America's New Real Action Heroes - Two soldiers become first female Rangers

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Two Soldiers Become First Female Army Rangers

by Crystal Shepeard

August 20, 2015

In January, the United States Army announced that 60 women were selected to be in a pilot program for the Army Rangers training program. The Rangers are an elite unit called into the height of war via land, sea or air to conduct lethal and complex joint special combat missions. Like all elite combat units, Rangers are only men. The pilot program is part of an ongoing effort by the military to integrate women into positions that have traditionally done so.

The Army wanted to learn if it was even possible to integrate, as the program is notoriously difficult to get through. On average, only 45 percent of Ranger School students graduate. Sixty percent of all failures happen during the first four days, with many failing the physical fitness test the first day. The focus was not about how many of the female soldiers would make it through, but making sure the standards are uniform.

This week the Army announced that not only were they able to maintain the high standards, but two women will graduate this week. Capt. Kristen Griest and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver have become the first women Army Rangers. The West Point graduates’ march into the history books has been a long and arduous journey.

On April 20, 381 men and 19 women (one soldier dropped out before starting) began the training in Fort Benning, Georgia. The Ranger Course is a “62-day course on leadership and small unit tactics, which pushes Ranger students to their mental and physical limits by forcing them to operate on minimal food and sleep. Approximately 34 percent of students who enter Ranger School recycle at least one phase of the course, adding to the student’s physical and mental fatigue.” Soldiers are allowed to recycle when they have done well in other areas but fall short in areas where improvement can be made.

Eight of the women successfully finished the Ranger Assessment Phase (RAP). The RAP phase consists of physical fitness testing, 12-mile foot march in three hours with a heavy load and mock patrols, among other tasks. All of the eight women did a recycle for patrolling. In the end, five women were dropped from the program and three women moved on to the next phase after a second, one day recycle.

The three soldiers joined 158 of their male soldiers in the second Mountain Phase. Soldiers train in military mountaineering, which included a nearly two mile march up a steep mountain and combat patrols. Six men were dropped from the training and one woman joined 60 men in a recycle phase that will begin at the end of this month.

The remaining soldiers entered into the third and final phase. The 17 day Swamp Phase included airborne jumps, four days of waterborne exercises and leading patrols in the swampy waters off the coast of Florida. On Friday, August 22, 96 soldiers will graduate in a ceremony at Fort Benning. 1st Lt. Shaye Haver and Capt. Kristen Griest will be among them.

Griest and Haver’s journey took four months since they and a few of their fellow male soldiers repeated phases. The third woman is repeating the final phase of the training and if successful will graduate in September. Despite their well deserved honor, the twenty-something soldiers will not be joining their fellow soldiers in the Ranger unit.

The Pentagon is still assessing which units in all branches will be opened to women. The Defense Secretary will be making final decisions in January of next year.

Nevertheless, 1st Lt. Haver and Capt. Griest will wear the coveted black and gold Ranger Tab to show that they are among the elite group of leaders ready to defend our nation in the most dangerous situations.

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Obamaville August 20 - Where did Obama go? Is he lost at Martha's Vineyard?

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What a week in terms of politics.

Trump holds his first town hall and over 2,500 people show up.

Trump and Bush conduct dueling town halls.

Polls continue to show Trump overtaking Hillary.

Hillary holds pathetic news conference, reinforces her moral dilemma.

Clinton calls out the Big Dogs to deflect criticism of her email mess.

Clinton walks out of news conference accusing the news media of obsession with her trustworthiness.

The Huffington Post, still screaming for respect as a news organization rather than extension of the Bill Clinton good time group, refuses to treat Trump as news.

As Huffington declares Trump "entertainment" another liberal icon, Time Magazine, profiles Trump on the cover as revolutionizing presidential campaigns.

Obama's signature foreign policy achievement, a nuclear treaty with Iran that no one thinks will work, nears a vote, and may need a veto by Obama and arm twisting of Democrats to get approved.

Obama seems to have vanished on the golf courses of Martha's Vineyard demonstrating his continuing effort to prove he belongs among the rich and famous at the Cape, far from the unrest in the cities controlled by his fellow Democrats, like Baltimore, St. Louis, Chicago, and Ferguson.

Did I mention that the Obama economic recovery is teetering on the brink of another meltdown with the Internet stocks of companies he calls his friends are driving the markets down day after day.  Real economists say the entire Internet market is over-valued and due for a collapse.

With just 16 months left in the Obama presidency, his historical legacy is looking weaker and weaker as promise after promise from the president falls to the wayside.

At the same time, the Republicans seemed to have seized up, gone is the hope and promise of a new day post-Obama.  In fact, no professional politicians are saying anything about a bright future, only the non-politician Trump.

Inflation is up,

The economy is down,

Foreign governments do not trust us,

They have lost respect for our "super power" status,

GMOs continue taking over the world food supply,

Everyone and everything in the USA has been hacked by cyber crooks,

Serious crime is rising all over,

Health care costs rise as service falls,

None of the wealthy are in jail after destroying our economy,

Legal prescription drugs are causing more mass killings,

Yet, we are supposed to feel hope and happiness.
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President Carter News Conference - Transparent and Honest - Vanishing Values in Politics

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While many people disagreed with President Carter on his policies, even those opposed to him have to admit he has been the greatest ex-president when it came to his continuing efforts to save the world and the people in the world.

Jimmy Carter had no interest in padding his pockets with $23 million in speaking fees and he used his time working for peace, better health, honest elections, and better housing for all people, not just his supporters.

People around the world have benefited and will continue to benefit from the Carter Foundation and the good it has brought to mankind.  His revelations at the news conference about his battle with cancer, was historic in terms of transparency, something all subsequent presidents have largely ignored, and full of hope.

The only time he did not smile was when he addressed his unfinished agenda and mused that our relations with Israel and the Palestinians was the worst he ever witnessed.  As a result, his goal of peace in the Middle East remains far from settled.

One of the highlights in humor came when he said he received a well-wisher call from Secretary of State John Kerry, someone he had not talked to in a long time.

We all wish him well in his struggle and I hope those with political aspirations will heed his warning that we have failed in foreign policy in crucial areas.

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Media Blunders by Midweek on Morning Joe and other Lefty Sources

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The latest effort by liberals, conservatives, elitists from the political parties, and those bastions of truth also known as the liberal media, to stop the Trump machine, is underway.  It seems Trump's distain for politicians and the media feeding off the politicians threatens the annual revenue of those parasites making money off the functions of the government, as in paid political commercials.

They lost their minds over Trump's promise to deport babies of illegal immigrants born in the USA.  Trump was condemned for being a fool, for ignoring the Constitution, for trampling over the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and for being an idiot.

Just who is the idiot?

In truth, Amendments to the Constitution get passed for the very reason of clarifying the impact or extending the scope of the Constitution.  In our history, there have been just twenty-seven Amendments to the Constitution.

Ironically, the most recent one (27th) blocking congress from giving a pay raise for members passed in 1992 though introduced by James Madison way back in 1789.  It took 202 years, 7 months, and 12 days to get the three quarters of the states to approve it.

As for Trump and the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, it was ratified on July 9, 1868, and granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included former slaves recently freed.

Over 147 years old, it passed after the Civil War in an effort to protect the right of freed slaves to gain citizenship since many slaves did not have documentation on births.  This was not intended to be the basis for immigration policy or illegal immigration activity, just a guarantee of equality for newly freed citizens.

Illegal immigration was not a problem back then yet media mouthpieces jumped all over Trump for suggesting he would deny citizens Constitutional protection.  Trump made the important point that illegal immigrants come to America to give birth to take advantage of a law never meant to address the problem.

We are rewarding a crime with automatic citizenship, a process called "birth right" citizenship.  These kids become anchor babies to allow illegal aliens to remain, especially under proposals from the Obama administration.  Amend the Constitution and fix the law.

We would be protecting those millions of legal immigrants who often waited years to come here legally.

Here is the entire text of Amendment XIV.

Amendment XIV

Section 1.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2.

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.

Section 3.

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4.

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5.

The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

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