He also was a career Army aviator who flew Apaches.
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“It’s pretty cool that they have accepted us”, she said.
Griest is a graduate of West Point.
“It takes a lot more will and mental capacity to pass than physical capacity”, she said during a news conference broadcast from Fort Benning, Ga. “She’s not histrionic and she’s not audacious”. “I just came here to try to be a better leader and improve myself and I feel like I did that”.
“These two soldiers who are graduating tomorrow, they have absolutely earned the respect of every Ranger instructor in the Ranger training brigade”, Arnold said. Tonight, those pioneers on what kept them going through it all. It’s definitely awesome to be part of the history of a ranger school. Griest’s parents were not available for comment. Sean Mahon was her track coach at Amity High School, where Griest was captain of the team. “I also remember her being physically stronger than the typical adolescent girl”. “No one has that sort of athletic range!!” he said. She took the weight off me and she carried it the last half of that road. “I thought she was insane for that”, he added, to laughter.
“It’s just completely incredible”, Chris Haver said of his daughter’s accomplishment, according to the Associated Press.
They are the first women to complete Ranger School, which has been described as the toughest, most mentally demanding course in the Army. Shaye Haver followed her father’s lead, serving as an attack helicopter pilot. The official was not authorized to disclose the name publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Like most combat roles, these posts are still closed to women – although that’s now under review.
“These two women finished well ahead of some of the males”, he said.
Several of the male rangers admitted to being initially skeptical that the women could perform at the same level, but being later convinced that gender was not a factor.
Some vets reminded us that women have been distinguished in combat throughout the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as “there are no front-lines any more”.
“American women certainly serve with honor and distinction, provide some capabilities that males may not be able to provide”, Lechner said in a telephone interview.
Cambria said Greist has never shied away from something that’s hard, including the Ranger test. “No women that I know would want to go to Ranger School if they change the standards because then it degrades what the tag means”.
She had long dreamed of coming to Ranger School, since she was a West Point cadet and a mentor invited her to be part of his infantry training program if she could meet the physical standards.
Griest, of Connecticut, is an Airborne-qualified military police officer. Not “with a chip on our shoulders”, but braced for “the haters, the naysayers”. A third woman remains in the course.
“If she had been allowed to go infantry out of college, she would have done that”, he told the AP.
During the course, students learn how to operate in three different environments: woodlands in Fort Benning, mountainous terrain in Dahlonega, Georgia, and coastal swamp in Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.
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To Griest, the decision to open up combat units is up to the senior leadership.
