3 Female Ranger Candidates Begin Training In Mountain Phase

[big_dog]

U.S. Army Ranger School is a numbers game -- and right now the number many people are focused on is three.

Three women, all of them West Point graduates, on Sunday started the mountain phase of the most mentally and physically challenging training offered by the Army. In the 60-plus years of the Rangers, "whose primary mission is to close with and destroy the enemy in direct fire battle," a woman has never earned the coveted Ranger tab.

The women passed the first of three patrol phases at Camp Darby on Fort Benning last week. It took each of them three attempts to successfully get through patrols at Darby. After failing the second attempt on May 29, all three women accepted an offer from the Ranger School's command staff to start the program over from the beginning, which they did on June 21.

There are 200 soldiers, including the three women, at Camp Merrill in the Chattahoochee National Forest this week participating in the 20-day mountain phase that will last until the end of the month. The training shifts to Camp Rudder near Destin, Fla., on Aug. 1. The graduation for this class is Aug. 21 at Fort Benning.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/07/15/3-female-ranger-candidates-begin-training-in-mountain-phase.html

[xmas74]

1. And the asses are coming out to play on the comments in the article.

Compared to most of them commenting my grandfather was a Ranger. He served under Bill Darby and was proud of it. (It's documented-not a fabrication. I've looked at his discharge records and I know where he was at-up to a point. I have even found him listed in books about Rangers during WWII as part of the Ranger Roll Call. ) He loved being able to say he was a Ranger.

Know what else he said? He said that there's no reason why a woman-the right woman-couldn't do it. It's the same as men:certain types of men will make it and not everyone will. Certain types of women can make it but not every woman can. He said this almost 25 years ago. He also said that Selective Service should be required of women and that if all were required some might second guess just simply sending the troops to whatever.

I bet he'd be watching this if he were still with us.

[big_dog]

3. either way, its gonna make a great movie sequel possible..

[treestar]

2. good for them

best of luck to them.

[hardtravelin]

4. Mountain Phase can crush you.

It was the phase that physically taxed me the most (and I was a 19 year old from the Ranger Regiment). It will test them. It's just a school, after all. Should or could Women be integrated into units like the Ranger Regiment? I don't see how they could.

[yuiyoshida]

5. I have a friend whoses a former Marine ...

This is her from a few years ago.