No question it’s a big deal that two women will graduate from Army Ranger School on Friday.
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The two female and 94 male graduates started in a class of 400 soldiers.
The military is working determine how to best integrate women into combat roles. 1, 2015. Eight women made it through the first week, called Ranger Assessment Phase, but didn’t pass the subsequent Benning Phase.
There are already emerging signals on how some of the services plan to proceed.
They are the first women to ever have completed the U.S. Army Ranger School and on Friday they will affix the “Ranger tab” patch to their shoulders.
Cmd. Sgt. Major Curtis Arnold said a decade ago he would have doubted that women could handle the rigorous course – particularly the long marches and patrols in which soldiers carry rucksacks, weapons and other gear exceeding pounds total extra weight.
But that would likely meet resistance from senior officials.
One of the commanders of the Ranger course compared the graduation of the first women to breaking the four-minute mile.
Since 2013, the Pentagon has notified Congress of 111,000 individual combat positions that were previously closed that will be or have been opened, Davis said. “These two women graduates are leaders in every sense, having demonstrated the courage and strength to serve in the most demanding, hard missions”. 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. Marine Corps leaders, they say, have expressed concerns about women in infantry jobs and yet may seek an exception.
“This is an Army school”, Barno said.
Reactions varied as news of the women’s accomplishments spread. “We understand that this will take time”, Bockholt said.
“The feedback I’ve gotten with these women is how incredibly prepared they are”, Retiring Army Chief of Staff Gen Raymond T Odierno told the Washington Post. A third female soldier remains in training, but the others have washed out.
The school is considered the service’s premier leadership course and is attended by many service members each year who will never become part of the Ranger Regiment. Griest, in the Military Police branch, is a 2011 graduate of West Point.
What is the 75th Ranger Regiment? All leaders typically are required to before assuming their new positions of authority.
He said women could be a distraction if integrated into infantry units in the field.
I heard the women were “recycled”. “I think the burden is on them to show how they’re different from everyone else”.
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Together, the three women repeated the first phase of Ranger School, woodlands training, three times before moving on to the mountaineering phase.
