Posted on Aug 15, 2015
Will the Army open its elite Ranger Regiment to women?
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Air National Guard C-130s roared over the lush, shaggy grass of the Elizabeth Drop Zone here last week, a near-steady hum overhead. Army Ranger students were a few hours into a mission known as Operation Pegasus, and needed to parachute in from a height of about 1,100 feet.
Aircrews made several passes without letting any students out due to breezy conditions deemed unsafe to jump. But eventually, the students’ green chutes dotted the early-evening Thursday sky. They floated down into the open fields of Eglin with 70 pounds of equipment, food and water before disappearing into thick brush, beginning a 10-day exercise that ends this Saturday and is the last major field event in the Army’s famously difficult Ranger School.
History is in the balance: For the first time, two female students advanced to the third and final phase of the famously exhausting course in the swamps of Florida, and are within reach of graduating. If they pass, they will become the first Ranger-qualified women in the history of the U.S. military and celebrated at an Aug. 21 graduation ceremony at Fort Benning, Ga., that is expected to draw not only family and friends, but hundreds of other well-wishers and media from across the country.
If they graduate, the Army must confront a separate, but related decision: Whether to allow women to try out for the elite 75th Ranger Regiment. The highly trained Special Operations unit carries out raids and other difficult missions and includes about 3,600 soldiers, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report. It remains completely closed to women, even though some of the jobs in it, ranging from parachute rigger to intelligence analyst, are open in other parts of the Army.
The women were allowed into Ranger School this year as part of the military’s ongoing assessment of how to integrate women into combat roles. In 2013, Pentagon leaders decided to rescind the long-held policy banning women from serving in combat-arms jobs like infantryman. Thus far, the Army has said that any woman who graduates will be allowed to wear the prestigious Ranger Tab, but won’t be allowed to serve in the Ranger Regiment. The decoration is highly respected across the military, and considered a necessity to advance in many Army careers.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/will-the-army-open-its-elite-ranger-regiment-to-women-a-controversial-decision-awaits/ar-BBlEbj7
Aircrews made several passes without letting any students out due to breezy conditions deemed unsafe to jump. But eventually, the students’ green chutes dotted the early-evening Thursday sky. They floated down into the open fields of Eglin with 70 pounds of equipment, food and water before disappearing into thick brush, beginning a 10-day exercise that ends this Saturday and is the last major field event in the Army’s famously difficult Ranger School.
History is in the balance: For the first time, two female students advanced to the third and final phase of the famously exhausting course in the swamps of Florida, and are within reach of graduating. If they pass, they will become the first Ranger-qualified women in the history of the U.S. military and celebrated at an Aug. 21 graduation ceremony at Fort Benning, Ga., that is expected to draw not only family and friends, but hundreds of other well-wishers and media from across the country.
If they graduate, the Army must confront a separate, but related decision: Whether to allow women to try out for the elite 75th Ranger Regiment. The highly trained Special Operations unit carries out raids and other difficult missions and includes about 3,600 soldiers, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report. It remains completely closed to women, even though some of the jobs in it, ranging from parachute rigger to intelligence analyst, are open in other parts of the Army.
The women were allowed into Ranger School this year as part of the military’s ongoing assessment of how to integrate women into combat roles. In 2013, Pentagon leaders decided to rescind the long-held policy banning women from serving in combat-arms jobs like infantryman. Thus far, the Army has said that any woman who graduates will be allowed to wear the prestigious Ranger Tab, but won’t be allowed to serve in the Ranger Regiment. The decoration is highly respected across the military, and considered a necessity to advance in many Army careers.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/will-the-army-open-its-elite-ranger-regiment-to-women-a-controversial-decision-awaits/ar-BBlEbj7
Women in the Military
Army
Ranger
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 37
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Regiment has nothing to do with RTB. Easy to do a pilot program for a qualification course...much different when you are going to live that life as long as your military career or your body might allow. We shall see...
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Even if they did, is there a woman who could pass the RPAT?
Just because two women made through Ranger School after the third try, has nothing to do with whether they can hang in the most elite Infantry unit in the world. Ranger School is tough, but nothing compared to my three weeks in RIP or my first six months of hell in Regiment.
Just because two women made through Ranger School after the third try, has nothing to do with whether they can hang in the most elite Infantry unit in the world. Ranger School is tough, but nothing compared to my three weeks in RIP or my first six months of hell in Regiment.
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MAJ Byron Oyler
I know this post is old but you are still on RP. We need to stop sending women to combat units until we can send at least a squad size or larger of them at a time. Placing one woman in a platoon of all men is setting her up for failure. Not saying we need an entire squad of women in a platoon but at least squad level numbers in a company.
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Why send them to Ranger school then? If they can pass Ranger school, they can get assigned to a Ranger Bat. That doesn't mean that they can stay. Ranger school is elementary school for badasses. Serving and surviving in an actual Ranger Bat is another story. If it is up to you to lift a 225 pound batman gear heavy Ranger and get them to the LZ, no one cares if you are tabbed or not. If you can't perform the task, pack your trash and go home before you get someone killed.
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SSG (Join to see)
If that is the case then I retract my statement and apologize for my brief lack of professionalism. There are few things I hold close to my heart and those being my religion, my family, my country, and my regiment. May we continue to fight side by side as equals who have equal love for our country.
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1SG (Join to see)
Yes, as seen two female made it all the way over many of the males who started. So I would want them on my team in a fire fight. Set the Standards and let all who are able to attend and pass go right ahead. We are moving forward no backwards.
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