Army Ranger School a Test for Women in Combat Roles

[gwillybj]

My stepdaughter who knows no boundaries is in the U.S. Army Reserve schooling for NCO (for now), is in Nursing School, and is a Volunteer Firefighter. This article reminds me of the stories she had to tell from Boot Camp and other training sessions.
Army Ranger School a Test for Women in Combat Roles
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
AUG. 7, 2015

CAMP JAMES E. RUDDER, Fla. — Wearing a cap, sunglasses and a 75-pound rucksack and carrying a 17-pound machine gun, the young, buzz-cut Army officer quickly traversed a muddy river, pulling on a rope stretched between trees on either bank.

After a short break, the soldier shoved a black Zodiac boat into the water for a two-mile paddle with nine other soldiers, one of hundreds of tasks over nine weeks of Ranger School, the top leadership course in the Army.

It was hard to tell anything was different about the officer, except when she opened her mouth to ask for the names and blood types of the other soldiers so she could fill out a manifest for a simulated mission, or when she took off her cap to reveal hair cut a tad longer than that of her classmates.



If she and another female first lieutenant in the group manage to graduate this month from Ranger School, one of the most physically and mentally challenging courses in the military, they will be the first women to do so. They will also be the only graduates who will not be permitted, for now at least, to actually try out for the Ranger regiment, or to serve as infantry or tank officers anywhere in the Army.



But the women’s performance is being closely watched as the Army and other services grapple with how far to go in integrating women into combat roles. Among the questions soon to be answered is whether women will be eligible for any of the most dangerous jobs, like the Ranger battalions that often work with the nation’s premier counterterrorism organization, the Joint Special Operations Command, and that serve as a farm team for the Army’s most elite unit, Delta Force.

In 2013, the Pentagon announced it was lifting its formal ban on women in combat, a nod not only to gender equality but also to the de facto progression of women toward the front lines that had been going on for more than a decade, from Marine female engagement teams to the cultural support teams that accompany Rangers, Navy SEAL teams and other special operators on raids. Women even perform intelligence gathering and other tasks in SEAL Team 6’s top-secret Black Squadron.

“There have been women in combat since the wars kicked off,” said Sgt. First Class Frances Espinal-Teter, a female soldier assigned to observe the training here, who supports women in the infantry. She was deployed to Iraq a dozen years ago as a military police officer and top gunner in a Humvee, and later served alongside Marines and SEAL members in Afghanistan.

The services have until Jan. 1 to decide which positions they still want to keep off limits to women, and they must provide a rationale for each, with the defense secretary making the final call. The progress of the two female officers, and 17 other women who started Ranger School this year but did not make it this far, is expected to help inform that decision, as well as whether to continue to allow women to attend Ranger School, which was open only to men before this year. The military’s other major infantry service, the Marines, recently opened its rigorous infantry officer course to women, but none of the 29 female officers who started the program passed.

Though only 3 percent of soldiers in the active-duty Army have earned Ranger tabs, it is an unofficial prerequisite for obtaining many infantry commands, and an explicit requirement for leading combat troops in the Ranger regiment. It is also a significant career enhancer even for officers who do not serve in combat units.

Out of privacy concerns and a desire to not create distractions for students or instructors near the end of an exhausting two-month course, the Army has not disclosed the names of the two women, both West Point graduates. It also did not allow interviews with students, as is standard practice. Yet it has invited journalists to observe their training, a move intended to help dispel the idea that the women have been cut any special slack.

About 4,000 officers and enlisted soldiers start the Ranger course every year, but only about two out of five graduate. Students drill and train with little sleep, carrying packs and combat equipment that typically weigh between 65 and 90 pounds, and over 61 days they carry out tactical patrols that cumulatively cover the same distance as walking from New York City to Boston.

Col. David G. Fivecoat, the commander of the Army’s Airborne and Ranger training brigade, says the female students are competing on the same terms as the 160 men still in their class: No flexed-arm-hangs instead of pull-ups. No push-ups from the knees. The same cutoff times (40 minutes for a five-mile run, for example) and the same number of repetitions in the initial physical assessment (49 push-ups, 59 situps, six chin-ups).

The two women have performed well on the least subjective evaluations, like fitness tests and hikes with heavy backpacks, including a steep 1.8-mile trek up Mount Yonah in Georgia.

“Everybody’s backpack weighed the same,” Colonel Fivecoat said, “and they all had to put one foot in front of the other.”

Aside from slightly longer (but still buzz-cut) hair, the only official allowances for their sex are that the female officers are allowed to take prescription birth control (students generally cannot bring prescription drugs to the course) and when in barracks the women rotate shower and latrine time with the men, and string up ponchos as makeshift curtains when dressing.



The two women have gotten good marks in another key evaluation criteria — peer assessments, where classmates rank one another on how good a teammate and leader other students are, and how much they would want to be with them in combat.

The one major area where the two women have struggled is where male students also often stumble — on graded patrols, where students take turns role-playing as platoon leaders, platoon sergeants or squad leaders, and are evaluated on how they plan and execute missions.

Meant to simulate what it is like for young Army officers and noncommissioned officers to lead troops during deployments, it also tests how well the students improvise, such as reacting to a surprise mortar attack, said Capt. George Calhoun, a platoon tactical trainer who served as a platoon leader in Afghanistan. Do they seize up and just dive for cover? Or do they immediately report their casualties and other information to their company commander, and see whether there is artillery or helicopters or jets that can return fire?

Of the 19 women who began Ranger School this year, most failed the early phases, though one, a major who is also a West Point graduate, is now “recycling,” or retaking, an earlier phase in hopes of progressing to this last segment, which takes place at Camp James E. Rudder, deep inside Eglin Air Force Base in the swampy, sweltering heat of north Florida. The decision on who graduates will not be made until later this month, but typically more than three out of four candidates who make it this far graduate with their class.

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RECENT COMMENTS

Saywhat? 5 hours ago
Women should be treated just like men. They should be required to register for the draft before they can vote and drafted in equal numbers...
JK 7 hours ago
This is all OK ... but equal opportunity and equal treatment are still elusive.When will our lawmakers get in the law that 18 year old...
jmr 8 hours ago
I have deep reservations as to if women belong in the Rangers.Is there a woman on earth that could make the last roster spot on the last...
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The two female lieutenants at Camp Rudder have had to recycle phases, and they have taken longer to make it to the final phase than most students who ultimately graduate from Ranger School. But officers say it is not uncommon for male graduates to have to redo the same number of tasks as the women have.

Traditionalists, meanwhile, have not been happy about the potential of women serving combat roles, fearing they will destroy unit cohesion or lead to lowered standards.

As a point man for one of the biggest debates in the military, Colonel Fivecoat has been on the receiving end of personal attacks on Facebook and elsewhere.

“There is definitely a group out there that is very vocal about this thing, and they’re not real happy with it,” he said. “First the naysayers said, ‘They’re not going be able to do this,’ and then they did it, and then they said, ‘They are not going be able do this part,’ and they did it.”

And even some influential supporters of expanding the roles women play in combat and commando units, like retired Adm. Eric T. Olson, a former head of the military’s Special Operations Command, stop short of endorsing women for all combat jobs. Mr. Olson said last month that he questioned “how tactical leaders will respond to being in a position to put women to take the first bullet on a target.”

The course was also parodied on a military-satire website, Duffel Blog, which joked that a “pickle-jar opening test” was intended to make it harder for female Ranger candidates.

Colonel Fivecoat would not say whether he supported women serving in the infantry because he did not want to get out in front of his own commanders. But allowing them to attend Ranger School was a no-brainer.

“Why would you not want them to get this training, so they can be the best they can possibly be?” he said.

I curious how far behind the U.S. is in training women for front-line duty?

[vonbach]

I curious how far behind the U.S. is in training women for front-line duty?

It doesn't matter because theres no way to make it succeed. Women aren't fit for combat roles.
All the Politically Correct crap in the world cant change biology.

[Buster's Uncle]

Blunt a little?

von, there are ladies going to see this, and a little diplomacy is called for.

[vonbach]

Blunt a little?

von, there are ladies going to see this, and a little diplomacy is called for.

Whats your point? Tell the truth because the truth cant offend it simply is.
I'd rather disabuse people of their delusions than have them learn the hard way.
I really don't know any other way to speak.

[Buster's Uncle]

I say this not because I disagree, but because your phrasing is not cool.  It is not civil.  There are ways to say what you're saying that would go down better.  Truth is no defense in social matters -not getting this is nerd fallacy #1- and, while conservative voices are welcome -indeed, encouraged- here, rudeness is not.

Rusty and gwilly are genuine conservatives - gwilly's an old earth creationist, and Rusty was an active Republican party worker back in the day- and I hope they'll speak up on this and you'll listen.

[vonbach]

I'm not trying to troll honestly. This just the way I talk.
My opinions are also so far to the right of even most
moderates that everything I say offends someone.
I can try to be a little more diplomatic.

[Buster's Uncle]

You're talking to a dude with graduate-level expertise in offending.  Really; running this place and needing to keep everyone happy has been a real learning experience, building habits of charm or some reasonable facsimile.


I believe what you're saying is that God/the universe/evolution made men for stuff like fighting, and has inherently disadvantaged women, for the most part, in those roles -their gifts lay elsewhere.


See?  That wasn't so tough.

-Now I'd be willing to stand behind the statement myself, put that way, and wouldn't be afraid Valka would see it.  She'll probably argue, but not be mad.

[vonbach]

I believe what you're saying is that God/the universe/evolution made men for stuff like fighting, and has inherently disadvantaged women, for the most part, in those roles -their gifts lay elsewhere.

Yes. This.

See?  That wasn't so tough.

Interesting.

[Buster's Uncle]

  That there's a really useful life skill...

[Rusty Edge]

My stepdaughter who knows no boundaries is in the U.S. Army Reserve schooling for NCO (for now), is in Nursing School, and is a Volunteer Firefighter. This article reminds me of the stories she had to tell from Boot Camp and other training sessions.

I curious how far behind the U.S. is in training women for front-line duty?

I understand that the Israelis draft women, many serve in combat positions,  and some of them serve in the elite paratrooper units. The presence of the women motivates the men to try a lot harder, so they are not outperformed by a woman, raising the performance and capability of the entire unit in the process.

[Buster's Uncle]

Didn't they have to do some serious adjusting because of the tendency od the men to try to protect the women getting both killed more often in combat?  Does anyone know how they worked that out?

[Rusty Edge]

Didn't they have to do some serious adjusting because of the tendency od the men to try to protect the women getting both killed more often in combat?  Does anyone know how they worked that out?

I don't really know. I think that is/has been an issue in the US Army. I think that the Israelis have a besieged mentality, and have concluded that it's better for the women to be trained to fight to the death than to be defenseless liabilities. That gives them an advantage over Muslim countries with women who aren't even allowed to drive.

My uncle was once one of the youngest Lt. Colonels in the US Army. He was attached to the 2nd Armored Division.  I recall that when he was asked about how well the women were working out he said fine. It didn't affect his logistical planning except for one exception. There was one type vehicle that required two women to change the tire, because it was too big for one to handle alone. Apparently it weighed more than they did.

[Buster's Uncle]

...Maybe Ranger School is designed on some unexamined assumptions about what a soldier can and needs to be good at.  I mean, most of the special forces types I've met are skinny little fellers, small being useful for the sneaking and crawling through culverts and stuff -easier on the body for the climbing part, too, though women are at a disadvantage there-  but plenty big enough to carry a gun and a knife.

I've been in a lot of hand-to-hand myself, growing up, and although I'm strong, not fast - I'd really rather be fast, for fighting's sake.  I'd rather be Quicksilver than the Hulk; nobody could touch Quicksilver in a RW fight, ever.  A woman can compete at fast, which a ranger needs a lot more than strong.

Now regular infantry grunts is another matter, I think...

[Rusty Edge]

Things are changing.
In Richard the Lion Heart's day size mattered. The size of your shield, your broadsword, the weight of your mace and armor, and the draw of your bow.

But now? It's more technologically advanced. GPS, drones, satellites, missiles, sniper gear.  Size, as you say, makes you a bigger target. It's more about will, skill, and training than physique.  My 100 pound niece can take down a frat house full of Halo players, so being physically inferior doesn't make one strategically inferior.

[Lord Avalon]

...Maybe Ranger School is designed on some unexamined assumptions about what a soldier can and needs to be good at.  I mean, most of the special forces types I've met are skinny little fellers, small being useful for the sneaking and crawling through culverts and stuff -easier on the body for the climbing part, too, though women are at a disadvantage there-  but plenty big enough to carry a gun and a knife.

That may be part of it, but I think it's more the smaller, wiry guys have more endurance than the big guys, so are more likely to pass selection from that standpoint.

I've been in a lot of hand-to-hand myself, growing up, and although I'm strong, not fast - I'd really rather be fast, for fighting's sake.  I'd rather be Quicksilver than the Hulk; nobody could touch Quicksilver in a RW fight, ever....

Bah. You could nuke Hulk, and he'd just get pissed off and stronger.


My opinion on OP is that some women might be capable of some combat roles. If they pass the same standards as men, why shouldn't they be allowed to perform the role?