In a historic step, 16 female soldiers made it through their first day of U.S. Army Ranger School, a punishing infantry course that was previously closed to women. 
 
 Nineteen women took part in the Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade's first co-ed Ranger course Monday at Fort Benning, Ga. The female candidates joined 380 male soldiers to take on the Ranger Physical Fitness Assessment – a pass-fail event that prevents many from entering the course. 
 
 Students must perform 49 push-ups in two minutes, 59 sit-ups in two minutes and six chin-ups to a strict standard, Ranger officials maintain. They also must complete a five-mile run in 40 minutes. 
 
 At the end of the day, three females did not meet the standard to continue, a 16-percent failure rate. By contrast, 78 male candidates didn't meet the standard to continue, a 20-percent failure rate. 
 
 Candidates also had to complete the combat water survival assessment (CWSA). 
 
 The CWSA consists of a log walk and rope drop where candidates have to scale a ladder 30 feet above the pond, walk up and down a short set of stairs and crawl out onto a rope to a hanging Ranger Tab sign. They do one pull-up and ask permission to drop into the pond before falling into the pond and swimming to the side. 
 
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 Then the swim-test portion requires them to go into the water, calmly take off their equipment and swim 15 meters without panic to demonstrate their ability to swim to safety should they get into a position where they are in over their head in the swamps of Florida, or anywhere else during training, Ranger officials said. 
 
 This was day one of the Ranger Assessment Phase, or Rap week. 
 
 The second morning begins with a 10-kilometer, land navigation course. Students have to find four out of five points in five hours – 2.5 hours in the dark and 2.5 hours during daylight. 
 
 Students who fail the course can retest on the following day. 
 
 Following the land-nav course, students spend the rest of the afternoon crawling through the mud and negotiating other challenges on the Malvesti obstacle course. 
 
 The last hurdle of RAP is a 12-mile road march students must complete in less than three hours, carrying a rifle, fighting load carrier vest and a rucksack weighing approximately 43 pounds. 
 
 "All students have to make it through phase one in order to advance in the course," said Gary Jones, a spokesman for Fort Benning. "If they don't make it all the way through to Thursday, which includes the 12-mile foot march, then they are out." 
 
 RAP week accounts for about 40 percent of the students who fail to make it through the course. Another 15 percent of students fail to complete the course because of injuries and poor performance. 
 
 Once students complete RAP, they have 57 days to complete to earn the coveted gold and black Ranger Tab. 
 
 Ranger School is a punishing ordeal designed to push combat leaders, both officers and sergeants, to their mental and physical limits. About half of all candidates fail to meet the standard. 
 
 Senior Army leaders recently decided to allow females to attend the historically male-only, infantry course. The effort is a result of former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's January 2013 directive that all services open combat-arms roles to women that so far have been reserved for men. The services have until 2016 to make this happen. 
 
 Like male candidates, female Ranger School students will have to spend long hours weighted down with infantry weapons and equipment on patrols through the thick forests of Fort Benning, and the dense swamps of Camp Rudder, Florida. 
 
 They'll also be expected to climb and rappel in the steep mountain terrain of Camp Merrill near Dahlonega, Georgia. 
 
 Ranger School candidates have to endure these challenges on two meals a day while getting three to four hours of sleep a night for eight weeks. 
 
 -- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com 

 Three women and 78 men have washed out of Ranger School after Monday morning's physical fitness test. 
 
 Monday was the first day of a one-time integrated assessment at the Army's famously punishing Ranger School. 
 
 The assessment is part of a wider effort to determine whether and how to open combat arms jobs to women, and it is a first for Ranger School, which until now was open only to men. 
 
 On Monday morning, 399 soldiers began the course, said Gary Jones, a spokesman for Fort Benning, Georgia, where the first phase of Ranger School takes place. 
 
 Of those soldiers, 19 were women. 
 
 A total of 81 soldiers did not pass the PT test— 78 were men, three were women. 
 
 That leaves 16 female soldiers still in training, Jones said. 
 
 The two-month Ranger School begins with the Ranger Physical Assessment. Students must do 49 pushups in two minutes, 59 situps in two minutes, complete a five-mile run in 40 minutes or less, and do six chin-ups. 
 
 In fiscal 2014, PT test failures made up the largest number of Ranger School failures. 
 
 On average, about 45 percent of Ranger School students will graduate. As many as 60 percent of all Ranger School failures will occur in the first four days during the Ranger Assessment Phase, commonly known as RAP week. 
 
 Twenty women qualified to attend the integrated Ranger School assessment after successfully completing the Army National Guard Ranger Training Assessment Course. 
 
 To prepare for the April assessment, the Army required female candidates to attend the two-week RTAC, setting aside seats for female candidates in each iteration of the course between January and April. 
 
 RTAC has historically been a strong indicator of whether a candidate will be successful at Ranger School. Data has shown that more than half of the soldiers who complete RTAC will successfully complete Ranger School. 

 
 
 U.S. soldiers take on the Ranger Physical Fitness Assessment during the Ranger School course at Fort Benning, Ga., on April 20. (Photo by Spec. Dacotah Lane/ U.S. Army) 
 
 The first-ever Army Ranger School with female students opened Monday with 16 of 19 female soldiers passing the initial physical fitness test, as the Pentagon continues to assess which new combat roles women should have. 
 
 The class includes 380 men and 19 women, said Gary Jones, an Army spokesman. Of those, 78 men (20.5 percent) and three women (15.7 percent) failed the initial fitness test, he said. Twenty women had qualified to attend by first completing a 17-day preparatory course at Fort Benning, but one of them withdrew. The news was first reported by the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer near Fort Benning, Ga., which is home to Ranger School. 
 
 [Inside the Army’s effort to train and assess women for Army Ranger School] 
 
 Ranger School was opened to women on a one-time basis by the Army following a directive from senior Pentagon officials to research how they can be better integrated into combat units. Any woman who graduates from Ranger School this spring will wear the service’s prestigious Ranger tab on her uniform, but will not be assigned to the Ranger Regiment, the elite force that carries out special operations and remains closed to women. 
 
 The physical fitness test requires each soldier to complete at least 49 push-ups, 59-sit-ups, a five-mile run in under 40 minutes and six chin-ups. It’s part of the initial four-day Ranger Assessment Phase, commonly known as “RAP Week.” The Ranger School itself spans 62 days and has a graduation rate of about 50 percent. 
 
 [Meet the women helping Ranger School takes on female soldiers for the first time] 
 
 The initial assessment phase typically eliminates about 60 percent of all students. Over the next several days, it also will include a 12-mile road march while carrying 45 pounds, a land-navigation exercise without the use of GPS, and a water survival test that includes climbing a 35-foot tower, walking 70 feet across a log and crawling along a rope before dropping 35 feet into the water. 
 
 
 
 U.S. soldiers take on the Ranger Physical Fitness Assessment during the Ranger School course at Fort Benning, Ga., on April 20. (Photo by Spec. Dacotah Lane/ U.S. Army) 
 
 About 75 percent of students who make it through RAP week eventually graduate, Ranger School officials say. But it takes months in some cases. Students can fail individual portions of Ranger School multiple times before either washing out of the course or moving onto the next section. 
 
 The initial phases of Ranger School will continue at Fort Benning. Later parts include mountain warfare training at Camp Merrill, about 65 miles north of Atlanta in Dahlonega, Ga., and swamp training around Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. 
 
 [It’s time to reevaluate standards for women in the military]
– The Army's elite Ranger School got underway yesterday, but this class of hopefuls makes a little history as it includes the first female soldiers to attempt Ranger training, reports the Army Times. Opening the training is part of the Army's efforts to assess the possibility of integrating women soldiers into combat roles. At the end of day one, these were the numbers: The 399 soldiers had to complete 49 push-ups in two minutes, 59 sit-ups in two minutes, a 5-mile run in less than 40 minutes, and six chin-ups. Sixteen of 19 female soldiers passed, which, per Fox News, is a 16% failure rate. Of 380 male soldiers, 78 failed the test, a 20% failure rate. The first four days—dubbed the Ranger Assessment Phase—are the most brutal, with some 60% of all failures occurring. Ranger School lasts 62 days, notes the Washington Post, and is not for the faint of heart: Only about half those who attempt the training pass. In coming days, soldiers will also do a 12-mile march carrying 45 pounds, conduct a navigation exercise without GPS, complete a water survival test, and scale a 35-foot tower. And they'll have to do it on a max of four hours of sleep a night. Female soldiers who graduate get a certificate and Ranger tab, but they will not join the 75th Ranger Regiment.