Tracy Marrow aka Ice-T is not an Army Ranger

Someone emailed us a few weeks ago and they mentioned that they heard Ice-T, the rapper and actor on the Howard Stern show claim that he was an Army Ranger.

So, I looked at his Wiki page and sure enough, there it was. He’d said the same thing on the Adam Carolla show;

Edits to the Wiki page since this story published;

…he joined the United States Army. Marrow served a four-year tour in the 25th Infantry Division. He was in a group that was charged with the theft of a rug. While awaiting trial, he received a $2,500 bonus check and decided to go AWOL, yet he returned a month later after the rug had been returned. As a consequence of his dereliction of duty, Marrow received an Article 15. non-judicial punishment.

During his spell in the Army, Marrow became interested in hip hop music. He heard Sugar Hill Gang’s newly released single “Rapper’s Delight,” which inspired him to perform his own raps over the instrumentals of this and other early hip-hop records. The music, however, did not fit his lyrics or form of delivery.

When he was stationed in Hawaii as a squad leader at Schofield Barracks, where prostitution was not a heavily prosecuted crime, Marrow met a pimp named Mac. Mac admired that Marrow could quote Iceberg Slim and he taught Marrow how to be a pimp himself. Marrow was also able to purchase stereo equipment cheaply in Hawaii, including two Technics turntables, a mixer, and large speakers. Once equipped, he then began to learn turntablism and rapping.

Towards the end of his time in the Army, Marrow learned from his commanding officer that he could receive an honorable discharge because he was a single father, so he left four months ahead of schedule.

During an episode of the Adam Carolla Podcast that aired on June 6, 2012, Marrow claimed that after being discharged from the Army, he began a career as a bank robber. Using combat skills allegedly acquired in Ranger School, Marrow claimed he and some associates began conducting take-over bank robberies, “…like [in the film] Heat.”

It was a topic of discussion at SOCNET 15 years ago. It’s on his IMBd profile in the trivia section;

And this Twitter user claiming to be Ice-T sent this a few weeks ago (the link to the Twitter message is dead now);

In 1999, he told the New York Times & International Herald Tribune;

In his book, he tells folks about how he attended the Basic Airborne Course at Fort Benning, GA;

So my curiosity was piqued and we sent for his records.

Marrow did join the Army, he was stationed in Hawaii, he did go AWOL (it looks like he went AWOL for about 2 weeks at the end of his Advanced Individual (Infantry) Training at Fort Benning), he was on a four-year enlistment (if he got a $2500 bonus like he claimed, that was for a four-year enlistment in the Infantry in the Carter years) – but he only did 26 months, a little bit more than half of his enlistment and his records don’t show that he went into the Reserves, so he was booted from the Army. He wasn’t a squad leader (he was discharged as a private first class E-3). And, oh, surprise, there is no airborne training or Ranger School.

I wonder which part of Ranger School would help someone rob banks, anyway.

Category: Phony soldiers, Valor Vultures