History is being made in Fort Benning, Georgia today as Captain Kristen Griest and First Lieutenant Shaye Haver become the first two women to graduate from the rigorous and prestigious Army Ranger School. This is the first year the Army has allowed women to participate in the course, on a trial basis.
Captain Kristen Griest (left) and First Lieutenant Shaye Haver (right)
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Griest and Haver have been described by teachers and friends as strong, disciplined, and exceptionally focused. Griest ran cross country for her Connecticut high school, and Haver was a star high school soccer player in Texas. Both are West Point graduates.
The Ranger School is widely considered to be the Army’s most demanding course. The Pentagon has called the 62 day course “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.” The course is broken into three phases which take place in the woodlands in Fort Benning, Georgia, the mountains in Dahlonega, Georgia, and the coastal swamps of Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.
Soldiers are required to complete physical fitness tests that include 49 push-ups, 59 sit-ups, a five mile run in 40 minutes, 6 chin-ups, a swim test, a land navigation test, a 12-mile foot march in three hours, several obstacle courses, four days of military mountaineering, three parachute jumps, four air assaults on helicopters, multiple rubber boat movements, and 27 days of mock combat patrols.
Griest, during Mountain Training
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The 19 women who entered the course were required to meet each of the standards expected of the male soldiers, without exception. Both male and female soldiers who are unable to complete any phase of the course are required to repeat it. Griest and Haver were required to redo the first phase twice. Only Griest, Haver, and one additional female soldier made it through this first phase.
Griest and Haver began the course in April, alongside 17 other women and 381 men. The course, which is designed “to push students to their mental and physical limits,” typically has a 60% wash-out rate. This class has been whittled down from 398 to 96 graduates.
Griest and Haver’s success marks a new level of achievement for female soldiers. Secretary of the Army, John M. McHugh has stated, “This course has proven that every Soldier, regardless of gender, can achieve his or her full potential.” The two are among a stream of women who are challenging perceptions and overcoming gender barriers in the U.S. military. Sgt. Maj. Colin Boley, the Operations Sergeant Major for the Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade, told Foreign Policy Magazine, “I didn’t think that they would physically be able to bear the weight, and I thought they would quit or get hurt, and they have proved me wrong.”
Haver, completing an obstacle course at Fort Benning
Image Credit: NY Times
Despite the prestigious Ranger tab which the women will receive today, Griest and Haver are not yet eligible for membership in the 75th Ranger Regiment. The Pentagon is expected to make a decision on whether to allow women entry into the unit by the end of the year.
Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has also commented, “I don’t think there are any limits as to how far or how high they can go. We are going to benefit, this country is going to benefit, by having best fighters in the world defending this country, and there is no question in my mind that the best fighters are going to be both men and women.”