Welcome to The Swamp Ranger Association

This website is sponsored by the Swamp Ranger Association in honor of the 6^th Ranger Training Battalion.

The 6th Ranger Training Battalion, stationed at Auxiliary Field Six on Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, conducts the final phase of the U.S. Army Ranger School. The Florida Ranger Camp focuses on platoon training in a coastal/swamp environment in which the students are put under extreme mental and physical stresses that approach those found in combat.

The Florida Ranger Camp was established on November 15, 1951 as part of the Ranger Training Command. The camp began at Auxiliary Field Seven, about eight miles south of its current location, where it trained Rangers for the next twenty years. In January 1970 the camp relocated to Auxiliary Field 6, and in June 1974, the Camp was officially renamed Camp James E. Rudder after MG James E. Rudder.  MG Rudder commanded the 2nd Ranger Battalion when it boldly scaled the cliffs of Pointe Du Hoc, France, during the 1944 D-Day Normandy invasion.

The first Ranger class arrived in Florida on 24 January 1952 and was exposed to technique training for survival, stream crossing, small boat operations, river navigation, limited amphibious operations and leadership in combat situations. Today’s training is very similar to the training received by the first Ranger class with five days focusing on technique training culminating in a nine day field training exercise. Leadership skills are taxed while conducting small unit operations in a simulated combat environment. The students must overcome the challenges of severe weather, coastal/swamp terrain, limited periods of sleep and food depravation as well as mental and physical fatigue.

Since its inception, the Florida Ranger Camp has trained more than 35,000 students of the United States Armed Forces and over 60 allied countries. The course currently trains over 2500 students annually in eleven classes executed year round. We continually strive to provide the Armed Forces with technically and tactically competent combat leaders tested under the harshest conditions

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