Posted on 08/21/2015 8:26:48 PM PDT by T-Bird45
The following was written by Rudy Mac, a Ranger-qualified, company-grade infantry officer serving on active duty in a light unit in the U.S. Army.
By the time most of you read this story, 96 newly tabbed Rangers and their friends and families will be celebrating the completion of one of the most arduous and demanding courses that the Army has to offer. For them, this coming weekend will undoubtedly involve hours of some of the most satisfying sleep of their lives, interspersed with exorbitant feasts of all of the foods that they have been dreaming about, talking about, and listing in their Rite In The Rain notebooks for weeks and weeks.
They will return to their units with a few new skills and a better understanding of small-unit tactics, but more importantly with a new confidence in themselves and their fellow tabbed Rangers. They will be marked for the rest of their careers with a $1.80 strip of cloth that tells whomever they meet that when tested with adversity, pain, and discomfort, they can be trusted to find a way to get the job done and complete the mission. For the first time in history, two women will pin on this badge of survival and perseverance, and you know what? They f*****g earned it. Every last thread of it.
I started and finished Ranger School this year with Class 06-15, although since I neither recycled nor had to endure a winter phase of the course, my tab should probably be just a little bit smaller than the tabs that many of my peers wear. We were the first gender-integrated Ranger School class, starting on April 19th, with 19 female and 381 male students.
Since my graduation, I have followed the progress of these remaining female Rangers with interest. Although virtually all of the discussion I have heard surrounding their advancement through the course has been pretty positive up to this week, since the Washington Post broke the story of Ranger Griest and Ranger Haver getting their go’s in Florida, I have read and heard an increasing amount of bad-mouthing from a plethora of haters, dismissing their accomplishment as the product of slipping standards or some ultra-liberal, feminist plot by the government and Army leadership. I am speaking out to tell you that these insinuations could not be further from the truth. Ranger School is still hard, and these women earned their tabs.
Before I discuss my own subjective opinions, let’s talk about the numbers, starting with my class (Class 06-15). In 06-15, we started 400 Ranger students in April and graduated fewer than 100 in June. Twenty-eight of us (that’s seven percent), went straight through the course without recycling. In Darby Phase, our recycle rate was almost 75 percent—the highest for the phase in over five years. In my squad of 17 Ranger students, only four of us went forward to Mountain Phase. Another squad in my company (Alpha Company) sent only two of 17 forward. In Mountain and again in Florida, we only had enough students for one platoon in my company. I believe the same was true of Bravo and Charlie.
For those who have claimed that the packing list was reduced for this year to make patrols easier: We weighed our rucks before the Mountains FTX and the Florida FTX. My ruck was 85 pounds at the start of Mountains as a team leader and over 100 pounds at the start of Florida as a SAW gunner. For the past three classes of the course (06-15, 07-15, and 08-15), the course graduation rate has been about 30 percent, much lower than the average for FY10-FY14 of 42 percent, and significantly lower than the historical average of nearly 50 percent. If you believe that the standards at Ranger School have been lowered for recent classes in order to pass the women who attended, you are simply wrong. The numbers reflect what the Ranger Training Brigade officers and NCOs have been saying for months now: The standards at Ranger School are as high or higher right now than they have been in many, many years.
Now, let’s discuss the process that the Infantry School went through to select and prepare female soldiers to attend the course. After the Army sent out the ALARACT message looking for female Ranger School volunteers, they had nearly 400 female soldiers express a desire to attend the course. One hundred and nine of those female soldiers eventually attended the RTAC, the ARNG Warrior Training Center’s two week Pre-Ranger Course, which is second only to the 75th Ranger Regiment’s SURT (Small Unit Ranger Tactics) Pre-Ranger Course in terms of success rate at Ranger School. Several of the women who failed RTAC went back and tried again, for a total of 138 attempts by female students.
Twenty female Ranger Students eventually passed RTAC, and 19 of those 20 started Ranger School with Class 06-15 on April 19th. From this point on, anyone who has followed the story probably knows what transpired. Eight of those 19 female students passed RAP (Ranger Assessment Phase) Week at Camp Rogers, where about 60 percent of Ranger School failures historically occur. All eight went to Camp Darby with Class 06-15 and were either recycled into Class 07-15 or dropped from training. After another Darby Phase with Class 07-15, again, none of the female students received their go’s, and three remained in the course to start over as day one recycles with class 08-15. As an aside, during RAP week with class 08-15, Ranger Kristen Griest finished second out of the entire class on the 12 mile ruck—an astounding achievement, especially considering that she had just gone through RAP week, two Darby phases, and another RAP week, all back-to-back. CPT Griest and 1LT Haver went straight through the rest of the course with class 08-15, finally earning their Ranger Tabs today after 124 days in Ranger School.
Lastly, for what it’s worth, I would like to offer my own impressions of what our class was like with female students in RAP week and at Darby. Unlike many, I didn’t doubt that some female soldiers in our Army would at least have a decent shot at getting their tabs. There are a whole lot of female collegiate, professional, and Olympic athletes who can PT a whole lot better than me, so why shouldn’t they be able to at least come close to passing a course like Ranger School? Like many, however, I was somewhat skeptical that the cadre at RTB could successfully administer a course with extremely close living quarters and significant field time like Ranger School without compromising the integrity of the training.
I quickly found, however, that the gender issue was a non-issue. The barracks at Camp Rogers are shaped like a ‘U’, with a latrine and shower facilities forming the center of the U, connecting two long bays of bunk beds and wall lockers, with doors at the end of the bays. The female students in our company slept towards one end of the bay, where an enclave of wall lockers formed an area for them to hurriedly change in when the need arose. In the latrines, during the absurdly short time hacks we were given to use the bathroom, the women simply walked past the men and used the stalls. After the first real smoke session of the week on day one, nobody cared much about using the same latrine. We were all just Ranger students.
During the few times we were able to take showers, the cadre dedicated the showers on one side of the bay to female students for one quarter of the shower period, and a Ranger instructor and female NCO stood in the center of the ‘U’ to avoid confusion. RAP week passed and we were on to Darby. In Darby, the female students in our company dispelled any doubts of their ability to hump weight on patrols during the first few days in the field. If I remember correctly, Ranger Griest carried the M240 for her squad on day one of patrols and another female in her squad carried the radio as the RTO. The next day of patrols, they switched, with Ranger Griest humping the radio and the other female student carrying the M240. Physically, they were studs. They carried their own weight and then some.
In the two months since I have graduated, I have spoken with countless fellow tabbed Rangers on the topic, both from my class and from previous classes. Every morning, my Facebook news feed is filled with statuses from my peers, with links to articles on the topic and discussions on the progress of the females left in the course. We are universally in awe of what these two female Rangers have accomplished. Everyone I have talked to is of one mind. They earned it. Without the same wide shoulders, large frames, and high testosterone levels of their brother Rangers, they earned it. Unfortunately, the naysayers will continue to talk trash and belittle CPT Griest and 1LT Haver’s historic accomplishment. In response, I would like to close with a recent quote from MAJ Jim Hathaway, the current RTB executive officer:
No matter what we at Ranger School say, the non-believers will still be non-believers. We could have invited each of you to guest walk the entire course, and you would still not believe, we could have video recorded every patrol and you would still say that we “gave” it away. Nothing we say will change your opinion. I and the rest of our cadre are proud of the conduct of our soldiers, NCOs, and officers; they took the mission assigned and performed to the Ranger standard. Rangers Lead the Way!
Yeah, I’m pretty sure the current admin is working to change that.
While this might be an individual moment of personal achievement for the two females in question, is it a step in the right direction if we want to kick ass, kill bad guys and take names? Now that the barrier has been crossed, and with no small mount of intense scrutiny and some pressure, will the bar remain unchanged, or will it be lowered so that some from the next batch can make it when the spotlight is off?
Maybe this experiment of an inclusive, gender neutral, homosexual friendly, transgender welcoming military will work out just fine. Maybe not. But is the experiment being undertaken because it seems like the best way to crush a future enemy, or so the President can go to a graduation and announce how great it is that such a progressive milestone has been crossed under his watch?
When the nation is engaged in a war that we might lose, and the casualties are taken at more than the level that we’ve become accustomed to in recent conflicts, we’ll get a real answer.
All of what you say makes perfect sense to me. I have heard other vets state similar cases. It doesn’t take a degree in anthropology to understand the dynamics of this situation and why it would be especially bad news in combat.
This all sounds nice and dandy, but what we want to know is were these items as heavy as what the men were having to carry. Other sections mention 85lbs and 100lbs, were these items as heavy as that?
The time is coming when we will need all the bodies we can muster. Period.
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Bulls-eye! That is the central issue.
That said, in a volunteer force, when one joins up, it will rightly be assumed that one supports and wants to promote the values and missions set forth by leadership, both military and civilian. Otherwise, it would appear to be "just a job."
Yeah, and would you have the guts to tell him that to his face? I think not. Easy to spew crap from behind a keyboard, isn’t it.
Woman collectively are not the physical equals of men. However, some women, individually, come damn close. These 2 clearly do.
As long as they can pass the standard, and the standard is NOT adjusted, I don’t have a problem with it. If they can do the job, let them.
It read to me like a politically written piece.
I give no apology for my opinion.
A young officer who has gauged the political winds and decided that career advancement prospects are enhanced when a think-piece he writes is in tune with what the puzzle palace leaders want to promote?
Nahhh, it could never happen.
Maybe the guy is a straight shooter and is calling it as he sees it. It’s entirely possible that his perception of what’s going on is entirely in tune with what’s being pushed, and what’s being pushed is a good thing.
My guess is that if a serving officer penned a screed arguing against the current trend of “breaking down barriers”, he wouldn’t be doing his career any good.
I don’t think he meant it as a compliment.
That is exactly right.
A vast majority of the military is simply an affirmative action PC, PR campaign anymore. God forbid we have to fight a well equipped army at some point. Could you imagine China with a three hundred ship navy?
I know China imagines it. How inclusive will their army be with 45 million more men than women in their country?
Could have been written by any number of Freepers actually
No shortage here who agree with women in combat etc
Unfortunately a high casualty war my boys will likely have to fight is the only reset that will fix us
Might even be domestic God help us
Never in history that I know of baring the military annihilation of one culture over another has this much historical precedence been deemed immoral or wrong or oppressive or unjust or unfair and simply turned on its head and the military is the favorite and easiest place for those forcing this to make it happen since it’s their rather rather large employment base
Foisted by those who despise military power and the projection of it
They are being allowed to weaken our military for their own votes and redress and satisfaction
It’s the definition of insanity to continue doing something you already know doesn’t work
You can see though that our youth are dead to logic and mostly buy the bullshit probably out of fear
It is not.
A person who went through Ranger school has gone through a great (and hard) program that pushes them to the limit and hones leadership under combat conditions.
An Army Ranger, on the other hand, serves in the 75th and is part of the most elite light infantry in the world, is part of America's special.operations forces, and will be involved in spec-ops operations and even work with other special operations units (eg supporting Delta Force).
Huge difference between the Ranger Tab and the Ranger Scroll. Both are hard to get, but one is combat leadership and the other is special operations.
Not to mention their frigging minds
What the hell is wrong with Freepers
Bullseye my ass
WWII was a meat grinder
War between the States even worse proportionately ....my home state of Mississippi in post war years largest single budget item was prosthetics
Yet they didn’t field chicks in combat
No one ever has short of dire survival and even then relegated to common sense roles knowing the weren’t up to the same rigor and often had subtle talents that were useful especially as informants and couriers
We are doing all this bullshit not to improve our fighting capability but rather to pay the debts the progressives and some GOPe owe to feminists and. LBGT supporters and to make CIB and other punched tickets more available to career ambitious wimmin
It is pure dee crap
Even if one in one thousand women is physically competent as compared to exponentially more men ....that is beside the point
Prolonged violent harsh environments are brutal women and children much more so than on men which is bad a damned nuff
We’ve lost our minds and I have never in my life known one vet who did serious combat exposure who thinks women should be anywhere near it
You put your womenfolk voluntarily into war....I just can’t get over this notion
We fight wars to keep them and the kids out of trouble...not voluntarily place them in it
Video warriors think myths and lore are real or they have just lost their balls
Hell my 15 year old boy is one tuff mofo.....hell he shoulda been at Fallujah...I mean I think he coulda passed MCRD PI
Why not put women in high security US penitentiaries like Lompoc or Terre Haute or Marion
Hell I’m sure some are tough enough....right?
Why discriminate?
Any culture stays on this path ain’t worth preserving.
I spent a lot of time in third world shit seeing bad conflict crap as a young man...dead kids...brutalized women
Even in west Africa it was rare to see women in guerrilla groups....a few...ditto FARC or ELN or the Contras or the Karins
Even desperate rebels had common sense...some used women but limited and in roles suited for them
Crazy
Harpseal RIP
Matt Bracken....hurry back
There are plenty of weak, mush-minded Freepers who accept the PC line and feel all warm and fuzzy when they can jump on the PC bandwagon, reality be damned. The term “cuckservative” that’s been floating around lately applies to these people.
I had the pleasure of opforing at Camp Darby in the late sixties and TDY at Benning. It was actually a lot fun. Playing LRP’s against the ranger students was the best time I had the Army. From what I saw the worst part of Ranger training was the lack of sleep and the constant pushups. The physical may not have been easy but it paled in comparison with the sleep deprivation. Trust me. it ain’t easy to stay awake day after day 20 -21 hours. We did it in leadership prep school and I actually fell fast asleep whilst taking notes in class. If the women can do it then go for it. Just don’t cheapen the standards. People fail the course, not because of physical prowess, but because the motivation isn’t high enough to overcome the physical challenge. The mental challenge is listening to the RI’s screaming in your ear. At least it was in 1967. Let’s face it. Officers go to Ranger school to stamp a ticket. Little chance of the bird and no chance of a star without it. I’m uneasy with women in combat in the average unit but a highly motivated unit like a ranger platoon should do just fine. I am of the old school thought and “feel” that women should not be in combat unless the need os dire. You believe what you want.
They need to read Colonel Allen West.....Colonel Oliver North....Etc on this notion
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