Ranger class makes Army history

By Noelle WieheAugust 25, 2015

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(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT BENNING, Ga., (Aug.26, 2015) --The first gender-integrated Army Ranger Course graduated Aug. 21 with two women and 94 men receiving their Ranger Tab at Victory Pond.

Capt. Kristen Griest, an MP with 716th Military Police Battalion, Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver, an Apache pilot with 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colorado, started training with the first gender-integrated Ranger Course, Class 06-15, in April. They recycled Darby Phase twice, and then were offered a Day One recycle to ultimately graduate as part of Class 08-15.

Both Griest and Haver are graduates of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York, and said they wouldn't have wanted to attend the course if the standards had changed for them.

"No woman that I know wanted to go to Ranger School if they changed the standards," Griest said. "It degrades what the tab means. Maintaining the standards is absolutely imperative. We're leaders in the Army. We're expected to do what we ask of our Soldiers and then some. We're supposed to be leading from the front."

2nd Lt. Zachary Hagner, 25th Infantry Division, graduated the Ranger Course with the two women, but also recycled Darby alongside them.

"There was one standard, that was the Ranger standard," Hagner said. "Once I got to know (Griest), I was in no way skeptical anymore. She completely changed my mind, along with Ranger Haver."

Specifically, he served as Griest's Ranger buddy during parts of the Ranger Course.

"It wasn't even that the training made us blind to the gender, it was the qualities of Ranger Griest that made us blind to gender, because she was strong and determined. And, female or male, it was the person that made us change our views."

The event also marked the 30th anniversary of Maj. Gen. Scott Miller, commanding general of the Maneuver Center of Excellence, having earned his tab after successfully completing the Ranger Course, where he was also a distinguished honor graduate.

Miller said the guest speaker of his graduation ceremony, retired Sgt. Maj. Bob Spencer, former ARTB sergeant major, was in attendance and said he thought the remarks Spencer made at his ceremony still rang true today.

Spencer told Miller's class that there will be people who question the standards of the Ranger Course, and when they do, they should be asked to revalidate their Ranger Tab.

"Today, we have zero takers on people who want to revalidate their tab," Miller said.

The tabbed Soldiers shared a common motivator to complete the course, as Spc. Christopher Carvalho, a medic with 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, said: "quitting is not an option."

"Anybody that comes to the (course) with that mentality is going to get their tab, whether they do it in 61 days or they do it three-quarters of a year," Carvalho said.

Griest's advice to future seekers of the Ranger Tab was to overcome the mental aspect of it.

"Mentally, you know you want to get through - and you have to want to get through - then, they'll be able to make it," she said.

Haver said completing the course is about will as well as mental capacity and candidates must realize the mental aspect of facing the Ranger Course is the most challenging thing that they will ever face and that they must exceed it.

Fort Benning will begin the next pilot of the gender-integrated Ranger Course in November, but this time Arnold said women do not have to attend the Ranger Training and Assessment Course.