U.S. Army Capt. Kristen Griest of Orange, Connecticut, speaks with reporters Thursday, Aug. 20, 2015, at Fort Benning, Ga., where she was scheduled to graduate Friday from the ArmyÂ’s elite Ranger School. Griest and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver are the first two women to complete the notoriously grueling Ranger course, which the Army opened to women this spring as it studies whether to open more combat jobs to female soldiers. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum)FORT BENNING, Ga. - Since 1972, only male soldiers were allowed to attend Ranger School, one of the most grueling tests the army has to offer. The two month course is so notoriously difficult that only 3 percent of soldiers ever finish it. Last Spring, for the first time, women were allowed to enroll. Recently, according to Yahoo News, Capt. Kristen Griest and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver were the first women ever to complete the training.
Griest, 26, of Orange, Connecticut, and Haver, 25, of Copperas Cove, Texas, will become the first women to wear the Army's coveted Ranger tab when they graduate alongside 94 male soldiers Friday at Fort Benning.
Currently, women are still unable to join infantry, armor and special forces units, but that could change next year after the Pentagon makes its recommendations. Haver and Griest — both graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point — not only finished the course they started in April. They both had to start from scratch, having failed two previous attempts. Haver is an Apache helicopter pilot stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado, and Griest is a military police officer and Afghanistan veteran stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Ranger School teaches soldiers combat skills, from standard patrols to raids and air assaults, the report said, while pushing the limits of the trainees' physical and mental endurance. It's considered one of the most difficult courses in the Army.
U.S. Army Army 1st Lt. Shaye Haver, right, speaks with reporters, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2015, at Fort Benning, Ga., where she was scheduled to graduate Friday from the ArmyÂ’s elite Ranger School. Haver and Army Capt. Kristen Griest are the first two women to complete the notoriously grueling Ranger course, which the Army opened to women this spring as it studies whether to open more combat jobs to female soldiers. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum)Soldiers spend days scaling mountains in north Georgia and slogging through swampy terrain in Florida. They travel long distances by foot carrying rucksacks, weapons and other gear weighing 100 pounds or more. And they don't get much chance to rest or refuel.
For much of the course, Ranger trainees are fed just twice a day, eating nothing but military rations sealed in plastic bags. Many nights they get only a single hour of sleep.
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