Women Pass Army Ranger School, First Female Graduates

Soldiers put their physical stamina and mental toughness to the test on April 20 as they trekked through the woodlands of Fort Benning, climbed the mountains of Dahlonega, Ga., and waded through Floridian swamps at the Eglin Air Force Base. He said she has run marathons and was a member of the triathlon team at West Point.

This round of Ranger training was the first class to include women as part of the Army’s assessment of how to better integrate women into their different branches.

On Friday, they will graduate with their class, but still are far from combat.

Thom “Jake” Jacobs coaches girls’ track now at Amity but coached boys when Griest was in high school.

“Many have questioned whether or not standards were maintained, whether or not compromises were given to these soldiers”, Arnold wrote.

Those eight female soldiers failed the first patrol phase at Camp Darby on Fort Benning and were offered an opportunity to repeat the phase. “No one has that sort of athletic range!!” he said. “It was common knowledge to people that knew her that that is what she wanted to do”. Neither woman has been publicly identified by the military. Lieutenant Haver, a Texas resident, is an Apache helicopter pilot.

Unlike the male graduates, the two women can’t apply to join the 75th Ranger Regiment, an elite special operations force. And that’s an extraordinary feat for these two women that they’re graduating. The services have until September 30 to provide those reports to Defense Secretary Ash Carter. The official was not authorized to disclose the name publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The announcement did not spell out which military occupational specialties (MOSs) will be open to women, but directed the DOD to complete studies on the potential for women to serve by September of 2015, the end of the fiscal year, and implement the recommendations by January 2016.

Secretary McHugh celebrated the historic achievement in his statement. “I can honestly and unequivocally say that no standard was changed”.

U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt.

“I really opened this facility in 2012, for guys getting ready for Ranger School“, Smith said. A third woman remains in the course.

With a graduation rate of 50%, the Ranger training course is a challenge reserved for only the most dedicated and hardened of service members. The program sits among the most hard training courses in the world.

The politics that Maginnis is warning about was on display after the women dropped out: the Marine Corps was required to explain to the Pentagon why the course must remain too rigorous for women to complete it.

Women have been made eligible for about 91,000 previously male-only military jobs in recent years, according to Military Times.

Completing Ranger School also can significantly enhance careers even for officers who do not serve in combat units.