In a first, two female Army officers currently attending West Point are set to graduate from the one of the most difficult and elite training regiments in the Armed Forces - the Army's Ranger School. The two women are among 96 students who will graduate on Friday from the intensive training program in Fort Benning, Georgia.
The course was opened to women on a trial basis for the first time this year. "This course has proven that every Soldier, regardless of gender, can achieve his or her full potential," Secretary of the Army John M. McHugh said in a statement, reports CNN.
"Ranger School is the Army's premier combat leadership course, teaching Ranger students how to overcome fatigue, hunger, and stress to lead Soldiers during small unit combat operations," read a statement from the military announcing the women's successful completion of the course.
The 62-day course "pushes Ranger students to their mental and physical limits by forcing them to operate on minimal food and sleep," the statement says according to ABC News.
The success of the two women. and the experiences of 17 other women who began the course in April but have not graduated yet. will be a factor in deciding whether women will serve in combat arms, according to USA Today.
The Army has emphasized that the female soldiers had to meet precisely the same standards as the males throughout their time in training.
Through the nine-week course the women have endured intense physical conditioning and 20-hour days that began at Fort Benning moving on to the mountains of Georgia and finally to the swamps of Florida Panhandle. The women had to perform physical tests including 49 push-ups, 59 sit ups, six chin ups, and a five-mile run in no more than 40 minutes, reports The New York Times.
