First ever women complete Army’s combat training
And they look rather different off duty...
TWO women have made history by passing the Army’s gruelling sixmonth infantry training course – making them the first British female soldiers whose main purpose is to kill the enemy at close quarters.
In a hugely significant milestone for gender equality, Privates Chelsey Munday and Taylor Lewis passed out from the Infantry Training Centre (ITC) at Catterick, North Yorkshire, on Friday and will now join their respective regiments.
Last night, former head of the British Army, Lord Dannatt, led the praise for the trailblazing duo and urged their male counterparts to be ‘broad-minded enough’ to welcome their new colleagues.
By completing the same arduous training programme as their male colleagues, the women defied experts who argued that women were too weak to withstand the course. Recruits are required to carry packs weighing 55lb on exhausting marches over rough terrain, and tackle assault courses and realistic military exercises.
Many trainees are forced to leave the ITC after suffering injuries while others simply find the going too tough. For hundreds of years, women had been barred from serving in frontline military units. Even when David Cameron lifted the ban in 2016, critics challenged the notion that women should ever serve in dedicated combat roles.
The achievement of the two women may have finally put paid to such doubts. Last night, 26-year-old Pte Munday described the ceremony marking her graduation from the ITC as ‘the proudest moment of my entire life’. The former trainee paramedic and football coach from Bristol will now join the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment (PWRR).
Pte Lewis, 19, from Walsall, will join the Rifles Regiment.
The duo arrived at the previously male-only ITC in late May. Pte Munday has kept friends and family updated with her progress, posting a picture of herself online wearing combat fatigues.
She wrote: ‘I’m in the first training platoon ever at the Infantry Training Centre to have female recruits. Here’s to the next 26 weeks!’
After completing the introductory phase of training, they posed for pictures wearing their regimental berets. Pte Munday wrote: ‘So today I have officially passed infantry phase 1 training and I could not be more proud of myself and the people I work with.
‘These 12 weeks have been tough but worth it. Bring on phase 2.’
As some male colleagues dropped out due to injuries, the two women kept soldiering on through the autumn, their goal of making history getting closer with every completed week of training. Last month
Pte Munday wrote online: ‘Now I am just five weeks of training away from being one of the first two female infantry recruits to complete the 26-week Combat Infantry Course and become infantry soldiers. Can’t wait.’
Pte Munday and Pte Lewis could not hide their joy when they finally finished the course. Family members and friends travelled to the North Yorkshire base to celebrate with them as they marched around the parade square for the last time, accompanied by a military band.
Lord Dannatt said last night: ‘Absolute congratulations to them – I wish them all the best after this achievement. Passing the Combat Infantry Course was their first big hurdle. The next will be settling into their battalions and I hope everyone in the PWRR and the Rifles will be broad-minded enough to accept the change and support them in their future endeavours.’
Meanwhile, a former international rower remains on course to become the first woman to complete the Royal Marines’ training course, which is even longer. Defence chiefs expect Philippa Birch to complete the 32-week Commando training programme at Lympstone in Devon next year.
About ten per cent of Britain’s regular forces personnel and 14 per cent of reservists are women.
While women have been serving on the front line for years in roles such as helicopter pilots, medics and engineers, only now are they able to join infantry and armoured units in the Army and Marines.
The MoD estimates only 4.5 per cent of female Army recruits could pass infantry physical tests. But it could face multi-million-pound legal actions if women suffer career-ending injuries, difficulties giving birth or miscarriages as a result of infantry training.
‘The proudest moment of my entire life’