Two female soldiers earn elite Ranger tab

“I also know it’s evolutionary, and it’s hopeful”.

The Pentagon isn’t expected to make final decisions about exactly what combat roles women will be allowed to fill until later this year.

There’s still a long way to go before women can join tradically all-male combat units, like the 75th Ranger Regiment. Major Gen. Austin S. Miller, commanding general of the U.S. Army Maneuver Center of Excellence, said that nothing about the program was changed to accommodate for having female participants, and the women were held to the same standards as the male soldiers. And I also know that these two ladies are not men.

Indeed, Ranger School isn’t all about brawn, bulk and hairy chests.

“The department’s policy is that all ground combat positions will be open to women unless rigorous analysis of factual data shows that the positions must remain closed”, Carter said. “I wrote about how I would trust her with my life”.

“We ourselves came to Ranger School skeptical, with our guards up, just in case there were haters and naysayers”.

She said she might be interested in a special forces career if that path was open to her.

An Apache helicopter pilot from Copperas Cove, Texas, Haver said on Thursday that she plans to return to her unit and “serve as far as leadership will let me continue”. While she was proud to serve her country and make history, she didn’t believe in the war, she said. “I came here to be a better leader”. “So some people may think girls are not able to live up to those standards, but in actuality we can and we can do whatever we put our minds to”.

The two women – Griest and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver – will now get to wear the little black and yellow patch that military guys fetishize and worship, the Ranger tab.

“There are many men who can’t meet these standards”.

“I don’t care if that’s a male or a female – if they have a Ranger tab on, I want them next to me”, said 2nd Lt. Erickson Krogh.

Griest and Haver’s graduation is the latest in a series of firsts for women in the U.S. military.

Their motto may have never been truer than it was Friday, as graduates of the famously- grueling Ranger school led the way with a historic feat. Curtis Arnold, the senior enlisted soldier for the Airborne and Training Brigade. “They do not quit and they do not complain”.

Both women were among 19 female soldiers who enrolled in Ranger school in April.

The two women are called pioneers for finishing the course in the first year that the Army opened it to try out women. The School is known to be the Army’s most physically demanding one.

The most important pre-training exercise to do prior to Ranger school is walking fast in your boots with 50 pounds of weight on your back. And they don’t get much chance to rest or refuel.

Yet, it took them 100 days to complete a 61-day course. They’re incredible and they have clearly demonstrated they are more than capable of doing the job. Miller is commander of all Army infantry and armor training and education, including the Ranger School. Michael Calderon, one of the women’s classmates.