Army Lt. Col Nathan Showman and other Rangers assigned to the 5th Ranger Training Battalion wait for two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters to land in Dahlonega, Ga., on July 14, 2023. (Austin Berner/U.S. Army Reserve)
ATLANTA — The Army suspended the commander in charge of the Ranger School’s north Georgia mountain training, pending the outcome of an ongoing investigation, service officials said Tuesday.
Lt. Col. Nathan E. Showman was suspended Jan. 26 from command of the 5th Ranger Training Battalion, according to a statement from the Army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Moore, Ga., which oversees Ranger School. Officials at Fort Moore declined further comment on the investigation, including its nature or who was conducting it.
Showman has been temporarily assigned duties at Fort Moore while he is suspended, according to the statement.
Lt. Col. Bob J. Stone has been named 5th Ranger Training Battalion’s interim commander. He had been serving as the Army Infantry School’s executive officer at Fort Moore.
Showman had commanded the battalion since April 2023, according to the Army. The unit conducts the second phase of the Army’s famously grueling 61-day Ranger School, testing student Rangers’ mountaineering and small-unit skills in the Georgia mountains. Camp Merrill is about 50 miles north of Atlanta.
Ranger School is conducted in three phases, each led by a different Ranger training battalion. The first, known as Darby phase, focuses on training in small-unit tactics at Fort Moore. The second phase is the mountain phase. The final phase, known as swamp phase, is conducted at Camp Rudder on Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.
Showman, who is from Cincinnati, commissioned as an infantry officer in 2005 and has served two combat tours in Iraq and another in Afghanistan, according to his Army biography. He has also served as physical education teacher at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., as a military trainer in the Republic of Georgia and as an exchange officer in the United Kingdom.
Prior to taking command of 5th Ranger Training Battalion, he was stationed at Fort Jackson, S.C., and served as the combined arms detachment chief and the command planning group chief for the Solider Support Institute, according to the Army.
