First women to complete grueling Army Ranger school

A Ranger instructor checks the equipment of a female student at Eglin Air Force Base before an airborne jump. Photo / The Washington Post

Two female soldiers will graduate from the Army's grueling Ranger School on Friday, becoming the first women to ever complete what is considered one of the US military's most difficult and premier courses to develop elite fighters and leaders, a senior Army official said.

Two female soldiers will graduate from the Army's grueling Ranger School on Friday, becoming the first women to ever complete what is considered one of the US military's most difficult and premier courses to develop elite fighters and leaders, a senior Army official said.

A Ranger instructor checks the equipment of a female student at Eglin Air Force Base before an airborne jump. Photo / The Washington Post

The accomplishment marks a major breakthrough for women in the armed services at a time when each of the military branches is required to examine how to integrate women into jobs like infantryman in which they have never been allowed to serve. But even as the two new female graduates will be the first women allowed to wear the prestigious Ranger Tab on their uniforms, they still are not allowed to try out for the elite 75th Ranger Regiment, a Special Operations force that remains closed to women and has its own separate, exhausting requirements and training.

The women will receive the Ranger Tab alongside dozens of male service members in a ceremony at Fort Benning, Georgia, the home of Ranger School's headquarters, a senior Army official said Monday night. The official spoke on condition of anonymity while the Army finalized a news release.

The event is expected to draw not only family and friends, but hundreds of well-wishers and media from across the country. The female graduates are expected to speak to the media for the first time Thursday alongside instructors and other soldiers at Ranger School.

The women have not been identified by the Army, but both are officers and graduates of the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, Army officials said. The female graduates started Ranger School on April 20 alongside 380 men and 17 other female soldiers in the first class to ever include women. The female soldiers were allowed into Ranger School as part of the Army's ongoing assessment of how to better integrate women.

The course includes phases at Fort Benning, in the mountains of northern Georgia and in the swamps and streams on the Florida Panhandle, and is 61 days long if a student completes each phase on the first try. About 4000 students attempt Ranger School each year, with about 1600 - 40 per cent - graduating. They include some service members who serve in the Ranger Regiment, but also many others who serve in jobs ranging from military police to helicopter pilot.