Historic day for women

Shaye Haver completes a rope bridge challenge during the gruelling 62-day training for Ranger School. Photo / AP

Graduates pave the way for the future.

The first female graduates of the US Army's notoriously rigorous Ranger School have received their elite tabs with 94 of their male counterparts.

The graduation ceremony, held at Fort Benning, Georgia, was the capstone of a historic week for First Lieutenant Shaye Haver of Copperas Cove, Texas, and Captain Kristen Griest of Orange, Connecticut.

Major General Scott Miller, commander of all army infantry and armour training and education, told the graduates they all met Ranger standards - regardless of their sex.

"You'll leave Victory Pond today with a small piece of cloth on your shoulder, but more importantly, you carry the title of Ranger from here on out," he said.

Although the women graduated, they are not permitted to join the Army Rangers, or serve in infantry or any special operations posts, because they are women.

At a news conference on Friday, flanked by several of their fellow male graduates, the two said they were motivated to get through the punishing 62-day course by thinking of the doors they were opening for other women.

Kristen Griest.

"I felt some internal pressure," Griest said. "I was thinking of future generations of women and that I would like them to have that opportunity. So I had that pressure on myself."

Four hundred soldiers - including 19 women - started the gruelling Ranger training in April, but Griest and Haver were the only women to complete the full course.

"We came to Ranger School sceptical," Haver said.

"But we didn't come with a chip on our shoulder, like we had anything to prove."

The training tests physical endurance and survival skills, with graduates stretched to the extreme on mental and physical stress.

The 62-day exam includes a five-mile run in 40 minutes, a 12-mile march in three hours, an air assault in Florida's swamps and other obstacles.