The New California Rangers

History:

In the beginning, the Rangers were a mercenary group, established in Shady Sands shortly after the New California Republic was founded. In their beginning their only financing was by private donations (and of course, booty and bounty money), and they hunted raiders and highwaymen – and especially and very deliberately each and everyone that earned his money with the slave trade.

2200 was the official year of their founding – shortly after the declaration of the Republic – the Rangers received political help from the very top of the young nation: directly from President John Aradesh.

Not even 5 years later, on June, 17th, 2204, after the Rangers had helped decisively in protecting the young republic in the so called ‘Year of Fire’ against a large attack by raiders, they were declared the official military of the republic with the second constitutional amendment.

Voices quickly sprang up, that the Rangers, now that they weren’t mercenaries anymore, but a national, standing army, should change their name to something more fitting. Some advocating for ‘Army’, others for ‘National Guard’ or ‘Republican Armed Forces’ or something similar, but President Aradesh insisted that the Rangers should keep their already hard won battle honors – as well as their reputation, their name and their mission: the spreading of the Republican ideals in the Wasteland.

In the year 2247 there are, according to the Defense Ministry, about 7000 Rangers, which means that the Rangers comprise about 1% of the citizenry of the Republic.

Mission:

The Rangers are a patrolling Army, mostly. Their main focus is keeping the inner and extraterritorial trade routes of the Republic save from highwaymen and other raiders. Furthermore, the Rangers, along with the Republican police, protect the official VIPs of the Republic, from the President to the Cabinet to many elected representatives of the people.

Their third – and for many Rangers still most important – mission is still the fight againt slavery in all it’s forms.

Organization:

The Rangers are comprised of 6 variously large companies, about one per city state. The companies don’t act as single units, but their component platoons (each comprised of about 25 Rangers) act alone. The few Rangers that are directly assigned to the company level, mostly offer logistical help to the Platoons.

1st Ranger Comany, in Shady Sands, also called the ‘Headquarter Company’, is the single largest Ranger company. As it’s unofficial name suggests, all uniformed people working in the Defense Ministry (apart from the Commander in Chief of the Rangers) belong to the 1st Ranger Company, as
well as the First and Second Platoon, the two elite forces of the Rangers.

The 2nd Ranger Company in Junktown is the company that provides the least logistical support for combat platoons, but instead, 2nd Ranger Company runs the Training Center for the Rangers.

The 3rd Ranger Company, based a bit north of the Boneyard, is the most out of the way company, and still not the smallest – even though there hasn’t been a real combat mission in their area for the Rangers in years. This is easily explainable by that, that the no mans land north east of the
Boneyard makes a wonderful playground for the top secret military experiments of Platoon 35.

The 4th Ranger Company based in the Hub, is not by chance the second largest company: the Hub is still one of the large trading centers of post war California – and the largest inside the republic. Therefore, the 4th Company is responsible for most of the combat platoons that provide commerce security.

The 5th Ranger Company is still being assembled. For the moment, it’s nothing but a small garrison in Vault 15, to protect the people living in and above Vault 15, that have only a few years before become citizens of the Republic. President Tandi Aradesh hopes to be able to convince Parliamen
tto give free the funds for a larger military presence there, but until the continuously changing settlement hasn’t reached the population of a large city yet, even some senators of her own ‘party’ are against it.

Training:

Ranger schooling takes three months and is begun twice a year in the Ranger Training Center near Junktown. Each time about 40 to 50 recruits get trained, that usually spend most of their training in small groups of 5 – 6 and are only rarely all together.

Since the Rangers have many duties – and relatively few warm bodies – they try to mold every recruit into the kind of elite they need. Accordingly all recruits are assured at the beginning of the training, that one half of the drill is for training purposes, the other half is designed to kill them. Of
course the recruits are continuously watched and in their relatively long history, there was only one dead recruit (an accident happened during a life fire exercise) but it happens often that failing recruits are sent into Junktown’s clinic completely exhausted.

The few cavalry platoons of the Rangers prefer using people that had experience with horses before they enlisted. Privates that have accomplished the normal general training and that are candidates for the cavalry are trained further, directly after they survived bootcamp, in a four week course in Junktown and become cavalrymen (or -women).

Elites:

Platoon 1:

Platoon 1 is officially the personal security platoon, that protects the President, her ministers and the members of parliament. Unofficially – and that is something not known to many people that do not have a need to know – Platoon 1 also has a ‘black’ part that acts as commandos.

Platoon 2:

Platoon 2 is the heavy cavalry of the Rangers. The unit that gives no mercy to slavers, that has yet to loose a battle or skirmish and that is proud not to give any quarter to slavers. Both platoon 1 and platoon 2 are part of 1st Company.

Platoon 35:

This platoon, part of 3rd Company, does not exist in the official files of the Rangers. Inside the Republic less than 100 people know of the existence of Platoon 35 and of those only about 40 know that the Rangers use it to create an air force. Platoon 35 is based near the Boneyard.

Traditions:

The Rangers, like many military organizations, pride themselves of their traditions. Their motto for example, ‘de oppresso liber’ (Latin for: we liberate the oppressed) is for many Rangers a nearly holy set phrase.

Equally the idea of never leaving a comrade behind. In fact, the Rangers took that to a for them very successful, logical conclusion. Rangers that have been so heavily wounded, that they are only able to do limited duty, for example ones that lost an arm or are paralyzed and in a wheel chair or such, are used in support roles on the company level. This strengthens the morale, emphasizes that Rangers really NEVER leave another Ranger hanging and puts combat experienced people into positions where combat experienced people normally don’t wish to be put.

Furthermore there have been very few racist problems in the NCR since it’s founding. The Rangers have also taken a position to the human/mutant question and it’s a simple one: for equality. Within the military of the New California Republic there is no limitation based on race. While Ranger officers salute each other according to rank and enlisted and non-commisoned officers should salute every officer, enlisted and non-commisoned officers salute each other only on special occasions.

Uniforms and Equipment:

The NCR Rangers know three different uniforms: the Field Uniform, the Service Uniform and the Parade Uniform. The color scheme is as follows: