History within reach for female soldiers
eglin air force base, fla.» Air National Guard C-130s roared over the lush, shaggy grass of the Elizabeth Drop Zone here last week, a near-steady hum overhead. Army Ranger students were a few hours into a mission known as Operation Pegasus and needed to parachute in from a height of about 1,100 feet.
Aircrews made several passes without letting any students out because of breezy conditions deemed unsafe to jump. But eventually, the students’ green chutes dotted the early-evening Thursday sky. They floated down into the open fields of Eglin with 70 pounds of equipment, food and water before disappearing into thick brush, beginning a 10-day exercise that will end Saturday. It is the last major field event in the Army’s famously difficult Ranger School.
History is in the balance: For the first time, two female students advanced to the third and final phase of the famously exhausting course in the swamps of Florida. They are within reach of graduating. If they pass, they will become the first Ranger-qualified women in the history of the U.S. military and celebrated at an Aug. 21 graduation ceremony at Fort Benning, Ga., that is expected to draw not only family and friends, but hundreds of other well-wishers and media from across the country.
If they graduate, the Army must confront a separate, but related decision: Whether to allow women to try out for the elite 75th Ranger Regiment. The highly trained Special Operations unit carries out raids and other difficult missions and includes about 3,600 soldiers, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report. It remains completely closed to women, even though some of the jobs in it, ranging from parachute rigger to intelligence analyst, are open in other parts of the Army.
As part of the military’s ongoing assessment of how to integrate women into combat roles, women were allowed into Ranger School this year. Thus far, the Army has said that any woman who graduates will be allowed to wear the