"You people have no friggin' idea how to defend a country."
Posted on 08/20/2015 4:15:04 PM PDT by nickcarraway
One of the first women to graduate from the Army's notoriously grueling Ranger School says she hopes her success will go toward proving that women in the military are capable of doing what men do.
Capt. Kristen Griest of Orange, Connecticut said her successful completion of the elite, two-month program show that women "can deal with the same stresses and training that men can."
Griest and First Lt. Shaye Haver of Copperas Cove, Texas, will graduate at Fort Benning, Georgia, along with 94 men on Friday. Out of 19 women who began the program, Haver and Griest are the only two to finish so far.
Completing the course lets the two women wear the coveted Ranger black-and-gold tab. But for now they're still unable to join the elite 75th Ranger Regiment based at Fort Benning. The military's toughest jobs — including positions in infantry, armor and special operations units such as the Ranger Regiment — remain closed to women.
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.
"These two soldiers have absolutely earned the respect of every Ranger instructor," Cmd. Sgt. Major Curtis Arnold told reporters. "They do not quit and they do not complain."
Arnold said he suspects Haver and Griest had extra motivation to graduate "because you know everyone is watching. And truthfully there are probably a few folks who want you to fail. So you've got to put out 110 percent."
The families of the women gave a more modest assessment, saying in a joint statement that Haver and Griest, are "just like all the soldiers" graduating this week from the grueling two-month Ranger course.
Griest, 26, and Haver, 25, are "happy, relieved, and ready for some good food and sleep" before they line up Friday at Fort Benning alongside 94 male soldiers who also earned the coveted black-and-gold Ranger tab to adorn their uniforms.
The course tests soldiers' ability to overcome fatigue, hunger and stress during combat operations. The Army opened Ranger School to female soldiers for the first time this year as part of the military's push to open more combat jobs to women.
"This has been something she's wanted to do for a long, long time," Griest's older brother, Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Mike Griest, told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "We're all very, very proud of her. It's a tremendous achievement not only for her personally but for the Army and women in the military in general."
Griest grew up loving to camp in the wilderness and test her endurance, making her a natural to take on Ranger School, her brother said. He noted she chose to become a military police officer because she felt it was the closest she could get to an Army combat job.
"If she had been allowed to go infantry out of college, she would have done that," Mike Griest said.
Haver followed in her father's footsteps to become a pilot of attack helicopters. He also served as a career Army aviator who flew Apaches, and said his daughter has always been mentally tough and incredibly physically fit. He said she has run marathons and competed in triathlons for West Point. WATCH: Victim Strikes Back Against Armed Robber in Double Shooting "She's kind of built for this thing," Chris Haver said.
"You people have no friggin' idea how to defend a country."
That's the crux of it right there. For decades, Ranger School has been a ticket-punch-bragging-rights achievement almost exclusively for officers. In all my years in the Army, I've seen maybe a handful of enlisted guys with Ranger tabs.
At first, I was pissed that the Army was allowing females to go through the school. But the more I thought about it, I really don't care anymore.
Ranger school is squad and platoon level light infantry patrolling. That's it. All this crap about "LEADERSHIP" is just that: crap. The Army says "LEADERSHIP" about f*cking everything.
Ranger School should be for enlisted soldiers with the 11 series MOS, Cav Scouts, Forward Observers, and other enlisted guys that perform a light infantry kind of job. Why? Because it's SQUAD AND PLATOON LEVEL LIGHT INFANTRY TACTICS that are taught at Ranger School. A lot of enlisted guys can spend their entire careers at the platoon or company level.
But no..... It's been a school almost exclusively for OFFICERS for decades. Officers are well past operating at platoon level at about year 3 in the Army.
Just look at the two female graduates: one is a helicopter pilot, the other is a military cop. Why the hell does a freaking helicopter pilot need to know light infantry squad tactics?
The Army has been sending the WRONG people for the WRONG reasons to Ranger School for decades.
Follow the money.
Some one on radio made the observation that both washed, then reapplied and only then passed - the kicker is that both are West Pointers, and WP always backs other WPers, None of the other gals were WP. Just more PC for unattractive women wanting to make rank. We’ll see how they do in the other Ranger Schools.
Nothing personal, but
None are front line soldiers, none are spec ops. When Israel tried women in combat it was a disaster ... The US has had women in the armed forces separately since WWII ... now combined and sharing same quarters, many are not available for deployment due to pregnancy etc, leaving their units short-handed and sometimes not deplorable itself.
In combat, men fight for each other ... now put a female in the mix ... Women in combat in other countries has proven to be an extremely bad idea.
Quickest way to lose a war: micromanage from the WH or Congress; require a legal decision before any strike on the enemy; avoid all civilian casualties at any cost; under-fund the military,; reduce the total men under arms; place extreme reliance on overpriced very expensive complicated “wonder” and do-everything weapons; fight a multi-front territorial war against an unnamed enemy fighting a religious war;
and finally:
staff combat units with female soldiers and officers, fill ranks with as many openly gay and “other gender” types as possible;
and for the capstone - or tombstone if you prefer:
permit the unnamed enemy who has sworn to destroy you to make nuclear weapons; to buy ICBMs; to buy top of the line AA weapons; add $8 Trillion to the enemy’s economy and; protect that enemy from attack by others.
You and your children are dead - just you don’t know it yet.
Congratulations to Obama voters everywhere!
I agree with you entirely, however bear in mind that this has only come about because too few men are volunteering for anything.
As you can see, these two women benefited from a LOT of politically motivated interference.
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I am in very close contact with the Ranger Camp. The comments below from a Mountain Ranger Course Cadre [Ranger School instructor/grader] are pretty much what has happened.
[name deleted]
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When the administration wants something to succeed, they will do anything at all to make it succeed. For those of you who went to Ranger school, I will assume that you did not have a general officer as a lane grader (called a walker these days I guess) [the officer who observe you when you lead a patrol and grades you on whether you passed or failed]. When you are social engineering, you make things work regardless of the standards or the consequences because it’s the engineering that’s important. the breakdown:
Army wanted 200 of the most badass women from the army, guard and reserves to start ranger school in April. The deal was they had to pass RTAC to get a slot.
138 women attended several RTAC classes and 20 passed
The 20 women were put in their own unit to train exclusively for Ranger school in the months preceding their start date. 1 quit before school started.
19 women started Ranger School in April.
11 failed in the first 3 days: pt test, land nav and road March
All 8 failed patrols and were inserted into Darby the following class.
All 8 failed patrols again. 5 were sent home and 3 were offered day 1 recycles.
Nearing the end of their third attempt at Darby, all three had 2 failed patrols, and General Scott Miller (movement excellence commander of Ft Benning) showed up to be their guest walker. [As far as I know, no officer above the rank of colonel was ever a walker or lane grader. When I went to Ranger School, I believe the graders were all either NCOs or captains or majors. I do not even believe that any officer associated with the school was a general including the commandant of the ranger school. I think he was a LTC or Col.] All three passed.
All three advanced to Mountains Nearing the end of the patrol phase of mountains all three women had 2 failed patrols and guess who showed up again to be their guest RI [?] walker..... 2 of the three passed, and one has been recycled.
Some of the guys I work with here remember Miller from Delta [Force]. I'm sure that's not what's being reported, but when we first heard a general had walked them, three of them chimed in with "Scotty Miller" in unison.
They will pass, and probably be honor grads. "
Sounds like command interference to me...[plain old dishonesty to me if they did not earn passing grades]
Does not surprise me. The General’s Boss most likely told him (Miller) if you want to make three stars, there will be female Ranger graduates! So he Santa Claused them so they would pass. Sad times. This PC BS will be the end of us, if it hasn’t already sealed our fate!
[name deleted]
If Griest is a natural, why did she fail the first two times?
I’m getting the same story from several reliable inside sources at Benning. This rangerette goat rope was set up before it even started. This is the sad state of our senior military “leadership” now.
Believable. Sure, these PC games are fun until Rangers die unnecessarily.
That would be my recollection as well. Since Ranger School is a small unit combat leadership school, and women are not allowed to serve in these roles, what's the point?
You’re right about the “ticket-punching” but there are plenty of enlisted men that wear the tab as well, especially in the ranger regiments.
Is this an unverified email?
Not to be flippant but it depends on your definition. As I said the source is credible (that is, the source who forwarded it to me). I don’t personally know the originator of the email but it is part of a discussion between Ranger school graduates. I didn’t include the whole email, only about half. Judge for yourself if it seems credible. I think it is. The facts match what we know and the slang and other specifics suggest credibility.
Aha!!
As if we didn't already know the story behind the story ...
No. It’s about politics and degradation of the US military. They are dumping experienced men out of SOF now and trying to bring in women, trannys and homos.
Good idea, IronJack.
Done.
24/7 dittos to you!
Based on what I have heard from my very close Ranger sources, this sounds very plausible. Unfortunately.
I have not been keeping up with the drawdown. Are they at least offering a retirement at 15 years?
I’d seriously doubt that.
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