12th Ranger Company- The 28th Division’s Ranger Unit

Today more members of the Iron Division than ever are earning their Ranger tab due to the State’s revolutionary Ranger and Sapper Assessment Program (RSAP). This program has populated commands across the Division with skilled Officers and NCOs who have mastered the elements of small unit tactics and Army leadership. These graduates of the U.S. Army’s elite Ranger School at Fort Benning, Georgia carry on a proud tradition of Ranger leaders in the 28th that began with an Army-wide experiment in 1951.

The Army fielded several Ranger Battalions in World War II in both Europe and the Pacific, but at the close of hostilities they inactivated these organizations and ended formalized Ranger training in the Army. In 1950, the Army, now fighting in Korea found the need for specialized small units that could perform behind enemy lines, utilizing infiltration and hit and run style tactics. The Army initially formed provisional Ranger units in Korea but authorized the formation of one “Ranger Company” in each active-duty division in the Army on September 7th, 1950. A few weeks later the “Ranger Training Section” was established at Harmony Church in Fort Benning, Georgia and recruitment and training began for the first of these Ranger units.

In late February 1951, representatives from the Ranger Training Center at Fort Benning arrived at Atterbury to brief Division leadership on the recruitment and training of a Ranger unit. They emphasized that the volunteers for said unit would undergo extensive schooling and complete airborne training before making the cut. Major Zimmerman of the Ranger Training Center advised the men that “only the very best of the volunteers” would be allowed to remain in the unit and earn the title of Ranger. Over the next several weeks, volunteers from across the Division prepared packets for the intensive selection process, and on March 12th, 1951, the 12th Ranger Company was officially activated at Camp Atterbury, Indiana.

Over 500 men volunteered for the unit, and a total of 197 men across the Division were selected for tryout. Volunteers for the Ranger Company came from all backgrounds. Many were Pennsylvania National Guardsmen, but others came from the crops of recent draftees that had joined the Division at Atterbury. Captain Harold V Kays of Company B, 1st Battalion, 112th Infantry, was selected as the unit’s commander. Kays was a hard charger from Meadville, PA and in WWII had served in the Pacific Theater. His volunteers included other WWII veterans like Sergeant Carl Ranf of the 112th Infantry who had served as a Marine on Cape Glouster, but many of the volunteers however were new to the service, like “Buck” Cicuzza and Tony Labrozzi who had both enlisted in the PA National Guard’s just before mobilization.

On March 18th, 1951, the volunteers shipped to Fort Benning to begin the rigorous selection and training. Over the next eight weeks in Georgia the volunteers would be whittled down through difficult marches, demanding training, and injuries. First volunteers underwent the Basic Airborne course. Many of the eager volunteers were cut during this phase, and on April 16th, 1951, just over 100 men graduated as paratroopers, the first step to Ranger duty.

Following Airborne training the soldiers began the 4th Training Cycle at Ft Benning’s Ranger schoolhouse. Here the men set into mastering small unit tactics and basic infantry operations, training for hours on the Browning Automatic Rifle, the M1 Garand, .30 Machine guns, and Mortars. They conducted training insertions behind enemy lines, learning to ford streams and complete 10-mile ruck marches in under two hours. On June 26th, 1951, the 28th Division’s Rangers graduated at Harmony Church and sewed on the coveted black and gold “Ranger Airborne” Tab and Oval onto their uniforms. They would follow their stint at Benning with yet another several weeks of training at the Army’s Mountain Training Center in Fort Carson, scaling cliffs and parachuting into snow mountainous environments.

On August 11th, 1951, the freshly trained Airborne Rangers rejoined the 28th Division at Camp Atterbury. It was fortuitous timing, as the 28th Division was about to launch into “Operation Southern Pine” it’s largest training exercise since World War II. Over 60,000 troops would participate in the combined arms exercise which would pit federalized Guard Divisions against an aggressor force in simulated large scale combat operations at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The 12th Ranger Company parachuted behind enemy tanks during the exercise to disrupt their operations. The jump had mixed results, with the 110-man Company suffering 39 simulated (and real world) casualties during their anti-armor combat.

After the drop the men of the Ranger Company acted as they were trained, quickly dispersing among the tanks of the aggressor force, firing automatic weapons and hurling simulated hand grenades at the enemy troops. Tony Labrozzi, First Sergeant of the Company, landed in a tree during his drop, but hurled a grenade into a passing tank and lept from his chute onto the vehicle capturing it’s crew. SFC Carl Ranf exercised an HLZ for evacuation of casualties by helicopter, likely the first such operation conducted by the 28th Division. While the Rangers experienced mixed results with their jump, overall Southern Pine was a success, and the Division was lauded by senior leaders.

Like the 12th Ranger Company’s experience in Southern Pines, the Ranger Companies throughout the Army were achieving mixed results by late 1951, and the Army decided to inactivate the Ranger Company program and transfer responsibility for ranger schooling to the Infantry School, as an individual training course. As the 12th Ranger Company was completing its training at Southern Pines, the orders for the disbanding of the Ranger Companies Army-wide were already being issued.

After only a few months with the 28th Division, on September 29th, 1951, the 12th Ranger Company received the unfortunate news it would be inactivated. The Army, realizing the extreme expense that had been taken training these men offered the Rangers several options: return to their original units in the Division, transfer to parachute units in the Regular Army, or volunteer for combat in Korea. On October 27th, 1951, the 12th Ranger Company was officially inactivated at Camp Atterbury, Indiana.

The 12th Ranger Company’s history with the 28th Division was extremely brief, lasting just eight months, but the legacy of the Rangers continued well after their dissolution. Soldiers like Corporal Barrett Leonard of Pittston returned to the Division and deployed to Germany, serving as a Mortar Platoon NCO in the 109th Infantry, and SGT Ronald Taufer, returned to the 110th Infantry, spending 20 years in the 28th Division eventually rising to the rank of Captain.

While several Rangers opted for airborne positions stateside, a few volunteered for service in Korea as individual replacements. Sgt Sisto Cicuzza, originally from the 112th Infantry, and MSG Tony Labrozzi, First Sergeant of the 12th Rangers, fought with the 187th RCT in Korea. Cicuzza later earned two Silver Stars, two Bronze Stars, and two Purple Hearts in Vietnam with the 9th Infantry Division before retiring as a Command Sergeant Major. Labrozzi earned a battlefield commission in Korea, and later served as a Advisor to the South Vietnamese Army Rangers. During his two tours in Vietnam, he earned a Silver Star, Soldiers Medal, and two Bronze Stars. Both would later be inducted in to the Ranger Hall of Fame.

Cicuzza and Labrozzi represent the spirt of the 12th Ranger Company, drawn from the ranks of the 28th Division these men, like today’s Ranger qualified Keystone soldiers looked to challenge themselves and perform above and beyond. Though their unit would never see action, but the legacy the left behind shaped the Division for years to come.