The first 2 female Army rangers

[zoegirltx]

www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/08/17/432651026/for-the-first-time-women-will-graduate-from-armys-rigorous-ranger-school


Two women have completed the Army's tough Ranger School, officials say. Both are in their 20s and are lieutenants.





The Pentagon has not decided whether they will be approved for ground combat.



"They'll now wear the Ranger tab on their uniforms," Tom says. "A coveted award among infantry soldiers."



Secretary of the Army John M. McHugh congratulated all the new Rangers in a press release:



"Each Ranger School graduate has shown the physical and mental toughness to successfully lead organizations at any level. This course has proven that every Soldier, regardless of gender, can achieve his or her full potential. We owe Soldiers the opportunity to serve successfully in any position where they are qualified and capable, and we continue to look for ways to select, train, and retain the best Soldiers to meet our Nation's needs."

Marine Lance Cpls. Julia Carroll (left) and Paula Pineda lift "Carl" — a 220-pound test dummy — during training in March in California. Female Marines have completed months of training and are now waiting to hear whether they will be allowed to serve in combat roles.

BACK AT BASE

They Survived Training, Now Female Marines Await Word On Ground Combat

Apache Helicopter Pilot To Join Other Women At Army Ranger School

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The Ranger course began in 1950. The Army says that around 40 percent of male soldiers in Ranger School graduate.



The Army announced its decision allowing women to participate in Ranger training in January. After the announcement, we reported that:



"Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, has previously said Army leaders will monitor the pilot program.

" 'We're just going to let the statistics speak for themselves as we go through this,' he said, in response to a question from a soldier at a virtual town hall-style meeting on Jan. 6. 'The main thing I'm focused on is the standards remain the same.'

"He added: 'We don't know if it's five people graduate, or 100 people graduate, or no one graduates. This is just a pilot to gain information for us to understand where we are, and then we'll take that data and make a determination on how we want to move forward.' "

Tom describes the two-month Ranger training as grueling. It begins in Fort Benning, Ga., where soldiers train in the mountains, and ends in the swamps of Florida. The program admitted women as "part of an effort by Pentagon leaders to determine whether women can be assigned to ground combat units in both the Army and the Marine Corps."

[cattledogkisses]

Good for them! Ranger school is HARD.

They completed all the training that the men go through, so let them serve on the ground. They've proven themselves able and worthy.

[eclaires]

Ranger school is INTENSE. My brother is a Ranger (and now is a Green Beret, which was also some intense training). In between completing Ranger school in 2009 and before he started Green Beret training a few years ago, his job was working with the Ranger training/school.

We went to see his graduation for both, and while the Green Beret graduation was really cool (Former SecDef Gates spoke and my brother even won an award), the Ranger graduation was a lot of fun because they did some demonstrations of what they do.

[fuckyourcouch]

Whatever you do, avoid the comments on anything about this story. They are pretty disgusting.

[Daria Morgandorffer]

This is awesome. My dad is an Airborne Ranger and is super proud of these ladies.

[NewOrleans]

Fabulous, brave, strong, committed women!

[meltoine]

My cousin is one class behind them in Ranger school - the woman who got recycled back a class is now in his class. From what his mom passes on from his letters, there hasn't been any backlash from the other candidates to having them in the class and they are pretty badass women.

I have to say, after many years of being frustrated with the military for their treatment of female members, this has really been a banner year for progress so far. Of course there's still a million miles to go, especially with regard to sexual assault. But the Navy/Marines recently upped their maternity leave to 18 weeks, the Air Force made female Airmen non-deployable for 12 months following the birth of a child (it used to be 6) and changed the post-partum physical fitness standards to give new moms more time to get back in shape. Now women are graduating Ranger school, and I think one of the other specialized schools had their first female graduates in the spring too, IIRC.

[foundmylazybum]

This is a big deal where I work. Ive been following this story for a looong time and knew that the two women were on track to make it a couple weeks ago. I'm really happy for them.