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CSM Michael Hall

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He was happy as a platoon sergeant in a Ranger rifle company, so when he was considered for Command Sergeant Major, Michael Hall was ambivalent. Would he be removed from close relationships with the men? But in a series of assignments at that job, he found great professional satisfaction. (5:15)

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The Army Rangers were formed not only as an elite strike force but also as a crucible to spread field experience and knowledge throughout the military. In his long career, Michael Hall found many instances of this in many different organizations. The experiment had succeeded. (8:50)

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What are the basic sustainable standards when training an elite force? As GEN Stanley McChrystal's Command Sergeant Major, Michael Hall helped him develop the Big Four; four standards that all Rangers must master. They are marksmanship, physical training, medical training, and small unit battle drills. (11:45)

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What do the Big Four training standards enable the Ranger force to do? There are two primary missions, according to Retired Command Sergeant Major Michael Hall. The first is forced entry into a denied country to establish an airhead for follow-on forces and the second is the special operations combined forces raid. (2:25)

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The Ranger Creed is not just a poem that you recite at PT. Longtime Ranger Michael Hall explains what it means to live the Ranger Creed. (2:06)

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The Ranger experience affects the man throughout his life. Michael Hall's life was changed his very first day as a Ranger and, whether you served thirty years or just a few, the lessons learned there made you a better man. (4:07)

Curt Beckham

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You didn't see many sailors in Atlanta but Curt Beckham and his friends joined the Navy regardless. After a rather disjointed training experience and after serving with a couple of radar units, he was assigned to the USS Shangri-La as a cook. (5:35)

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The brand new carrier USS Shangri-La carried out an attack on Tokyo, then participated in the Okinawa invasion, and then returned to attack Tokyo again. Curt Beckham was a mess cook on the ship and he had a battle station as well, down in the ammunition room. (4:01)

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Although he didn't choose to become a mess cook, Curt Beckham learned that, in the Navy, a cook is godlike. He recalls the great leave policy they had while in port and he remembers some bad things, like having to wake up other cooks and not seeing land for three months. (3:36)

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Curt Beckham tells what it's like to ride out a typhoon with a Navy fleet. Besides that ordeal, he also was sunburned to a crisp on R&R and, because it would have gone on his record, was unwilling to report it and get treatment. Another time, he and his buddy had a bright idea about a cooler place to sleep up on the flight deck. (4:08)