Twenty two female officers approved for Army Infantry and Armor

Nine senior officer candidates along with the junior class and their family and friends begin the 10-mile march known as the Reaper Ruck march, May 6, 2012 at Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center. Officer candidates must complete the march within three hours and 30 minutes before they can graduate.

The Army just announced the first female officers who will be commissioned for infantry and armor.

Twenty two women are close to completing their training that will allow them to be commissioned as second lieutenants for infantry and armor units.

In order for them to assume these positions they still have to pass the specialty schools and meet the physical requirements, according to USA Today.

Only one of the women is in the 12-week officer candidate school at Fort Benning, GA while the rest are in college ROTC programs or at West Point.

Thirteen of the twenty two women will become armor officers and the remaining nine are headed for the infantry.

Many officers appointed to the Infantry are graduates of the Army’s Ranger school but it is not known how many of these women will attend the school at this time.

Ranger school is not required for infantry officers but all infantry officers are able to volunteer after training and many consider it to be an “unofficial requirement” to lead infantryman in land combat.

In August of 2015, Capt Shaye Haver, an Apache pilot, and First Lt Kristen Griest, a military police officer became the first two women to graduate Ranger school.

Maj. Lisa Jaster, center, became the third woman to graduate from the Army's elite Ranger School. She is shown with the first two women to earn the Ranger tab, Capt. Kristen Griest, 26, left, and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver, 25, right. (Photo: Paul Abell/AP Images for U.S. Army Reserve) — Maj. Lisa Jaster, center, became the third woman to graduate from the Army’s elite Ranger School. She is shown with the first two women to earn the Ranger tab, Capt. Kristen Griest, 26, left, and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver, 25, right. (Photo: Paul Abell/AP Images for U.S. Army Reserve)

Since January, when all combat jobs were open to women, two women have enlisted in the Army Infantry. Unlike the female officers they will have to wait until 2017 to join an Infantry unit because the Fort Benning Infantry School is not ready to accommodate them yet.

The Marine Corps has yet to graduate a female from their Infantry Officer Course – with 29 attempting – since Defense Secretary Ashton Carter denied a request to keep the Infantry exempt from the new gender integration provisions.

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