FORT BENNING, Ga., (Oct. 21, 2015) -- The third and final female Soldier from the gender-integrated Ranger Course assessment graduated alongside 87 other Soldiers Oct. 16 at Victory Pond in Class 10-15.
Excellence throughout the military's history has always been defined as a Soldier who has earned the distinction of being called a Ranger, said Brig. Gen. Peter Jones, chief of Infantry, during the graduation ceremony.
"You are now a part of a lifelong brotherhood and sisterhood of those who have chosen to go above and beyond," Jones said.
Other notable graduates of the course included a 40-year-old chaplain, and two international students, one from Singapore and one from Afghanistan.
Maj. Lisa Jaster, an Army Reservist and engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, started training 179 days prior to her having the Ranger Tab pinned on her left shoulder when she began the first gender-integrated Ranger Course in April with Class 06-15.
Jaster is the last of the 19 women who started the Ranger Course Assessment on April 20. She recycled Darby Phase twice, was given a Day One recycle alongside two other female Ranger Course graduates, 1st Lt. Shaye Haver and Capt. Kristen Griest, but recycled Mountain Phase while Haver and Griest proceeded to Swamp Phase. Once past Mountain Phase, Jaster recycled Swamp Phase before finally reaching graduation Oct. 16, having spent 180 days in the course.
"There was never an option to stop; there was never an option to quit," Jaster said. "I can't have quit in me."
"I saw no special treatment of females, and if there was, I guess I must have missed out on that," said 1st Lt. Seth Clickner, a combat support Soldier with the 7th Special Forces Group. Clickner said he did every phase of the course twice, starting in Haver's squad, Griest's company for two go-throughs and Jaster's squad and company for the remainder of his time in the course. "I spent six months here and I saw nothing of the sort."
Jaster said watching Haver and Griest - the first two women to graduate the Ranger Course on Aug. 21 - move on when she didn't, "was by far one of the hardest days of (the Ranger Course) for me."
Jaster said she was not familiar with platoon operations and said she wished she had been better prepared before beginning the course.
She received training from her husband, Allan, a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps, as well as weapons training from some of his warrant officers and NCOs. She said she spent a lot of time studying the Ranger handbook.
"This training needs to stay difficult and it needs to maintain the standards that it has upheld," Jaster said.
She said she was surprised by the acceptance she received from the men in the course as well as the instructors.
"Once you get in the field and once you start training shoulder-to-shoulder, gender stopped mattering very quickly and it was 'can you accomplish the mission?'" Jaster said. "I was impressed and surprised by the professionalism of everyone I dealt with."
Although Jaster is grateful to have had the opportunity to attend the course, she said she is also glad to be done with it.
"I didn't come to (the Ranger Course) just because I wanted to get a piece of cloth (pinned) on my shoulder," Jaster said. "I wanted to do something, I wanted to better myself as a leader, and I wanted to help the Army in this endeavor on whether or not we should integrate (the course) and should I be here?" Jaster said. "I'm part of the answer to that question and I wanted to give it my best effort."
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