Soldiers managed to go on skis regularly (5)
I believe the answer is:
ranks
'soldiers' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'managed to go on skis regularly' is the wordplay.
'managed' becomes 'ran' (I've seen this before).
'to go on' says to put letters next to each other (in a down clue, some letters go on top of others).
'regularly' means one should take alternating letters (regularly take one letter, leave next etc.).
The alternate letters of 'skis' are 'ks'.
'ran'+'ks'='RANKS'
(Other definitions for ranks that I've seen before include "Positions of seniority" , "Classifies" , "Rows (of soldiers)" , "Grades, in armed forces say" , "Lines or rows of people or things" .)