GI Janes: Two women pass US Army Ranger training, including 19km march with 23kg pack

Two women have passed the Army Ranger School and will graduate at Fort Benning, Georgia, on Friday, making them the first female soldiers to earn the elite special operations forces tab and complete the Army’s most difficult training regimen.

The Army did not identify the two women, who are both graduates of the US Military Academy at West Point. A third woman candidate, also a West Point grad, is currently in the mountain phase of Ranger School, the second of three arduous training stages.

“This course has proven that every soldier, regardless of gender, can achieve his or her full potential,” Army Secretary John McHugh said in congratulating the class of 96 new Rangers.

Despite the historic promotions, neither the two female Rangers nor any other women troops will be sent into combat in the immediate future.

Under a plan announced in January 2013 by then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, the Pentagon has been moving toward allowing women to serve in combat roles, with the first positions scheduled to be announced next year.

Three women became the first to finish the Marine Corps’ combat-training course at Camp Geiger, North Carolina, on November 21, 2013, but that service is still conducting studies to gauge their ability to serve in infantry units.