by Garth Meyer
Iraq veteran and RUHS graduate Andrew Goldsmith’s second book was published Feb. 25, “The Mediocre Infrantrymen’s Guide to Ranger School” (Double Dagger Books), recounting his elite Army training before his second tour in Iraq.
He now prepares for an estimated 220-mile skateboard and kayak trip in Georgia connecting two of the three sites that make up Ranger School.
Goldsmith became an Army Ranger at age 22, four years out of RUHS and three from a microeconomics class at El Camino College that he busted out of and went to the local Marine/Army recruiter’s office, soon to enlist.
Ranger School is deprivation, he said; little sleep, little food, no information.
“You never know at any time when you’re going to be put in charge of everybody,” Goldsmith said.
Everyone was equal, no matter their rank going in.
“It’s just last name and no title. So you can learn to lead people when you have nothing over them,” he said. “And you find out just how dumb you get when you have no sleep.”
Goldsmith entered with 340 other soldiers. 150 graduated, after hauling 80-lb. rucksacks 16 hours per day for most of 60-80 days, including do-over sections of the training.
“(The experience) was harder than anything I did in Iraq,” he said.
A corporal then, Goldsmith had already done one Iraq tour and was back at Fort Carson, Colo., when he was asked if he wanted to go to Ranger School.
“I entered into it very lightheartedly, and it turned into a very momentous decision,” he said. “It changed the trajectory of my life.”
Goldsmigh, now 40, had a Ranger patch on his left shoulder for his second tour in Iraq.
“I already knew my limits from three years of being in the infantry, but as tough as Ranger School was, I really, really knew my limits. So (later in life) whatever I’m going through, it’s no big deal,” said Goldsmith. “With that kind of mindset, things are much easier. And that includes having kids.”
For his trip in May, he starts at the “Welcome to Camp Merrill” sign in Dahlonega, Georgia – near the southern end of the Appalachian Trail – then skateboards to the Etowah River, kayaks 16 miles, then skateboards (longboard) to Ft. Benning, Georgia [just renamed its original moniker by the Trump Administration last week]. He hopes to do some kind of culminating event at the National Infantry Museum housed at the fort.
“I’ve been doing route reconnaissance and checking crime reports,” Goldsmith said, to find “rural, skateable roads” for the trip.
The Florida part of Ranger School is the “Swamp Phase,” which he originally tried to incorporate into this trip, “but it was too grand of an adventure.”
As for total miles, he gives a “lowbar estimate” of 220 to make sure he’s not over-promising. The route may change.
On Feb. 1, on Goldsmith’s 40th birthday, he skateboarded 44 miles on the Strand – up to Malibu and back from Torrance Beach – then 44 miles on a bike, then kayaked in the ocean for nine miles before nightfall.
“I’m a fairly-experienced ocean kayaker though I’m hoping river-kayaking will be a little easier, with a current, but those are always famous last words,” he said.
In 2022, he did a 101-mile one-day skateboard on the Strand, to benefit the International Medical Corps for their work in Ukraine.
Goldsmith is a Pepperdine Law School graduate and married father of two. He has also done a 37-day skate of the California coastline.
He self-published his first book in 2011, “Zarqawi’s Ice Cream: Tales of Mediocre Infantrymen.”
“I actually like economics now,” he said.
His new book can be found at:
