First female Army Ranger School graduates

1st Class Timothy Briggs in April won the Best Ranger Competition at Fort Benning, Georgia, said he was initially opposed to women in the program but has since changed his mind. That stood out to me, and during her patrol she looked strong.

Special operations command is likely to allow women to compete for the most demanding military commando jobs, including the Navy Seals and the Army’s Delta Force.

During the course, students learn how to operate in three different environments: woodlands in Fort Benning, mountainous terrain in Dahlonega, Georgia, and coastal swamp in Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.

A pack of 400 aspiring Rangers dwindled down to 96 as they braved brutal conditions, learning to overcome fatigue, hunger and stress. The Defense Department is looking at every single job with an eye toward opening it to women, unless the service chiefs and secretaries request an exemption from Defense Secretary Ash Carter.

In recent days, officials familiar with the discussions said they believe the Army will allow women to seek infantry and armor jobs as well.

The fact that two have now completed the course does not guarantee that women will be allowed to serve in the infantry, but it is a major step in that direction. NPR’s Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman reports that Army and Marine Corps leaders are still deciding whether they’ll let women serve in ground combat jobs beginning in January, or ask for a waiver that would keep those jobs closed.

Is this the turning point, the event that takes down the military wall that has long stood (with occasional exceptions) between women and combat? Of those three, two went on to graduate (after recycling one more time each during the mountain test) and the third is still in Ranger School.

U.S. Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn., also congratulated the two women. Typically, only 40 percent of the soldiers who start the course complete it and earn their Ranger tab.

That allowance includes elite units such as the U.S. Army Rangers and even the U.S. Navy SEALS, which maintain tough standards and have high drop-out rates among male candidates.

Bowman, a Vietnam veteran, questions if the women could serve in a combat capacity, a decision the Army has yet to make.

Echoing that fact, more than 9,000 women have been recognized for their service, receiving Army Combat Action Badges for “actively engaging or being engaged by the enemy”, according to a recent Congressional Research Service study.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, an author who has written extensively on women in combat, said that women have already proven themselves in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.