No female army ranger trainees advance in first class to include women

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/01/no-female-army-ranger-trainees-advance-women-combat

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The first class of US army ranger trainees to include women will move on without any of its female members after none of the 19 women in a class of 400 succeeded in passing to the second phase of training.

The army allowed women to apply to the historically all-male course for the first time last year, expecting up to 80 recruits. The course opening is part of a push to include women in combat roles, but the unsuccessful training has some questioning the course’s standards.

Three women will be given the chance to start the entire training from the beginning, known as a Day One Recycle. This is a normal part of the course for students who “struggle with one aspect of the course and excel at others,” the army said in a statement. Five more who passed initial physical tests but failed the ensuing Darby Phase will return to the army as soldiers.

“The group that was unsuccessful was, of course, disappointed in their performance,” said Colonel David G Fivecoat, commander of the ranger training brigade. Fivecoat said that recruits who didn’t make the cut “learned more about themselves [and] leadership”, and move back to the army better trained.

The army considers ranger training to be some of its most challenging, with strict training requirements “pushing the limits of their minds and bodies”.

During the first phase of the training, recruits are required to perform 49 push-ups, 59 sit-ups, a 5-mile run in under 40 minutes, six chin-ups, a swim test, a land navigation test, and a 12-mile foot march with a 35-pound rucksack in under three hours. Only about half of male recruits make it through the course. About 42.1% of women were expected to succeed.

Eight women passed that training.

That no women advanced further, however, has prompted some to challenge the course requirements.

“I think it’ll be contentious, but I think it’s equitable and sensible to ask the question about what are the [ranger school] standards that are only related to the fact that only men have ever done it,” retired lieutenant general David Barno told the Christian Science Monitor. He served as the top commander of United States forces in Afghanistan, as well as serving in three tours in army ranger battalions, the Monitor reported.