Wil Willis From Army Ranger to Pararescueman

"We started out as 20. Only 18 of us made it."

Been a while since I've seen 'Whiskey. Whiskey'!

Air Force Chow Halls? Where were you? I spent 3 years as a paratrooper at Bragg and my brigade chow hall was decent, but when I went to XVIII ABN Corps Special Troops, that DFAC won the best Army small DFAC award 3 years in a row. When I took a commission in the USAF though, I have never eaten in a USAF DFAC that was good. They were ok, (exception....Maxwell AFB chow was horrible - all fat, no protein - my hair didn't grow for 4 months...), but not "good."

I didn't know rangers shopped at baby gap , that shirt bro

We started with 48 and four of us graduated (1986-1987). Hoo-yah!

When I got out of the Marines I contact the air force to be pararescue! I was told they wouldn't take me because I was to military!🤷🤦

Will was a good dude. Ran around in the same crews back in the day. I have a helluva funny story from his bday at the Traffic Light (legendary Ft Benning strip club from the 90s)
Damn we were wild back then. Lord of the Flies type shit.

Although likely called Alphatraz prior to but it lived up to its name because of the 1st Sergeant at the time, Bobby Lane. He was a hard ass, truthfully he was a dick. Always smokng the company. He had the Lane-SOP. Which mandated your wall locker be just like basic training, shoe layouts, civilian clothes couldnt be in your wallocker, bed had to have military wool blanket, etc. Ridiculous inspections, uniform games back and forth to formation. White glove inspections.
For the holidays post would have half day schedule. He make us work 12 hours "cause thats half a day" Meanwhile the other companies were cutting out at noon.
Everyone hated that dude.
This is the shit Wills talking about and what pushed him out.

Special ops mission was my jam back in the day

Whisky whisky

Shawn Ryan show, FNG and cleared hot! I have been here since day one! I’m like a big brother, I’m so happy where they’re at now!

I remember when I first saw Wil on TV, when he was doing his show Special Ops Mission for the Military Channel. I LOVED that show! It's a shame it ended so soon.

I flew HC130s for a while and worked with PJs, impressive group of dudes. I called their huge gear lockers mini REIs. They had everything.
I remember doing night training water drops off the coast of Florida, overcast with choppy seas. I went back and watched them loaded with gear jump off of the ramp into the dark abyss.
I went back to the flight deck and thought, I’m glad I’m up here. 😊. Major respect for those dudes.

I was watching a buds video and thinking I could probably handle the physical and exhaustion. Then I saw an instructor tell a buds he didn’t have the balls to ring the bell. I said, “yup, that’s how I’d fail.”

Mr. Henderson, how are you.
Nice to see you here.
That's pretty cool.

You seemed like the sort of folks that I've run into lately.
Which is a series of slightly more accomplished folks.

Anyone who volunteered for a Ranger Battalion had to pass RIP first. They had a RIP course for the 2nd Ranger Battalion on Ft Lewis WA in 1980, I know this because I passed RIP in Feb 1980 and went to B Co. Your information is a bit off in its dates.

I always appreciate it when someone interviews a PJ. We’re often overlooked.
Only 4 out of 120 of my classmates went on to earn their beret. Some may have eventually made it through later. The attrition rate was insane.

8 out of 220

18 chu Fund gioi nhat cua My.

Got a mate who was an Air defense guard in the RAAF I knew him during his training,only eight made it in his cohort ,he's a hard little fucker

Does this mean that Will was “Forged in Fire”?
🤔🔨🔥🫡🇺🇸🤣

awesome dude... being a PJ is the best job in the World. HooYah

I was a Marine & think I could have been a Ranger no problem. Never felt it was hard enough to be satisfying. But I don’t want to say that and take anything away from them. They had their thing & we had ours.

I use to love his show special ops mission.

HOOFUKKINYAH

I had a couple of PJ buddies when I was in the Air Force. Those guys were really cool and I was jealous of their intense training and skills, but I could out run both of them in terms of speed and distance. Overall they were much stronger than me though.

Love these videos! But I am a small businessman, so Amazon streaming is out, and I am in the music industry so Spotify is out...LOL

He taught us TCCC way back in 2013, haha 🎉

Damn, this dude must be in his 50's and doesn't look a day older than 40. Must be on a legit moisturizer regiment

The Punisher was a PJ? I seriously feel like Jon Bernthal just pretends/acts like he's Wil Willis

After watching this and watching old episodes what will is saying shows on his face. That being said the criteria of the contest isn’t whether or not a trained weapons expert can make a blade functional for killing, my guess is Will could probably use almost anything as an effective weapon. The criteria is whether or not master knife builders and in some cases knife competition competitors think a blade meets the standards in their expertise. Or a recreation specialist thinks a replica of a historic weapon meets the specs and basic functionality of the weapon.
So I agree with will that in television the goal is always the compelling narrative and like n most things when the narrative is forefront truth takes a back seat. That’s true in TV, it’s true in politics, hell it’s even true in friendship dynamics. The truth should shape the narrative but we all know it almost always goes the other way.
So I do understand Will’s problem and I applaud his integrity but at the same time he signed up to work in TV entertainment where story outweighs truth when the two are opposed. The judges them selves have all drifted from their lanes. I mean what’s Doug doing talking about grain structure or setting forge welds.
I happen to agree with Will in his assessments but at the same time he knew what he was signing up for and when one walks into to room of snakes they can’t really blame the snake that bites them.

Will Wilis was one of the few who "made the cut"... 😂

It was Alfa-traz in 1989 too bro. A 3/75 under SFC S. T. Kelly

Will’s tv show was one of the best overall in the 00’s. I wondered what happened to him.

Going PJ Sept 🤘🤘🤘🤘

He made it with smoking???

What can you tell us about the team concept that isn’t classified?

Haven't watched one episode of Forged since he left. But he's a good dude, follow him on Instagram. But anyway, dude showed up for PJ selection as a smoker and hadn't even been training for it??? What a machine.

Long Live Special Ops Mission . good days back then.

BAMF - loved his show on the history channel way back when.

In my era guys could run for miles with Marb reds hanging out of their mouth with an ash as long as your old grandmother's Camel cigarette....Lol

Wil Willis was my TCCC instructor when I was in the Marines. I remember him demonstrating log rolls on me when it was down-pouring rain outside.

One of my best friends was a PJ in Vietnam. He routinely flew into North Vietnam and Loas to rescue downed pilots. Definitely a bad ass in his day.

Training to be miserable isn’t training, it’s a waste of time.

Shout out to special ops mission huge part of my childhood!!

What a bunch of chair force pjs

And that idiot Jake Zweig says AF has no special operations and shook his head in a scoffing manner when he heard a Ranger say his second option was CCT. Saying how if you ever did swimming or track there is a 100% possibility you will quit BUD/S, everyone with a college degree is stupid if they enlist or if anyone joins the Marine Corps. What a tool.

Giving all regular soldiers the Ranger color beret was so stupid. He should've let them keep black, and given grey, brown or some shit to everyone else.

I'm prrreeeeeeettttty certain that the military understands that folks tend to try harder to reach a goal if you tell them they suck...

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