Army’s Ranger School set to graduate first enlisted woman.
U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Amanda F. Kelly will graduate from the Army’s Ranger School on August 31, 2018. Kelly is the first enlisted woman to graduate from the grueling leadership school.
Staff Sergeant Amanda F. Kelly, 29, from Easley, South Carolina will receive her Ranger tab in a graduation ceremony at the Hurley Hill Training Area at Fort Benning, the U.S. Army base located on the Alabama-Georgia border next to Columbus.
Faye, an electronic warfare technician by trade, is currently assigned to the 1st Armored Division, Combat Aviation Brigade out of Fort Bliss, located in both New Mexico and Texas. Prior to undergoing the grueling 62-day training curriculum at Ranger school, Faye previously served in South Korea for two years before later deploying to Iraq for nine months. She returned to the U.S. back in March.
To date, 12 women have successfully graduated from the course—Army Captain Kristen Griest and 1st Lieutenant Shaye Haver, 25, became the first women to graduate from school back in 2015 before the school was opened to women on a full time basis, according to The Washington Post.
Congratulations to Staff Sergeant Kelly. She earned the TAB, she should wear it with pride.
The first thing noticeable about her is that the Army is speaking for here. Modesty is an asset.
Kudos to her for passing the course. May she put that training to good use.
I don’t think they taught cell phone signal intercepts in ranger school. Her MOS is an indoor job.
And yet, she still kicked butt and graduated this course.
I’d be more than happy to spend a few long days talking with her about cell phones and other activities, “indoors”.
It’s not an indoor job at all. US Army Security Agency started the first SF SOT-A teams in 1957. Low-level voice intercept teams were in the field on the ground all over VN, and in every conflict since then. Not indoor work at all, especially when you add all of the radios, batteries, and have to provide your own security.
They retired LRSD/LRSC a couple years ago, the brass wanted to use drones instead guys in the bushes.
Or they told her to keep her mouth shut.
I feel safer already. Isn’t SJ a great thing?
Cool. Electronic Warfare can be fun.
Were Ranger instructors barred from dropping het for failing standards like the other “Ranger” females?
can’t produce paper tigers unless production avoids certain hazards in the manufacturing process
More important, have any of the female Ranger Course graduates every been assigned to a Ranger Battalion/Company? Lots of folks wear the Ranger tab who have never been assigned to a Ranger unit. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas for one. Graduated the course but was assigned to a leg unit. While they may technically be authorized to wear the tab and call themselves “Ranger”, there is a distinction between the duties of someone assigned to a Ranger unit and someone who just earned the tab. RANGERS LEAD THE WAY.
Even back in my day, there was a large part of the combat arms officer corps that was authorized to wear the tab, but I would estimate less than 10% ever served in a Ranger or Airborne infantry unit where they applied those skills and training. With that said, the course was designed to develop leadership skills in simulated combat conditions, under stress; so there is that.
But based on everything I have read from actual instructors and men who went through with the handful of females, the Infantry School (which controls the RTB) has bent over backwards for the females; anyone who says otherwise has an SJW or other agenda.
The above are good questions and good points. I’m curious to know that myself. We had officers with the Tab in my AD Units also, but were no way no how, doing, or would do real Ranger stuff. As I’ve posted/stated before, I have no problem with any one having the opportunity to qualify for any open position, and then working in that position after I’ve paid for them to do it.
The Ranger Course produces people who earn the tab. The Ranger Assessment and Selection Program produces people who go into the Ranger battalions. It is not a prerequisite to have a tab prior to joining a battalion.
“Ranger” school is just that, a LEADERSHIP school where you learn to get really tired/hungry ‘people’ to complete infantry missions on a time crunch.
I met a E-4 supply clerk from a Ranger Bn. in Pathfinder school. ANY MOS can go to Ranger school, Bat’s have their own MOS requirements.[which are QUITE varied if you check!] Hell, Bat Cooks can go to Ranger school!
Were standards met? If so, great.
I’d hit it.
Duh.
She hotter than this kid’s buttcrack and balls….
From the look of her, even some straight women would hit it.
I think she would hit you back
Promises promises.
She was with HHBn 1AD on my last trip to the sandbox. PT stud. She’d probably hit YOU. And make you like it…
If the Army is smart they will quietly use her as a role model for female Soldiers and potential female Soldiers; I sure hope she doesn’t get treated as a side show exhibit.
She could also motivate the male Soldiers…even the fat bodies down at the motor pool might be shamed into doing more PT! LOL
Bravo Zulu, Staff Sergeant Kelly! What Dave said, wear it with pride.
I think it’s safe to say she
won’t be a victim of Domestic Violence
From all accounts, earned honestly. Keep it up, Ma’am. Good job.
Not what I heard
Wife was the first female NCO in a 1AD EW unit back in the ’70s… EW must have the strong women. The wife, this SSG, the SGT who knocked the snot out of Manning…
This post along with the idea of female Rangers and infantry officers makes me want to puke. All I have to say is judging from her photo, she is still a dirty, nasty, fucking leg.
Well its good thing that school slot did not get wasted on an 11B who will need the training in combat.
She needs to learn how to properly form her beret. Cuz that aint it.
Maybe that is a female styling. On a male we would say it looked “faggotty.” But in today’s military that would get an officer relieved of command.
I have no issue with females attending Ranger School or SFQC as long as the same standard is enforced to all students. There lies the problem, the numbers game will dictate a modification of standards. For those thinking that females have not been deployed at the tip of the spear in Tier 1 units you would be wrong. This article was published in Spec Ops magazine Dec 2017. With the Pentagon making strides to include women in combat arms roles, you might actually be surprised to hear that the Army’s top counterterrorism force has included female operatives for nearly 30 years. That’s right, the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment “D,” also known as “Delta Force,” has a history of hiring female soldiers to serve alongside male operators, having begun the practice in the 1990s. More commonly referred to as “the Unit,” Delta Force is home to some of the most elite soldiers in the world, famously called “operators.” The selection phase for prospective operators is nothing short of grueling. Former Delta operator Eric Haney details in his book, “Inside Delta Force,” this process which sees candidates hike and orient over adverse terrain, perform rigorous physical testing and training, and psychological evaluations. Upon completion, a candidate isn’t out of the woods yet, and can still be dropped or withdrawn from the course if the instructor cadre feels he’s unfit to serve with the unit. An intensive Operators Training Course follows, which trains each soldier in a variety of skills which they’ll eventually use in real-world situations. Millions (you read that correctly) of rounds of ammunition are expended on a monthly basis, honing each candidate’s proficiency with a variety of firearms. Vehicle instruction, VIP protection, surveillance, and even tradecraft (i.e. the art of spying) are all part of the OTC curriculum. Operators are trained to blend into any environment and urban setting, though sometimes, that’s very difficult to do with a gaggle of military-aged males hanging around in groups. In 1982, the Unit attempted to solve this problem by recruiting female operators. After putting a small group of candidates through a modified,… Read more »
South Korea’s 707th Special Missions Battalion (White Tigers) has been employing female operators since at least the 1980s. The video shows a hostage rescue, terrorist response train up. At about 2:14 the shooter seen doping her scope is a “young lady”. Mrs. Dustoff tells me that the ROK is highly selective of these women and very little is known about them.
Correction : not 2:14 …much earlier.
I know a bit about them. There may/may not be one on every KAL/Asiana flight. They may/may not be protecting female VIP’s. If you every fly either airline look for the stewardesses who look a bit out of place, heavier bones, a little plainer looking…
Summer of 1988 I was on a long TDY to Korea and went to chase a jump at ROKSWC. I was staying in the barracks with a ROK rigger friend, and going down the hall I saw a door to a 707 guy’s room open. He’s just gotten out of the shower and was shaving his legs and had slices of cucumber all over his face. I asked my rigger friend about it. “Wait until we get to green ramp at K-16 tomorrow” he said. “It’s a really big secret”.
Next morning at green ramp I see a dozen or so 707 guys under a shed nearby; all had their sleeves rolled down, wearing big floppy hats. I walked up to the guy I knew. “Okay, what gives? I asked.
As it happened, going into the 88 Olympics, they discovered they did not have enough atrocity-qualified women to cover, female locker rooms, female VIP protection, AND fly as air marshals on KAL. So at least a platoon of 707 beady-eyed killers went to the Olympics in drag. Slightly built, wiry guys, with lighter complexions…A year later during a Foal Eagle I met a ROKSF major at 7th BDE, asked him about it. Turns out it was his idea.
A bit later I met the guy I’d first seen shaving his legs..”I trained for 7 years to be the baddest ass I could be, -and then I go to the Olympics in drag…”
Congratulations, Ranger. You did well and deserve to wear it. Wear it with pride and set an example. Ya Dun Good.
Unless someone can prove the Staff Sergeant didn’t pass the same course men did, without special considerations, she shouldn’t be suspect. It’s terrible to steal a soldiers accomplishments with ‘whisper’ campaigns.
My bet is she winds up seeking a commission some day.
First female ranger instructor can’t be far behind.
Transgender RI soon?
our mob recognises only one thing that other mobs don’t do. You must complete at least one deployment using your skills and it must exceed 365 days to be fully qualified. That seems to put the skids under a lot of wanta-bees who just want to collect the patch.
I wonder how many recycles she got?
Fair question.
I bet the Ranger course standards aren’t what they were in 1971, My guess is that I could still pass them today, and I use a cane today. Hell my brother has a pacemaker and I bet he could still pass.
The Ranger tab isn’t worth……get back to the old standards.
Yeah, you went through the last hard class. She didn’t set the standard, she met them.
Here’s my question for the masses (tabbed and the great unwashed): What is the purpose of Ranger school?
The Army seems to take pains these days to claim it’s a leadership course as opposed to an infantry course. But over the course of 62 days it teaches light infantry weapons and tactics in high stress environment. All of the hard skills taught are infantry specific. If it’s all about combat leadership, why are non Combat Arms soldiers going through the course? Combat for infantry is much different form combat as a support soldier.
If it’s a “leadership course” don’t WLC, ALC and SLC already exist? And if they’re not producing NCOs who are ready to lead in combat, why do they exist?
As I said in a previous comment, I knew SSG Kelly on my last deployment. Good NCO, absolute PT stud. She’s also about 5’5″/125lbs so humping a ruck at Ranger School could not have been easy or fun. Good for her for passing the course. So now she’s a Ranger tabbed EW NCO. What’s the point of the course?
The purpose of sending her is so that SJW’s in DOD, both in and out of uniform, can say, “see womyn can do anything some men can do, because gender is a social construct and very, very fluid, and we don’t care one whit about biology.” Remember, for progtards, equal outcomes are what is important. By equal they mean the outcome they want, as some “pigs are more equal than the other animals on the farm.”
Quit? Rumor? https://popularmilitary.com/instructors-claim-first-female-enlisted-earn-ranger-tab-actually-quit-given-special-treatment/
https://popularmilitary.com/instructors-claim-first-female-enlisted-earn-ranger-tab-actually-quit-given-special-treatment/ Well then there’s this