but they're not living that lifestyle as a part of the regular Army. They're living the big Army life, not the SOF life of many shorter deployments, extensive training missions, and the constant pressure to learn new skills and sharpen up. Plenty of dudes get their tab, sit back, and let things pass them by, resting on that laurel. They don't live and breathe the mission like SOF does, and they don't think that "every day is Selection." For Rangers in the 75th, SF, and beyond, you can get bounced from those units on any day. That's why I personally feel that there is a difference between the Ranger tab and being a Ranger. I don't know what
@Mike Hagger or
@BillytheFish think, but they are their own men with their own opinions, and they can speak for themselves.
I actually had a gay guy on my team. It's uncommon, but they've always been there. He was a perfectly professional Soldier, and he never gave the team or me any problems. He was quiet about that part of his life, it was understood that he had a boyfriend, and everyone pretty much let it be. I don't have any issues with gays serving. Women, on the other hand, are smaller and carry less weight. They don't fit in well when you're trying to teach a bunch of Middle Eastern or African men how to fight a war. That's an operational problem for me. My feelings there are very different than those I have towards gay men in the military.