Two female soldiers are making history as the first women ever to graduate from the elite Army Ranger School. Captain Kristen Griest, age 26, and First Lieutenant Shaye Haver, age 25, were the only women out of 19 female participants to make it all the way through the Army’s most intensive training course. This was the first attempt at integrating the genders for the difficult class. The two women were both trained at The United States Military Academy at West Point, which has a 9 percent acceptance rate.
While it is important to recognize that these women (understandably!) do not want to be treated any differently from their male counterparts, it’s also necessary that we address this news. Their graduation (along with 94 men) from Ranger School is a huge deal, because the United States military is moving towards allowing women into direct combat roles.
According to a New York Times article, the Army (along with the other branches of the Armed Forces) has to make a decision by January 1 on “whether to seek exemptions from a 2013 order ending the formal ban on women in combat.” Letting women go to Ranger School was a big factor in helping the Army reach its decision on this matter. As the New York Times emphasizes, “By year’s end, the services must identify jobs they want to continue to restrict to men and provide a rationale for doing so, but any exemption would have to be approved by the defense secretary.”
We’re so happy for these women and we are impressed by their amazing accomplishments. We know we’ll be seeing more great things from them in the very near future!