[yazhound]

Changing Army Ranger standards
Regarding the Feb. 5 online article “In a historic first, five women qualify for Army Ranger school” (CSMonitor.com): I was an Army Ranger for 13 years and an instructor at Ranger School for three years. It seems as if once every decade the Army tries to find women who can meet the standards of Ranger School – and decade after decade the standards for completion of Ranger School get lowered.

When I attended Ranger School in 1990 there were four phases (Benning, Mountains, Florida, and Desert) and it lasted 96 days with only one meal per day. Now there are only three phases (with Desert removed in the ’90s) and it lasts 61-plus days with two meals per day. I have no issue with a woman being a Ranger, but no one can tell me that the new requirements, which help facilitate a woman graduating, aren’t political. I personally saw the decline in standards, and with it the decline in significance of earning the Ranger Tab, from when I graduated in 1990 to when I was an instructor from 1998 to 2001.
Steve Holbrook
Fort Worth, Texas