The Glade 4.0

It has been a hard road for women in Army Ranger School. All of the female volunteers have failed on their second attempt to pass the first phase of the traditionally, all-male infantry course, the Army announced Friday night.
The Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade held its first co-ed course of Army Ranger School on April 20 at Fort Benning, Georgia. Nineteen women and 380 men were pre-screened for the combat training course.
Three of the women failed to pass the Ranger Physical Fitness Assessment, a requirement to enter Ranger School. Eight out of 16 female soldiers completed the Ranger Assessment Phase, or RAP week, which consists of day and night land navigation, obstacle courses, skill tests and a 12-mile road march with a rifle, fighting load vest and rucksack weighing approximately 47 pounds.
But the remaining eight females weren't able to complete the first phase and advance to the second phase of the course. Instead, they were allowed to repeat the Darby Phase along with 101 male candidates.
Fort Benning officials announced May 29 that none of the eight passed the Darby Phase on their second attempt. Three of those females, along with five males, have been invited to start over on day one of the grueling course.
"This is normal course procedures and is used when students struggle with one aspect of the course and excel at others," according to the press release.
The next Ranger School class begins on Sunday, June 21, 2015.
The announcement comes one day after Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said that the Army will likely run a couple more pilots where females go through Ranger School.
Senior Army leaders recently decided to allow females to attend the historically male-only, infantry course. The effort is a result of former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's January 2013 directive that all services open combat-arms roles to women that so far have been reserved for men. The services have until 2016 to decide how to execute this.
According to the release, 29 students, including five females, failed to meet the standards of the Darby Phase of Ranger School and will be dropped from the course.
"For a variety of reasons, these students were unsuccessful at meeting the standard -- some for leading their graded patrols, some for a poor evaluation of their teamwork from their peers, some for accumulating too many negative spot reports, and some for a combination of all three," the release states. "However, the vast majority who are being dropped from the course were unable to successfully lead a patrol. All students received multiple opportunities to lead a patrol as a squad leader or team leader."
The Darby Phase of Ranger School is 15 days of intensive squad training and operations in a field environment at Fort Benning.
The phase consists of a day for basic airborne refresher and sustained airborne training, as well as a day for an airborne operation for those Ranger students who are airborne qualified; a day for the Darby Queen, an advanced obstacle course; a day of techniques training; two days of cadre assisted patrols; three days of student led patrols; one day of retraining; three days of student led patrols; and two administrative days where the students are counseled on their performance during the phase.
Col. David G. Fivecoat, commander of the Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade, and Command Sgt. Major Curt Arnold addressed the Ranger students this week, Fivecoat said.
"The group that was unsuccessful was, of course, disappointed in their performance," Fivecoat said. "However, each Ranger student, whether successful or unsuccessful, learned more about themselves, leadership, and small unit tactics, and returns to the Army a better trained soldier and leader."

It has been a hard road for women in Army Ranger School. All of the female volunteers have failed on their second attempt to pass the first phase of the traditionally, all-male infantry course, the Army announced Friday night.
The Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade held its first co-ed course of Army Ranger School on April 20 at Fort Benning, Georgia. Nineteen women and 380 men were pre-screened for the combat training course.
Three of the women failed to pass the Ranger Physical Fitness Assessment, a requirement to enter Ranger School. Eight out of 16 female soldiers completed the Ranger Assessment Phase, or RAP week, which consists of day and night land navigation, obstacle courses, skill tests and a 12-mile road march with a rifle, fighting load vest and rucksack weighing approximately 47 pounds.
But the remaining eight females weren't able to complete the first phase and advance to the second phase of the course. Instead, they were allowed to repeat the Darby Phase along with 101 male candidates.
Fort Benning officials announced May 29 that none of the eight passed the Darby Phase on their second attempt. Three of those females, along with five males, have been invited to start over on day one of the grueling course.

I saw this earlier. I figured it would become some huge social justice warrior crusade.

Women are going to have a tough time cracking most of the specialized military rosters, whether that be rangers, SEALS, or what have you. They're dealing with generations of ingrained cultural attitudes that women don't belong on the battlefield - including other women who feel this way. Round One isn't going to be some Strong Independent Womyn success story where Demi Moore shaves her head and puts up with hazing and gang rape and graduates at the top of the class to show those evil misogynists what for. It's entirely likely that most women simply don't fit the psychological profile for special combat units, and the physical demands are extremely difficult to meet even with testosterone boosting performance.

But several of the women have been brought back for round three. That says a lot. They've failed twice, and are still trying. Not only that, but the army is still trying. The army isn't lowering standards just to appease people who want women in the rangers, and they're not keeping them out just to prevent women from being rangers. If they keep trying, one of them will make it. Dedication and tenacity are qualities the rangers are looking for, too.

Now all these outfits will have to explain themselves before Congress for having the gall to have courses that "exclude women". I'm not so sure that standards won't change for women.

Exactly as it should be. If they cannot explain themselves (i.e. demonstrate why the course represents a minimum necessary standard), then the standard should be changed.

It may not be necessary to have such a grueling course. For example, if 1,000 men and women want to be rangers, and you want 100, you need to start weeding them out. Rangers must have brains and brawn. If Alberta Einstein can't pick up a rifle, she's out - not enough brawn. If Arnold Schwarzenegger Jr cannot stop drooling on himself, he's out - not enough brains. But if the weed-out line is based primarily on brawn, such that you have far more brawn than is justifiably needed, then perhaps you should reduce the standards for brawn and increase the standard for brains. That could result in more women getting in.

Wasn't mentioned in this article, but I recall hearing on the radio that a number of the women who had to drop out of the physical testing did so due to the development of stress fractures from the weight/running combination.

So not something they could "train harder, come back later" for- something their skeletal frame was physically unable to take.

Not arguing that it should be made easier, but probably worth looking at, say, different patterns of weight distribution for different frames. Especially given that while many of the male soldiers suffer stress fractures from the loads, very few are on the hips- and a number of the female soldiers had hip fractures.

It's well known that load distribution needs to be different for men and women due to different biomechanics.

I didn't say they shouldn't be able to carry the load, I said the distribution needed to be different.

The Marines have been working with that in their desert exercises.

Shifting the distribution of weight from the hips to the shoulders drastically reduced hip stress fractures. It's not about the strength of the bones, it's about the angle difference of hips in men and women.

Except that they shouldn't need to explain why the standards are what they are - only to show that they are enforcing the standard the same way for everyone, women are being given the same chances to meet it, and that the standards were not suddenly changed just to make it harder for women.

If the military has said that's the appropriate standard, then that's the appropriate standard. Period.