Posted on 08/17/2015 6:21:20 PM PDT by Crystal Palace East
The two female Ranger students left in Ranger School will be the first women to ever graduate from the grueling course Friday.
Out of a total of 19 initial female students, two women will graduate come Friday at Fort Benning, Ga., and be allowed to wear the Ranger Tab, though because gender integration is still in the experimental phase, these women will not join the 75th Ranger Regiment, The Washington Post reports.
After a quick, first assessment, the 19 female hopefuls were chopped down to just eight female students. All eight then proceeded to fail the Darby Phase twice. The Army then gave three of the students an opportunity to start over from the beginning. This recycle is only granted occasionally.
Students moved through the Darby Phase, the Mountain Phase, and then finally to the Swamp Phase in Florida near Eglin Air Force Base, where 40 students and four instructors were placed in the hospital after being struck by lightning.
“Congratulations to all of our new Rangers. Each Ranger School graduate has shown the physical and mental toughness to successfully lead organizations at any level,” Secretary of the Army John McHugh said in a statement. “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.”
According to a senior Army official, both of the women are also graduates of West Point, the U.S. military school based in New York.
Ranger School has a 40 percent graduation rate
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
So, maybe we should give women soldiers steroids to make them like men, but if we did that, why then not give the men steroids to make them stronger?
It’s a dangerous course e are on.
It’s a ploy. No one forced them to “go through all of that”. Now that they’ve “passed”, the military will eventually be forced to accept them because this administration and other groups (as well as the media) will demand it.
Any society that sends its women to fight before it sends its non-shaving boys and cane-borne old men deserves to be destroyed, and will be by those who do not make that mistake.
If a woman is fully qualified, and requests such duty, who are we to tell them no?
The premise of sending women to fight except as an absolute last resort is fundamentally flawed.
If you don’t understand that, it’s your problem, not mine.
Ref “he major danger of this achievement is that the political crowd’s agenda will demand that women be integrated into infantry, Ranger, armor, and Special Forces units and employed in these units in combat. That would be a mistake as combat requires an absolute level of physical capability whereas Ranger School can be adjusted to adapt to relative limits. Women in the combat arms will get soldiers killed, both women and men. But, politicians have proven to be very good at getting soliders get killed for nothing more than making politicians looking good.”
Well stated, Centurion!
RBG81: Ref “I thought that if you pass the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program (RASP) course, you get put in the Ranger Regiment. After that, selected NCOs and officers can go to Ranger School.
And.....you don’t have to be a Ranger to go to (and graduate from) Ranger School.”
You are correct in that airborne qualified junior enlisted Soldiers can be admitted to the Ranger Regiment after some initial screening. When I was in, they went through the Ranger prep course in preparation for Ranger School. They were expected to earn their tabs in order to become NCOs in the regiment. Some junior NCOs who attended Ranger School while assigned to other units are admitted to the Ranger Regiment.
Officers had to be Ranger qualified before they could even be considered for a Ranger assignment. The vast majority of us went on to careers in the main divisions of the Army. Most of those who got into the Regiment came off the DMZ in Korea or the 82nd. — The two females who completed the course are officers.Unless they meet the criteria/specialty skills requirements of the Regiment, they probably will not go to the Regiment.
I have no problems.
I used to have one problem
But I divorced her.
While I retired in 2006, I still am closely associated with the Army of today. I see young men and women who love the USA and will learn how to be better than otherwise.
Drill Sgts still drill, Instructors still instruct. Has content changed? Sure-as it must in an ever changing tech world. Are Warriors still being taught how to fight kill and survive? Yes- but perhaps not the same way I was trained 30 years ago. My Father told me the standards had changed when I discussed BCT/Airborne/Ranger Sapper schools with him. He served in the 50’s
The one thing that is troubling of course is the philosophy -secular humanism continues to roll onward towards complete undoing of all things Holy and ordained of God. However, that process permeates the whole of civilization, not just our military and naval forces. The environment you live and work in shows the same stresses of that process as well so don’t just lambast the military-they are a by product of us. We stand, they stand we sit back, they do so as well. They still are us, and we they.
It is ours to influence, so what are we doing at home (TV?Family/Neighborhood?) let alone national issues?
Regards;
Getting reports the standards were lowered. Peer evaluations ignored. Hygiene regimen and optempo relaxed.
We are now training to occupy Afghanistan. If we’re going face a Pusan Perimeter or Tet we will be screwed.
Well done Don. The same reports I have been hearing. Standards were lowered...period. By the way, I would add that peer assessment were ignored.
Not the point. For all we know he never set foot on foot on Fort Benning but earned two silver stars fighting in Vietnam. The point is that the standards were lowered, via lightened packing lists, increased sleep times, etc.
Not the same I’m hearing...
But, I’m not there so I can’t say personally.
Only the handful of soldiers who process the peer review no for sure. But you probably are familiar with the situation regarding Kara Hultgren and Carey Lohrenz. The fix is in. How often do you have Major Generals walking patrol in Ranger School? Kudo’s to the Marine Corps for maintaining standards.
“Know” for sure. At some point, as with the Lohrenz situation, the truth will come out. Of course, in her case, it took a defamation lawsuit.
Color me a chauvinist but I would like to have independent verification those 2 women truly won that badge. Such is the cynicism affirmative action produces.
I think there were a total of 89 graduates. In today’s world of the anonymous internet, if the women got a pass, I guarantee the word would get out quickly.
Certainly there will be people on the net who will claim to be Rangers and “know” what happened, but it all has to be taken with some doubt.
My hats off to both of them, and to all the women who tried. Just even trying takes incredibly stones.
I had a chance to extend in RVN or go to Ranger school. I took the easy way out. I extended.
That some women possibly could actually pass Ranger school is really not the point, is it? The POINT is combat is not an exercise in women’s rights. It’s about killing and degrading the enemy and surviving the battle with your comrades. Morale, cohesion and trust are fundamentals that cannot be compromised.
I don’t see what these women have accomplished as a great or noble thing. I see it as self-centered in the extreme. I see here what I see everywhere I look in our country - the tyranny of minorities along with a demand that one should have what one wants- no matter the cost.
It may be these women passed fair and square. It doesn’t matter. They have forced a group of warriors to focus on them, rather than exclusively on the tasks, skills and training of Ranger school. From the moment they got to Benning they’ve been watched and talked about, with derision or admiration isn’t important.
Ranger training is extraordinarily grueling, mentally and physically. Apparently we now value women’s “rights” more than soldiers lives.
My son was a Screaming Eagle in the 101st AB in Iraq. My opinions are informed by more than a passing interest.
“The army community, for the most part, has no interest in anyone handed a tab.”
Kind of like when the political General hacks appointed by Obama hacks, support the President’s initiatives. You seriously think that nobody in the Army, wanted this women’s oak leaf cluster to go down.
I was in the 82nd ABN division. None of these women, who “passed”, could make it 6 months in an Infantry Unit in Division. So, no I aint buying this BS. And I knew some tough little paratroopers that were women. But, no way they can do what we had to do for even 6 months.
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