On January 15th, Secretary of the Army John McHugh approved female soldiers to attend Ranger Training Assessment Course (RTAC) in preparation for U.S. Army Ranger School.
According to Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno, this pilot run serves as an assessment to determine if and how women can be integrated into the Ranger Regiment.
"We're just going to let the statistics speak for themselves as we go through this," he said, in response to a question from a soldier. "The main thing I'm focused on is the standards remain the same. In order to earn that tab, you have to do all the things necessary to earn that tab. We want to try a pilot to let women have the opportunity to do that."
Therefore, the women who graduate from this 62-day course will not be assigned to the 75th Ranger Regiment, but instead will earn a Ranger tab on her uniform.
Two weeks ago, soldiers began the course at Fort Benning, Georgia, where the first phase of Ranger School took place. Of those soldiers, 19 were women.
Currently, 184 males and 8 females remain as they approach the next phase of training in North Georgia. Read more on how the students continue to be assessed through the different phases here.
Sources:
- MEDIA RELEASE: First-ever gender integrated Ranger Training Assessment Course completed
- Female soldiers OKed for Ranger School in April
- Women to start Ranger School today
- Only 3 women fail Ranger School PT test, 16 remain
- Peer Evaluations Can Mean Success, Failure in Ranger School
Header image via military.com
In other words, a majority of the male Ranger School graduates will leave with the tab but not proceed to a Ranger Battalion. Instead, they'll return to their previous units with a promotion in rank and other goodies. Life in the infantry with a Ranger tab is 100x better than it is without.