These Are the Army's First Female Ranger School Graduates
Source: Stars and Stripes
For more than 120 days, Capt. Kristen Griest and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver have ground it out at Ranger School, the Army's famously difficult school designed to build elite leaders capable of withstanding the rigors of combat. They've withstood fearsome weather, exhausting hikes, sleepless nights and simulated combat patrols designed to test their reaction time, teamwork and tenacity under fire.
On Friday, the two women will become the first female soldiers ever to graduate from the course at Fort Benning, Ga., receiving the coveted black and yellow Ranger Tab alongside 94 male counterparts. Griest, a military police officer from Orange, Conn., and Haver, an Apache helicopter pilot from Copperas Cove, Texas, are among a group of 20 women who qualified to attend the first gender-integrated Ranger School beginning April 20, and the only two female soldiers to complete it to date.
The graduation of Haver and Griest, both in their 20s and alumnae of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., increases pressure on the Army to integrate women into more combat jobs. They have not previously been identified by the Army, but The Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor and Columbus Ledger-Enquirer in Georgia were able to do so after observing Ranger School training several times this year.
Ranger School was opened to women for the first time in April as the Army assesses how to integrate women into more jobs in combat units across the service. That followed a January 2013 decision by senior Pentagon leaders to open all jobs to women, with the services granted until this fall to make recommendations on whether anything should remain closed. Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter is expected to rule on each request by Jan. 1.
Read more: http://www.stripes.com/news/us/these-are-the-army-s-first-female-ranger-school-graduates-1.363536
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Of course, this is going to drive all the misogynists I know on military Facebook pages crazy. They're going to go berserk with helpless rage. I can't wait...
She reported the two new Rangers are refusing individual interviews, although their entire group (class? squad?) will be made available to the press.
Because they are that HARDCORE.
Perseverance in any undertaking is a thing to be admired. Someday hopefully humanity will reflect upon inequality and realize the fact that lumping any category into a particular box is not only ignorant, it is a waste of talent. We should never take any group of people, by gender, by race, by color, by ethnicity, or whatever the case and decide they can or cannot accomplish a feat. I believe in being prepared for whatever may come, and if these women are going to make the military their career, they should not only be prepared, but should also be allowed to excel.
Graduating from this course has more implications than just being ready for the battleground, it also allows these women to gain stature right along with the men when it comes to rank, pay, and so many other things that go along with the prestige of being a Ranger. Equality, this is what we strive for and that is what these women have been able to accomplish...they are equal to everyone else who was fortunate enough to graduate this training, and superior in strength and agility to many who had to drop out...Gender should never be a factor when it comes to allowing someone the opportunity to follow the rules and thereby prove their ability to become a leader ...hats off to the ladies for their stamina and their ability to gain their place in military history.
