The Army calls this a move to “assess female soldier performance” in the Ranger course as part of an ongoing effort dubbed “Soldier 2020”, which was designed to allow the Army’s most qualified solders to serve in any position where they are capable, regardless of their gender.
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Not everyone feels that way. He’s now retired and owns a gym in Columbus.
“This is social engineering and political correctness run amok”, said Bowman, 80.
Only a handful of jobs in the Navy and Air Force are closed to women.
But they might get their shot. The Army will introduce them Thursday in a media event.
The president expects the Army to produce some female Rangers so he can crow about how he’s on the “right side of history”.
Of the 20 women who began that class, 17 have been eliminated, along with 251 men. “There is no doubt in my mind about that”. Major Curtis H. Arnold Jr. told ABC News as he oversaw the first phase of Ranger School at Fort Benning in Georgia.
“Bottom line, this is great news for our Army”, he said. Companies made up of all men and mixes of men and women spent up to three months in California performing a broad range of unit tasks and going through detailed scientific evaluations to see how they did.
The Marine Corps has opened its Infantry Officer Course at Quantico, Va., to women as part of a test for more than two years, but none of the 29 women who volunteered completed the 13-week course.
Ranger School is the Army’s premier combat leadership course, teaching Ranger students how to overcome fatigue, hunger and stress to lead soldiers during small-unit combat operations.
“She’s kind of built for this thing”, Chris Haver said.
But the soldiers who complete the training are known as some of the Army’s best leaders. “In the long haul it will reduce that chance, and that is a betrayal of trust”.
“Secretly, a [there’s a] sense of pride and I say secretly because we can’t really cheer these females on”, said SSG Cynthia Velarde, Ranger observer.
The fight for the prestigious Ranger tab is not easily won. The one in the pic was in my company. “These are dedicated, tough soldiers who do not quit and do not complain”.
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Women have regularly been exposed to combat over the past decade. “Is the kitchen under attack?” 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. “…I know a lot of guys that have been through it and tell me how hard the course is”. In his conversations about women Rangers with noncommissioned officers in the regiment, Puckett said, the universal response was “it’s OK with me, if they maintain standards”.
