Rolling Stone
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), the infamous author of the New York Times op-ed calling for troops to break up Black Lives Matter protests, has lied about details of his military service, according to an investigation by Salon’s Roger Sollenberger.
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...the Army’s own website makes clear the distinction between joining the 75th Ranger Regiment and taking the U.S. Army Ranger Course. “People often confuse the 75th Ranger Regiment with the U.S. Army Ranger Course,” the regiment’s public affairs office wrote. But to join the Ranger regiment, members of the Army have to pass the “Ranger Assessment Selection Program [RASP] 1, 2, or both.” Cotton did not.
The U.S. Army Ranger Course, on the other hand, which Cotton did attend, is described as “the Army’s premier leadership school” and is “open to all members of the military.” A school literally anyone in the military can attend is a far cry from the RASP, which the Army says is “designed to test a Soldier’s physical and mental strength under extreme conditions.”
Salon
Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas has accrued a resume tailor-made for a Republican politician: He leapt from a small-town Arkansas cattle farm to Harvard University and then Harvard Law School; he left a leading New York firm to join the military after George W. Bush's re-election; he was discharged after nearly eight years and two war-zone deployments as an Army captain and decorated hero — including two commendation medals, a Bronze Star and a Ranger tab.
But when Cotton launched his first congressional campaign in 2012, he felt compelled to repeatedly falsify that honorable military record, even as he still served in the Army Reserve.
In his first run for Congress, Cotton leaned heavily on his military service, claiming to have been "a U.S. Army Ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan," and, in a campaign ad, to have "volunteered to be an Army Ranger." In reality, Cotton was never part of the 75th Ranger Regiment, the elite unit that plans and conducts joint special military operations as part of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command.
Rather, Cotton attended the Ranger School, a two-month-long, small-unit tactical infantry course that literally anyone in the military is eligible attend. Soldiers who complete the course earn the right to wear the Ranger tab — a small arch that reads "Ranger" — but in the eyes of the military, that does not make them an actual Army Ranger.