19 women entered Ranger School today for the first time in history.  Three failed the PT test (as well as 81 men of the 399 soldiers starting today) which in the past has been stringently administered.  Locking out on the push up, not breaking the horizontal plane on the down portion of the pushup or not maintaining one’s body absolutely straight from heel to the top of one’s head, were reason for the grader to not count the pushup as well as going too fast to be counted properly.  The same rigorous standards were applied to pull ups with no kicking or swaying allowed in the execution of an exact pull up.

The next major discriminator is the 12 mile road march scheduled for Thursday.  Ranger students have three hours to complete the course with a “whopping” 45 lb rucksack.  I don’t know when that standard was relaxed as I experienced it when rucks were not allowed to be less than 70.  According to my sources ranger students carry that load during actual patrols which start next week.    Command climate in the RTB is rumored not to be positive and the general perception is the political nature of this effort will ensure some women pass the course.  That’s incredibly hard to document and prove.  I’ll just be looking to see if the standards are applied equally.