grueling ix 62-day army ranger training program. secretly sense of pride and i say secretly because we can t really cheer these females on, but it is definitely a humbling experience to kind of sit back and get a chance to see these women come through. reporter: even after all of the hard training, the pentagon still won t let women actually join the elite 75th ranger regiment, one of the nation s premier operations units. that decision must be made by january. army women say they want no special treatment. amber smith flew helicopters in iraq and afghanistan. it needs to be across the board and there needs to be that physical and mental strength to accomplish the mission. reporter: the 75th ranger rej mechbt s expertise, large-scale entry in to a combat zone under fire.
skeptics out there. so you re in a dangerous situation. you re an elite ranger, right, and you have a woman beside you. are you overly concerned about that woman? do you care that she s a woman? do you feel that she would be at your side just as much as any man? so as a former army ranger who served in the 75th ranger regiment and in special operation command, we were never worried about whether the young man or the person to my left or my right was tactically or technically proficient because i trained them. he ensured they met the standards and they were able to do their job to the ranger standard, and i think that s the point, right, is no matter where we are, no matter what we do going forward, those standards should never change. as long as the standards don t change, it doesn t matter whether you are a man or a woman, but if we re going to change the standards, that
jeff, i want to start with you. today on the news of this history being made. why are they wrong? i would disagree with these guys because they don t understand the requirements that you re going to ask of men that serve in the army s 75th ranger regiment that s a different unit than attending the army ranger course. yes, the issue is will they be allowed to serve in the unit. right now they re not. one senator and one governor says that they should be allowed to since they passed the training, and you say no? yes. just because you successfully completed the ranger course, and there are thousands of people that completed it.
iraq and afghanistan. it needs to be straight across the board and the physical and mental strength to accomplish the mission. the 75th ranger regiment large scale entry into a combat zone under fire while executing the surgical rate to take out any treats. how hard is ranger school? 400 students started and only 94 graduated. of the 19 woman that began, 16 dropped out, one is still working to get through the program. little sleep and food is just the beginninbeginning. the soldiers have to do 40 push ups, 50 sit ups and a run. a 12 mile foot march in three hours, helicopter jumps and 27 days of at that patrols.
just because you completed it does not mean that you can be in the 75th ranger regiment. the ranger regiment is given the most violent combats. that s used at the leading edge of battle all over the world, and up until this point in our countries history we have not placed woman on the cutting edge and they have been on battlefields for decorates and hundreds of years and molly pitch er in the revolutionary war. i think what we have done is opened the door that woman will serve in the most violent dangerous role in the military. do you think that the two west point graduates like you should be allowed to serve on the cutting edge and the leading edge despite what jeff say sns. well, all capable soldiers airmen, marines, coast guards should be able to serve.