The United States Senate unanimously passed a bipartisan resolution, led by Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) and co-sponsored by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), honoring the first women to complete the elite United States Army Ranger School. The Republican lawmaker has given McHugh until Friday to hand over the documents. According to the Army Times report a spokesman for McHugh said the secretary will respond to the congressman.
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People magazine reported that Russell was concerned because “sources at Fort Benning are coming forward to say the Army lied about women in Ranger School, that the women got special treatment and played by different rules”.
A group of female West Point graduates has turned the tables on Oklahoma congressman Steve Russell, asking the Army to turn over his Ranger records. Their graduation sparked outcry online that the standards had been lessened for them or that instructors had faced political pressure to pass the women.
The West Point women on Thursday submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for Russell’s Ranger School records. “For some of us, enough is enough”, said Fulton, who serves as chairwoman on the West Point board of visitors.
“If Congressman Russell claims that Rangers lie, and can be influenced to ignore standards, perhaps he experienced that when he went through Ranger School”.
Russell addressed his request on his Facebook page.
“No one wanted to touch this issue”, Russell wrote.
That chorus of criticism was reignited last week when the school announced the remaining female student’s latest recycle opportunity; she has so far completed three attempts at the Darby Phase, two at the Mountain Phase and one at the Swamp Phase. He is Ranger qualified.
A third female soldier, who the Army has not named but is also a West Point graduate, is now in the final phase in Florida and could graduate next month.
As part of the Army’s gender-integrated assessment of Ranger School, 19 women started Ranger School in April.
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“One of the things that’s motivated us is that this is the same stuff that’s gone on for 40 years”, she said.
