Women Fail to Enter Next Phase of Ranger School
FORT BENNING, Ga., May 30 (UPI) — All eight women attempting to become the first female Army Rangers have failed to meet requirements to move on to next phase of Ranger School.
After their second attempt at completing this phase of the two-month evaluation process, the women will not move forward to the mountain phase of the course at Fort Benning, Army Times reports. A group of 195 men have been approved to enter the mountain phase.
Three of the women will be recycled and have been given the chance to start over with the new class coming in late June. The five others have exhausted their chance to be recycled. This having been their second try, they will return to their units.
A total of 29 hopefuls — male and female — were dropped during this phase.
When the Army opened the Army Ranger School’s doors to women earlier this year, about 60 women volunteered to become part of the first female recruits; 19 women ended up joining the class when it began on April 20.
Of the 19 women and 381 men who began Ranger School at that time, just eight women and 184 men remained after the first four days, the Ranger Assessment Phase, commonly called RAP week.
The Darby phase, which three women and 101 men will get to try again, is 15 days of squad training in the field, an advanced obstacle course and patrols. The majority of the 29 soldiers dropped from the course were reportedly unable to successfully lead a patrol.
Including women in Ranger School was part of a one-time assessment, but Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno told reporters that more may come in the future.
“We’ll probably run a couple more pilots,” Odierno said. “It’s been a real success for us, and we’ll see how it goes from there.”
