Twenty-five-year-old Lieutenant Atanas Dimitrov of the Bulgarian Army has received the U.S. Army’s “Ranger Tab” after a two-month course in leadership under combat conditions. He is one of three Bulgarians to complete the training, which is among the most demanding in the U.S. Army.
Dimitrov serves in the Joint Special Operations Command and graduated from military academy a year ago. Four weeks of the course were spent on continuous raids and ambushes in mountainous terrain and swamps. The service members carried individual equipment that at times weighed more than 30 kilograms.
“Almost every day, we went through swamps that reached the height of a person,” the lieutenant told bTV. According to him, during the training he encountered crocodiles, rattlesnakes and black bears.
Half an hour of sleep and nighttime raids
The challenges included complete isolation, all-day raids and ambushes in difficult terrain. At times, the participants slept for about 30 minutes a day, while they had approximately 10 minutes to eat in the early morning hours.
Dimitrov recalls that after a short rest on the first day, an instructor threw a grenade into the patrol base and shouted: “Get up, the day is starting over.” After the second or third day, sleep was reduced to around half an hour, he says.
After the first week, fatigue began to affect movement as well. The lieutenant describes how he once fell asleep while patrolling at night in a column, and a colleague brought him back into formation.
From 400 participants to 150 graduates
The course tested not only physical endurance, but also the ability to make decisions and lead people in the absence of sleep and food. According to Dimitrov, the group was mutually dependent, and one participant falling behind could have put everyone at risk.
“We started with 400 people, and by the time I graduated, there were 150 of us,” the lieutenant says. He is still physically recovering from the strain of Ranger School, but says that Bulgaria’s special forces are in no way inferior to their American counterparts in terms of skills.
Sources: btvnovinite.bg