Update: Female soldiers talk about Ranger School, future opportunities

On the day before they make history, the two women who will become the first female soldiers to earn the Ranger tab talked Thursday about being just another tired and hungry student trying to complete the U.S. Army’s most difficult combat leadership course.

And the men who trained alongside them for weeks talked about how Capt. Kristen Griest, a military police officer, and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver, an attack helicopter pilot, carried their loads and earned respect every step of the way.

Griest of Orange, Conn., and Haver of Copperas Cove, Texas, were introduced to a national press corps at Fort Benning in preparation for today’s 11 a.m. Ranger School graduation at Victory Pond on the eastern edge of Fort Benning.

They will graduate in a class of 96 students that had to deal not only with the strict standards and the unprecedented media attention that the women in the class brought, but also a lightning strike in the final days of the Florida phase that put an entire platoon of 40 in the hospital for evaluation.

But the real stories Thursday came from the women’s Ranger buddies who told how Griest and Haver shouldered their loads as they literally marched up the rolling hills of Fort Benning and the mountains of north Georgia and then waded through the swamps of Florida on their way to an historical first.

“I was pretty skeptical, but I went to school with Shaye and I knew she was a physical stud,” said 2nd Lt. Michael V. Janowski.

Haver and Janowski attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where they met in 2010 when Haver was a junior and Janowski was a freshman.

“This is my third time in Ranger School — I had been medical dropped twice before,” Janowski said. “So, I knew what Ranger School was like, and I was skeptical if they could handle it physically.”

That changed one July night in the north Georgia mountains.

“I had a lot of weight on me and I was struggling,” he said. “At the halfway point, I asked if anyone could help take this weight.”

He heard crickets and got a lot of “deer-in-the-headlight looks.”

“Shaye was the only one to volunteer to take that weight,” Janowski said. Haver carried the weight the final half of the mission.

“She literally saved me,” Janowski said. “I probably wouldn’t be sitting here if not for Shaye. From that point, no more skepticism.”

It wasn’t just Haver who quieted the skeptics. Griest had her moment where she turned her fellow soldiers into believers and erased any gender doubts.

“I was ignorant and assumed because they were women it was going to be hard on them,” said 2nd Lt. Zachary Hagner, who was Griest’s battle buddy in the mountains and Florida swamps. “Once I got to know her, I was no way skeptical any more. She completely changed my mind along with Ranger Haver.”

Hagner, like Janowski, was carrying an M249 Squad Automatic Weapon in the mountain phase and needed some help.

“I went to everybody in the line, and there was no word,” Hagner said. “As soon as I went to Ranger Griest, she wanted it and took it away from me. Nine guys were too broken and too tired. She was just as broken and just as tired. She took it and was almost excited.”

Griest said it was all about carrying the load.

“The men didn’t care if you were a female if you were carrying just as much as they were,” Griest said.

But proving yourself came with a certain level of pressure, Haver said.

“We ourselves came to Ranger School skeptical, with our guards up, ready just in case because of the haters and the naysayers,” Haver said. “But we didn’t come with a chip on our shoulder like we had anything to prove. I think we came as best prepared as we possibly could be. We came with the same mindset … that we were going to take it one day at a time.”

Griest, who hopes to use the Ranger experience to move into Special Forces if that select area of Combat Arms is opened to women in the future, said there was pressure to perform when she got the opportunity to join the first Ranger School class to allow women.

“I was thinking of future generations of women who I would like to see have this opportunity, so I had that pressure on myself,” said the 2011 West Point graduate.

Haver, who graduated from West Point in 2012, said prior to completing Ranger School, being accepted into West Point and graduating was her greatest accomplishment.

“To be a part of that Long Gray Line was something huge and something that I can keep pride in for the rest of my life,” she said. “Graduating from Ranger School is the same type of historical significance. To me, it is the same sense of pride. The fact that I will be standing there with my Ranger buddies will have lifelong significance.”

Griest said she hoped the women in Ranger School proved that they belonged in the training that pushes students to their physical and mental limits.

“I think the decision to open up combat will be up to the senior leaders in the military, but I do hope with our performance in Ranger School it will also inform that decision as to what they can expect from women in the military. And we can handle things physically and mentally in the same level as men and can deal with the physical and mental stress,” Griest said.

There were 19 women who started the course on April 19. Of that group, eight were left after the first week of physical assessment.

That eight was cut to three on May 29 when Haver, Griest and another female student who is still in the course were offered the opportunity to restart the course from the beginning. Haver and Griest went straight through after starting again on June 21. The third woman is currently repeating the mountain phase.

All of the women had to complete the Ranger Training Assessment Course prior to enrolling in the historic class. Haver and Griest completed that course twice. It was there that they caught the attention of Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade Command Sgt. Maj. Curtis Arnold.

“I kind of had money on Haver and Griest from the beginning based on their RTAC performances,” Arnold said. “They crushed RTAC. They stood out far above the rest. Their physical performances were high in RTAC. That is a pretty telling factor. You could see these soldiers were ready to attend.”

Maj. Gen. Scott Miller became the commander of the Maneuver Center of Excellence about a year ago and the possibility of a pilot class of women entering Ranger School was presented to him. In January, Miller and Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade commander Col. David G. Fivecoat went to Washington and met with top Army officials as it became clear an April class would include women soldiers.

“It is possible you will have zero women graduates and no one batted an eye,” Miller said he told the top brass. “… They said we trust you to go down there and execute it. Zero pressure from above. That seems to be a trending topic. … We said we were not going to change standards and we did not change standards.”

Haver and Griest met those standards, Miller said.

“I think you have two solid soldiers out there,” Miller said. “… They are physically and mentally capable individuals, but at the same time they were part of the team.”

For Haver, it will be special as she goes back to Victory Pond, where Ranger students do their water assessment in the first week, and pins on the tab.

“I can say without a doubt that the team I am graduating with tomorrow accepted me as a Ranger, and I could not be more proud and humbled by the experience,” Haver said.

This story was originally published August 20, 2015 at 6:14 PM with the headline "Update: Female soldiers talk about Ranger School, future opportunities."