The only woman left in Ranger School set to graduate
The Washington Post reports that Major Lisa Peplinski Jaster a 37-year-old Reservist from Houston is on track to graduate from Ranger School soon.
“She still hasn’t completed all of the requirements,” the official said. “But what are her odds of graduating now? They’re really, really good.”
Jaster is a 2000 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and would be older than most graduates — male or female. She is a frequent participant in CrossFit training exercises and has been a contestant in weightlifting competitions.
I don’t care whether you’re male or female, going through that course at that age is an accomplishment, graduating from it makes you a star. Politics of the whole “female Rangers” aside, congratulations to the major.
Thanks to Chief Tango for the link.
Category: Army News
Kudos and props to her! Ah Salute!
I am a bit curious though; how many Reservists regularly go through Ranger School?
None that I have ever seen.
The Army has re-written the rule book, so to speak, on this.
Lots of reservists go, as do NG Soldiers. It all comes down to your unit’s money for training. If they have it, they can send you.
Most units outside IBCTs don’t set aside a lot of money for schools not tied directly to their mission- in other words, if they don’t have Ranger coded positions (like the 82nd, for instance), they won’t spend the money.
That said, I heard the current SMA tell a story about his experience as the 4ID CSM. He is a very rare leg Ranger, but he thought Ranger school was the best leadership training he ever had. He held an NCODP with all NCOs in the division and told them that he and the CG had committed to sending any NCO that volunteered and met all the prerequisites- they would even pay to send them to a pre-ranger (being a heavy division, 4ID did not run their own). Almost every hand in the room went up when he asked who wanted a slot.
He got four (4) actual requests that year.
Q: What is a leg ranger?
Sorry…dumb Air Force guy here
Not airborne.
Most units can’t read their own MTOEs. I was the 1BCT 4ID S1 for a while and dealt with this stupidity all the bloody time.
Even mech units have slots for Airborne, Pathfinder and Rangers. There are fewer and fewer down to the support battalions but even they still have authorizations for some of those slots.
The trick is you need BCs, CSMs and S1s at the Battalion level who have their shit wired tight enough that they can slot their deserving Soldiers, NCOs and Officers into MTOE slots where those positions require the additional alphanumeric skill identifier for those schools. I do not remember the exacts but for example a mech infantry battalion might be authorized a SFC-ranger-pathfinder as part of their S3, he would be an 11B4(x#)(z#). A heads-up battalion would put their good NCO who do not yet have those qualifiers into those slots, and claim a training shortage against that MTOE slot. Division schools is supposed to find a school slot to fill the shortage.
The reverse usually happens. Battalions dick around, don’t know where their people are, and then can’t figure out why division-schools keeps kicking back their dorked-up school requests saying things like ‘non-MTOE school request’.
But what do I know.
Yup… Disclaimer, not a Ranger, never attended Ranger School. I had the opportunity to be placed in a Ranger MTOE Slot in a Guard Mech Unit, and instead chose to go back on Active Duty in 1993. Really bad decision, but the point really is I had someone in my Chain of Command looking out for me, and wanted to see me have the chance to excel by placing me in a slot that would guarantee me the chance to go.
back then, the Guard was just beginning to get going on the Ranger School drive.
The ATRRS folks can always make it happen. I’ve seen reservists from non-Airborne units go to Airborne school by nabbing or trading for a slot from USACAPOC. I can’t recall exactly, but I think all quotas are opened up within 45 days of class start date. Without reading or researching, she may fall under 75th Training Division, a two-star command. There’s enough pull there to trade for a seat.
I’ve got to figure out how to crack that nut. I’m in usacapoc and year after year I am asked if I want to go to airborne, air assault, ranger, etc. Year after year I am told ‘no, you can’t go. We just wanted to see if you wanted to, not that we actually had any intention of sending you…’
Is it a money or an age thing? A friend of mine in the USAR in the same boat; he was denied a chance to go to Air Assault school.
Find your First Sergeant and CSM and ask him/her about the OML for these courses. If they don’t have one, ask the Training NCO what the deal is.
Their excuse is that it’s a money thing. I have been at the top of the OML for three years, and I’m only in my 20s. It’s also probably because I’m a signal officer…
It seems the media and the Army as a whole forgot about her.
And she appears to have set the recycle record.
I had a workmate whose son spent a whole year getting recycled through every phase, including recovering from his various injuries.
Not saying it doesn’t happen, just never saw it. Injuries, maybe. No-go’s, never saw it or even heard about it.
Back in the day it if you were a double no-go in any phase you were sent back to your parent unit. Then, if they wished, they could send you back at a later time. We had a guy back in the day that was 37 going through for the fifth time. Now keep in mind this was Clintons Army, but his unit kept sending him back.
I have a buddy who took 6 months getting recycled in 1992. No injuries thankfully but he recycled every phase. Pretty tough to stay at it like that.
Congrats to her for sticking it through. I had a senior E-7 (selected for E-8) in my squad back in the 80’s, I thought he was old as hell at 37. God, what I wouldn’t give for that now.
Yes, very rare for an O-4 to get a shot at all, and pretty much un-heard of for an O-4 to have more than one recycle. Most units will give a field grade officer one recycle then tell them to get back to work.
Likely, she wouldn’t have gotten a slot except for the “come one come all” casting call for qualifying females.
Oh no, not a reference to Crossfit as a comparison to the balls to make it through Ranger School! Those spazzes already think they are tactical and hardcore beyond all! Now they are going to think they are the equivalent of someone who sticks it out through Ranger school. Lol.
How can you tell if someone does CrossFit? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you.
http://cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/56387201.jpg
I remember going on a ruck march with one of our unit’s “PT Gazelles” who always did a 300 PT Score and ran marathons. He ate my dust on that 12 miler!
Didn’t Colonel Kurtz get his tab at 38?
Crossfit has already declared her a Ranger.
http://www.crossfitmemorialhouston.com/
Oh my God I dread running into my cross-dork friends after they get wind of this. Especially the civilians.
“Crossfit is pretty much Ranger School”
Oh my….
We had crossfit available during one of my ME Deployments, the ones that did it talked all kinds of shit about us still doing traditional PT until the PT test, which the vast majority of them FLUNKED! I’ve done Blue Collar jobs alongside “Gazelles” like that, and I’ll outwork them every damned time!
BRAVO ZULU to the Major on several fronts:
1. Reservist …
2. Old bastard …
3. USMA grad … and
4. Texan!
Good. While SOME people are whining, she just went ahead and did her job, which is an accomplishment for anyone, but she is no spring chicken so to ME, it means a little more.
So congratulations to the Major, and may she continue on that road.
Congratulations to the Major for sticking it out.
When I was 37 I was a 1st Sgt for a Recruit training company. I could out-Pt about half of those 18-20 years olds, but I would never have been able to keep up with the top 5-10%.