First Two Women Graduate From US Army Ranger School

These two women have created a new record. Capt. Kristen Griest and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver on Friday were the first two women to graduate from the U.S. Army's Ranger School, according to ktla.

They got their tabs, being members of the Ranger Class 08-15 at Fort Benning, Georgia.

It was a historic moment, helping to integrate the women in the U.S. military, after they finished weeks of rigorous physical training, running through "woods, mountains and swamplands".

Maj. Gen. Austin S. Miller, commanding general of the U.S. Army Maneuver Center of Excellence, was firm that they had met every requirement the men did," he said. None of their standards had been lowered.

"When they question those standards, what I do is to invite them back to Fort Benning, Georgia," he said.

He added, "There was no pressure from anyone above me to change standards."

Griest comes from Connecticut, and is an Airborne-qualified military police officer.

Haver is a Texas resident and is an Apache helicopter pilot.

"Clearly, these two soldiers are trailblazers," Secretary of Defense Ash Carter told reporters Thursday. "And after all, that's what it means to be a Ranger. Rangers lead the way."

The two women are called pioneers for finishing the course in the first year that the Army opened it to try out women.

"We felt like we were contributing as much as the men, and we felt that they felt that way, too," Griest said.

It was a significant move, as it set the way for the future generations.

"For me, the biggest accomplishment was that it was a goal I had for so long," Griest said. "It was always just about trying to get the best training that the Army can offer us."

Haver said it was "definitely awesome to be part of history."

The women in her class "came to Ranger School as skeptics, with our guards up, just in case of the haters and naysayers, but we didn't come with a chip on our shoulder with anything to prove," Haver said.

She added, "I think the battles that we won were individual. ... We were kind of winning hearts and minds as we went."

In fact, the two women at different points of the course in fact went forward take on the "heavy weight" of their male counterparts.

"You're way too tired and way too hungry to really honestly care," one soldier said of the female classmates. "At the end of the day, everyone was a Ranger."

Both the female soldiers were described to be "physically and mentally very capable" and the standards were not changed at all. "We've shown that it's not exclusively a male domain here," Miller said.

However, it is not too clear what waits for the female graduates. Unlike their male classmates, they cannot apply to join the elite special operations force, the 75th Ranger Regiment.

Moreover, complete decisions about their combat roles will be permitted to be filled only later this year.