Educate Yourself: The Female Rangers Making History
- Sep 9, 2015
- 3 min read
Background of the Army Ranger Program:
“The 75th Ranger Regiment is a lethal, agile and flexible force, capable of conducting many complex, joint special operations missions. Today's Ranger regiment is the Army's premier direct-action raid force. Each of the four geographically dispersed Ranger battalions is always combat ready, mentally and physically tough, and prepared to fight our country's adversaries. Their capabilities include conducting airborne and air assault operations, seizing key terrain such as airfields, destroying strategic facilities, and capturing or killing enemies of the nation. Rangers are capable of conducting squad through regimental-size operations and are resourced to maintain exceptional proficiency, experience and readiness. The regiment remains an all-volunteer force with an intensive screening and selection process followed by combat-focused training. The 75th Ranger Regiment is a proud unit and a team of teams - serving the nation.”
With that, I give you Capt. Kristen Griest, 26 and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver, 25. These are the 2 of the 96 students that are graduating from the intensive training program in Fort Benning, Georgia. This is the first year that the Army opened the course to women on a trial basis.The current class started in April with 381 men and just 19 women, by the end of the 62 days of training (training summarized below), only 92 men and 2 women met the requirements.
Students are forced to train with minimal food and little sleep and how to operate in the woods, mountains, and swamplands. They also had to go through a physical fitness test that included the following:
49 push-ups
59 sit-ups
5-mile run in 40 minutes
6 chin-ups
A swim test
A land navigation test
A 12-mile foot march in 3 hours
Several obstacle courses
4 days of military mountaineering
3 parachute jumps
4 air assaults on helicopters
27 day mock combat patrol
All this in a 62 day training period. Now, if I do say so myself, I was exhausted after just READING all of that, let alone doing all of that! I can’t even imagine how much preparation that took.
“This is an important moment and an important week because I see it as reality an perception catching up with each other.”
-Janine Davidson, A senior fellow for defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations
According to the Army, 4,057 students attempted the course test last year, but only 1,609 earned their Ranger Tab. As the Associate Press notes: “Their success casts new attention on the obstacles that remain to women who aspire to join all-male combat units, including the 75th Ranger Regiment. Although Haver and Griest are now Ranger-qualified, no women are eligible for the elite regiment, although officials say it is among special operations units likely to eventually be opened to women…” The graduation of Griest and Haver is expected to increase society’s acceptance of women in military roles normally held by men.
Background on these ladies:
Capt. Kristen Griest—
Military Police Officer from Orange, CT
West Point graduate, Class of 2011
Ran competitively
Last December, she was distinguished with the honor graduate in a pre-Ranger school course run by her unit, the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division
Her thoughts on her Ranger training: “I never actually thought anything was going to be too difficult that it was worth leaving the course.”
1st Lt. Shaye Haver—
Apache helicopter pilot from Copperas Cove, Texas
Graduated high school in 2008 in Texas and was a cross country runner
Graduated from U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 2012
Her thoughts on her Ranger training: “Seriously, considering quitting throughout the course? I think I would be crazy to say if I didn’t. But the ability to look around to my peers and to see they were sucking just as bad as I was, kept me going.”
Now, I don’t know about you, but I solemnly swear I will NEVER bitch about too much exercise again… The exercise and work that we do in comparison to what these girls did in just 62 days is NOTHING. So this has put a lot of things into perspective for me. As well as the fact that women CAN do anything that they set their minds to. It’s honestly a great step in history for all of female kind, of course, there are still stipulations to what the women can or cannot do as Rangers. But this is still a big step, a huge one.
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