Northwest Liberty NewsAlthough I have never served in the military, my work has allowed me to befriend plenty of fine men and women who have. For the record, I appreciate the service of each and every one of them; even if I may disagree with their particular politics. To voluntary sign-up for a program that could result in your making the ultimate sacrifice takes a special kind of courage, and something that I admire.
When you think about those who have served in our nation’s history, words like courage, honor and sacrifice come to mind. Unfortunately, there are also those who would dishonor their service with deceit; while stealing the valor of those who have actually paid the price to attain something difficult, like a Ranger tab. Bundy Ranch Security-Head, Ryan Payne, is one of those guys. While claiming to be a Ranger, and knowing enough of the lingo to be initially convincing, Payne maneuvered into a leadership position of the Bundy Family security team. His motivation? I can only speculate, but if someone is deceitful enough to falsely claim to be a Ranger, one might conclude that they are up to no good.
Other veterans had their suspicions about Ryan Payne early-on, and began to do some checking on his military record. When they asked around in the Ranger community, no one had ever heard of a Ranger named Ryan Payne. This lead Georgia Ranger veteran Danny Harrington to directly contact the Airborne Ranger Training Brigade at Ft. Benning, Georgia, to run a “tab” check. The staff at the Ranger Training Brigade confirmed that no person named Ryan Payne had attended Ranger School between the years 2000 and 2014. I have included the e-mail string between Harrington and the Ranger School that paralleled the investigation into Payne below. Above, I have included an audio interview with Ranger, Danny Harrington, recounting how he then called the Bundy Ranch and spoke to Payne personally and “outed” Payne’s deceit. On the phone, Ryan Payne admitted that he had never gone to Ranger School and had never served in an actual Ranger unit.
EMAIL:
From: Patriot Ranger <patriotranger@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 12:07 AM
Subject: FW: Tab Check (UNCLASSIFIED)Danny Harrington
From: joseph.m.hester.mil@mail.mil
To: patriotranger@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: Tab Check (UNCLASSIFIED)
Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2014 15:34:48 +0000Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONEYes, I checked from 2000 til 2014. We keep all the inprocessing cards rather guys graduate or not. I didn’t find 1 Ryan Payne.
SFC Joseph Hester
Sr. TAC NCOIC
Airborne Ranger Training Brigade
HHD, ARTBOffice: 706-544-7312
Office: 706-544-6413—–Original Message—–
From: Patriot Ranger [mailto:patriotranger@hotmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2014 11:01 AM
To: Hester, Joseph M SFC USARMY (US)
Subject: Re: Tab Check (UNCLASSIFIED)I will try and get a class date to confirm. Is that going back to 2001 for no Ryan Payne?
—– Reply message —–
From: “Hester, Joseph M SFC USARMY (US)” <joseph.m.hester.mil@mail.mil>
To: “Patriot Ranger” <patriotranger@hotmail.com>
Subject: Tab Check (UNCLASSIFIED)
Date: Tue, Apr 29, 2014 10:55
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONEI have a Rory Payne that came through and graduated in 2008 from 75th. No Ryan Payne though, if you can ask him for a class number and we can be 100% by checking the graduate roster for that class.
SFC Joseph Hester
Sr. TAC NCOIC
Airborne Ranger Training Brigade
HHD, ARTBOffice: 706-544-7312
Office: 706-544-6413—–Original Message—–
From: Patriot Ranger [mailto:patriotranger@hotmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2014 9:27 AM
To: Hester, Joseph M SFC USARMY (US)
Subject: RE: Tab Check (UNCLASSIFIED)
Also have birth date August 5, 1983
Danny Harrington
Class 8-85
1st Bn 83-88From: joseph.m.hester.mil@mail.mil
To: patriotranger@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: Tab Check (UNCLASSIFIED)
Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2014 12:59:41 +0000Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONEOk, I’ll take a look at it and let you know what I find.
SFC Joseph Hester
Sr. TAC NCOIC
Airborne Ranger Training Brigade
HHD, ARTB
joseph.m.hester.mil@mail.mil—–Original Message—–
From: Patriot Ranger [mailto:patriotranger@hotmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2014 8:53 AM
To: Hester, Joseph M SFC USARMY (US)
Subject: Tab CheckSFC Hester,
I appreciate your help,
Name: Ryan Payne
Age 31
From: Ontario California
Lives: Anoconda Montana
I wish I had class date for you but I believe it would have been
between 2001-2008Danny Harrington
Class 8-85
1st Bn 83-88Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONEClassification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE
Above is the audio interview with actual Ranger Danny Harrington, describing how he called and spoke with Ryan Payne after the Ranger School at Benning confirmed that Ryan Payne had never attended Ranger School.
On the phone, Ryan Payne admitted to Harrington that he had never attended Ranger School and that he had never served in an actual Ranger unit, which would require serving in one of the three Ranger Battalions. Payne tried to explain away his claims of being a Ranger by asserting that though he never went to Ranger School, and had never served in a Ranger Battalion, that his unit in the Army (Airborne Reconnaissance in the XVIII Airborne Corps) was still a “Ranger” unit because it did reconnaissance missions much like Rangers do, and some of the men in his unit had gone to Ranger School. Harrington replied that just because some other men in Payne’s unit went to Ranger School, that doesn’t make Payne a Ranger (they earned the tab – he didn’t), and it doesn’t make that a Ranger unit. The only recognized Ranger units currently in service are the three battalions (1st, 2nd, 3rd) of the 75th Ranger Regiment.
The Ranger School is a leadership school, and soldiers from other units attend Ranger School as part of their leadership training, and by doing so earn the Ranger tab. Many officers attend Ranger School as part of their advancement up the ranks – punching their ticket. So, the mere fact that some other men in Payne’s reconnaissance unit had gone to Ranger School doesn’t make that a Ranger unit any more than it would make any other unit in the Army a “Ranger” unit because a soldier in that unit had once gone to Ranger School. The tab is worn by the individual who earned it, regardless of unit. But Payne never earned that tab.
Nor did Ryan Payne serve in a recognized Ranger unit, which now would consist only of the three current Ranger Battalions within the 75th Ranger Regiment.
There were some long range reconnaissance (LRRP) units back in Vietnam that are now recognized as Ranger units, and were incorporated into the revitalized 1st and 2nd Ranger Battalions in 1974, but that was long before Ryan Payne’s time, and no honorable veteran who serves in an airborne scout unit today would call it a Ranger unit or claim to be a Ranger because he would know that only one of the three Ranger battalions is a Ranger unit, and only those who attended Ranger School and actually earned that tab have a right to that title.
So, Ryan Payne is a poser – a fake Ranger – who has falsely misrepresented himself and allowed others to refer to him as a “Ranger” without correcting them (in multiple media interviews he is introduced as a Ranger veteran and not once has he ever corrected the interviewer).
Why does this matter? Because those who have served as Rangers are respected as part of the special warfare community, much like those who served as Navy SEALS, U.S. Army Special Forces, or Marine Force Recon or MARSOC. It is a big deal, and sets one apart. Someone who claims to be part of that elite group, while never having actually served among them and done the hard work of actually earning that Ranger tab and Ranger Scroll, is a poser, and a poser who gains respect and deference that he never earned. Ryan Payne, like other posers, is benefiting from the reputation and mystique of the Rangers – benefiting from the hard work of other men – while never actually earning that title.
Frankly, this is a stolen valor situation. He has used the false title of “Ranger” to gain the trust of the Bundy family and become the head of their security team and their “liaison” to all other groups. By falsely claiming to be a Ranger, Ryan Payne has gained a respect and deference from other veterans at the Bundy Ranch that he never actually earned and now purports to speak for everyone who volunteered to guard the Bundy family. And he has used that position to aggrandize himself and his organization, OMA. None of that helps the Bundy family or the broader cause to retake our stolen Western lands and rights. It only helps Ryan Payne.
Posers and fakes need to be exposed. If he will lie about his military record, what else is he lying about?
http://northwestlibertynews.com/News/tabid/771/ID/1580/The-Best-Way-to-Anger-a-Ranger.aspx
I had to do secom radio test on (mostly) every radio-set/ every transponder/every channel and nearly every 12-16hr shift. To my point…
After a year of knowing and doing commerce with him, I “met” the ranger who “bounced me” radio checks(in the persian gulf) 8 years later. After a year of knowing and doing commerce with him. To my point.
Shawn and the other two Rangers I know dont talk about it. At all. My time overlaps with two of them and is very connected via a “radio buddy” fluke to one of them. I know 100% more than their wifes.
point
Cant say Iv met a Ranger who is a “chatty cathy” about it. Iv oddly enough have met one person who boasted about being a ranger and it turned out he dropped out of basic and did a 5 year bid in state prison.
Thank you, James White, for running this up the flagpole.
It really annoys me to no end to see video game type armchair
warriors step into the real world and claim something they have no business claiming.
I used to live on a spec ops base. I know what these guys go through
to earn their position and respect.
IMHO Ryan Payne needs a good solid kick in the nuts.
-flek
It’s too bad he lied about that shit, but the fact of the matter is, the “real deal” SF types are the bane of the patriot community anyway and I have not seen one ever who had the real balls to do jack shit when the chips were down and the US government were the hostiles. That, and really, there are no exceptions. Not even f@#$nuts like Stan Goff who has trained a bunch of leftist types and is strongly rumored to have been the tactical mind behind a bunch of the Occupy and Black Lives matter riots, but you are not going to see him stepping up to swap slugs with any SWAT team. I mean, without exception, these guys won’t draw down or go hard on the pigs for stepping on anybody’s rights not on the left wing side, not on the right wing side, not on the patriot movement side. It just don’t happen. Delta Force founder and all around badass Bo Gritz? Turns into a prayer circle peacenik once the fed snipers are known to be in the area. The best you get out of the professionals and their credentials will be quality training, maybe, if they are not feeding you a specifically misdirected form of the training with built in weaknesses.
So if some guy shows up with LEGIT SF credentials, guess what, he has jack shit nothing to prove to you and really, probably just don’t care. He will poke around maybe a little seeing if there is some good profit in dealing with you, maybe some hottie chicks who put out for the studly warriors in the group so he will do his thing to be the studly warrior, but these guys, they don’t do self sacrifice for other people’s conceptual liberties, they just don’t. You look and sound too ideologically libertarian around the intel types who do the psych evals for shit like SF and Ranger school, you ain’t even getting a seat in that class.
You should know, that if a guy has legit D-boy or other SF creds and tells you he is a “patriot” and will fight for freedom, he is 100% full of shit looking for the free handout and some sort of bonus check later. Your problems with the government, no matter what was done to you by them won’t compete with some black budget funding that guy is eligible for in turning against you and if you are not one of them, you ain’t one of them, period. Won’t f@#$ing happen, and even if he is not offered a handsome sum to f#$k you over, he sure won’t burn his bridges for the opportunity to burn you in the future.
Do you guys realize that any of these SF types even coming out with 20 year histories are from Clinton’s army? They are not even the anti-communist cold war types from the days when you got resistance training even in regular boot camp. These are “nationbuilding and SF Operations specialists”. “De Opresso Liber” is like, “huh what’s that shit? Old John Wayne Green Beret has-been stuff?”. These guys are the ones fast tracking the police academies to join the SWAT teams to draw a bead on people like you, not fight for your freedoms.