Ft. Benning General Addresses Concerns About Special Treatment For Female Ranger School Graduates

Below is an interesting update on the controversy surrounding the now three women who have graduated Ranger School based on a media interview with the command team at Ft. Benning.  Like I have maintained based on what I have read, it appears the special treatment for the females was that they received extensive pre-training and unlimited recycles like most infantry officers receive for Ranger School.  Soldiers who are not infantry do not get the same pre-training  and amount of recycles, so the inequity for Ranger School did not begin with the female graduates which no one is talking about:

Maj. Gen. Scott Miller’s voice held frustration late Friday afternoon during a quickly arranged media roundtable on the fourth floor of McGinnis-Wickam Hall, headquarters of the Army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence.

The commanding general of Fort Benning has been fighting allegations for months that female soldiers were given special treatment to pass Ranger School, the most physically and mentally demanding training offered by the Army.

Four hours after the third woman graduated, Miller sat front and center with Command Sgt. Maj. Timothy Metheny to his right and four members of the Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade, including the commander, Col. David Fivecoat, and Command Sgt. Maj. Curtis Arnold, on his left flank.

“There are some people who obviously have some concerns,” Miller said. “I can’t address them if they are opaque. These guys can’t address them or fix them if they are opaque.”

Among the three reporters was Susan Keating, a People magazine correspondent who has reported that multiple unnamed sources have told her there was unfair assistance given to the women.

The most telling moment came more than 50 minutes into an interview that lasted almost an hour and a half. Miller, who won the Bronze Star for Valor as Delta Force ground commander in the Battle of Mogadishu, was asked if his credibility had been damaged by the allegations.

“I have thick skin and I am a public figure, but I will tell you who doesn’t deserve this is these guys,” he said, pointing to the Ranger instructors. “They don’t deserve this. … I keep telling everybody I will put my name on anything I say or do. If they are not willing to put their name on it or come back to me. …”

That sparked an exchange between Miller and the People correspondent, prompting Keating to ask Miller, “What if one of my sources comes to me and I say, ‘You need to go tell Gen. Miller right now, you need to go knock on his door and tell him exactly what you are telling me, and give him the same specifics, dates and details that you are giving me’? What’s the push back on that? Will he get repercussions?”

“He will not get repercussions,” Miller responded.

“Will you come back and say, ‘Why did you give a go when you shouldn’t have?” Keating asked the general.

“If he says he gave a go he shouldn’t have given, then he needs to report that,” Miller said.

“So, there would be repercussions for him, right?” Keating asked. “This is part of what we are up against. I have actually asked these people, why don’t you go knock on his door? He’s been in combat. He’s been around the block a few times, right? They say, ‘No. Our careers will be over. We will be ruined.”  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link.