Gutierrez. 
X-ray tech first to earn tab in decade

Jennifer Gunn
USAIC Public Affairs Office

What's an X-ray tech going to do with a rifle? That's the question Staff Sgt. Ricardo Gutierrez's friends asked him when he started making plans to attend Ranger School last year.

The 31-year-old radiology specialist at Evans Army Community Hospital at Fort Carson, Colo., is the first X-ray specialist to earn the Ranger tab in more than a decade, an opportunity made possible by last year's initiative to offer Ranger School to all Combat Support and Combat Service Support Soldiers.

"There are people who may think this has brought the Ranger tab down. I think it's only going to make the Army better, stronger, faster and more deployable," said Gutierrez, who has never deployed in his seven years of service, although he's requested deployment twice.

"Every Soldier has to go to combat. You're supposed to go once before any one else goes twice. I'm hoping the Ranger tab will help make it happen for me," he said.

Gutierrez enjoys the Army life and his job as an X-ray tech, a decision that was based on his priorities of family, God and country.

"I always wanted to be G.I. Joe, but I wanted to take care of my family first," said Gutierrez, a first generation U.S. citizen with nine siblings.

When he met with a recruiter at 23, Gutierrez felt that being an X-ray tech would give him a skill he could use in the civilian world. It's a job he loves.

"I have no plans to change my MOS, but if they called me up and said, 'Sergeant Gutierrez, we need another guy who's Ranger qualified,' I wouldn't hesitate."

Gutierrez said Ranger School taught him what it takes to succeed on the frontlines.

"I think it's harder for those of us who aren't combat arms because it's been seven years since I got a briefing of this stuff in basic."

Gutierrez made it through by asking questions like how to fire from behind a tree, from a prone position and how to breach a building. He said most of his classmates were shocked that his Soldier skills were a little rusty and it wasn't until recently that they understood.

"Some of my classmates are just now figuring out I'm an X-ray tech," he said with a broad smile two days before graduation. "I tried to keep it on the down-low because I didn't want any attention."

Gutierrez believes he has learned a great deal about himself by becoming a Ranger; his hardest lesson came when he was recycled during the Mountain Phase of training.

"It was then that I remembered what Col. (K.K.) Chinn said at the very beginning of the cycle, 'Even if you fail, once a difficult task is started, it has to be completed.' I'll never forget that."

Gutierrez, who will pin on his Ranger tab today at Victory Pond, said close friends wondered why he put himself through Ranger School when it wasn't a requirement.

"Why wouldn't I?" Gutierrez asked with another smile. "I think everyone should come through. It's tough and some people quit, but if you make it, it makes you a better person."

Gutierrez hopes his success inspires other Soldiers in his field.

"I certainly don't want to be the only one," he said. "It's hard to say that without the tab you are unprepared, because there are plenty of successful people out there without it, but I'm definitely a stronger leader because of it."

U.S. Army 80-84

1/508th Abn Inf, 82nd Abn Div 81-83

1/4th Inf (Mech), 3rd Inf Div (USAEUR) 83-84

SGT\EIB\Recondo

I'm right 97% of the time. Who cares about the other 4%

PROUD FATHER   OF A US PARATROOPER      

"The degenerative and loony should never be denigrated but, rather, thanked. In their absence, the rest of you would be obliged to fill congressional seats... positions naturally unsavory to the sane and honorable."

Thorax

Well done Ranger! 

Do you listen to yourself when you talk; or do you just fade in and out?

Now...I'll give you an example regarding the point Steve is trying to make.  I served in an ARNG LRSC that spent from February 2004 to February 2005 in tango land.  Many 11B1Ps wanted 'suck school' but could not get it due to a number of reasons.  And yes they also got the "there are no slots" or "we can't send you" BS.  Then you hear a story like this and you say "kudos" but what about the infantry hooahs that should be going?  Since I've been an 11A in the NG I have not been able to send one joe to the RTB.

I really hope the ARNG WTC Pre-Ranger program at Benning changes that for all ARNG LRSDs and LRSCs...then again I hear that LRS units are going away (?).