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 ||||| 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. 
 
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 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. 
 
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 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]
– They took on the swamps, and they won. Two female soldiers have made US military history by passing Army Ranger training and will graduate at Fort Benning this Friday, the military says. They were among 19 women and 381 men in the first Ranger School class to allow females and will graduate alongside 94 men who also made it through the 62-day course, reports Reuters. Calling the training "tough" would be an understatement: The military says it includes a "physical fitness test consisting of 49 push-ups, 59 sit-ups, a five-mile run in 40 minutes, and six chin-ups; a swim test; a land navigation test; a 12-mile foot march in three hours; several obstacle courses; four days of military mountaineering; three parachute jumps; four air assaults on helicopters; multiple rubber boat movements; and 27 days of mock combat patrols." The milestone comes as the military debates which roles will still be off-limits to women now that combat roles have been opened up, the New York Times reports. The services have until Jan. 1 to make their case. Getting the Rangers badge is seen as a key step toward leading troops, especially in the infantry, but while Army Secretary John McHugh says "each Ranger School graduate has shown the physical and mental toughness to successfully lead organizations at any level," many roles remain closed to women, including membership in the Ranger regiment, USA Today reports. (The Marine Corps infantry training course had its first female graduates in 2013.)