Ranger school reactions - The Killeen Daily Herald
About three weeks into the 62-day course, less than half of the 19 women who began the school were still in the running to earn a Ranger tab. On Friday, the eight remaining women, along with 101 men, failed to advance to the school’s mountain phase. Allowing females into the previously all-male institution is a litmus test, of sorts — the Army’s way of determining whether women can participate in the course, while still maintaining its long history of high standards, widely revered by... “As long as they don’t change the standards, I’m neutral. I’m not for it or against it. I’m just neutral,” said the incoming commander of Fort Hood’s Dragon Troop, 2nd Squadron, 3rd Cavalry Regiment, Capt. “If a female wants to go to school, she brings her bags at the front gate like everybody else and goes through. Soto earned his Ranger tab in 1994 and recently returned from Fort Benning, Ga. , where current Ranger hopefuls are undergoing the rigorous program. None of the standards previously held for the course’s completion, including prerequisites, phase performance requirements and graduation standards, were altered to accommodate the women. As a bystander and Ranger instructor, Soto said allowing women to join the current class does raise some logistical questions, such as how to separate the genders during shower and latrine times in the barracks. “There were a lot of questions of how they were going to handle the female population going through school,” he said. Source: kdhnews.com
