The first female graduates of the Army’s Ranger School offered their initial public comments Thursday on their experiences breaking through that gender barrier, citing a mix of elation and exhaustion after an ordeal that one described as “the hardest days of my life.”

But even as the two prepared to receive the Army’s prestigious Ranger tab, leaders of the elite training program sought to quell a quiet backlash among alumni and veterans convinced that the women were given unique breaks.

U.S. Army Army 1st Lt. Shaye Haver

U.S. Army Capt. Kristen Griest

First Lts. Kristen Griest, 26, and Shaye Haver, 25, took questions for about an hour from reporters at Fort Benning, Georgia, after enduring a 61-day course that involved parachuting, mountaineering and grueling tests of physical endurance.

Both said they had doubts that they could graduate, and felt pressure to prove to their male counterparts that they could perform.

“I think I had like three of the hardest days of my life each week at Ranger School,” Griest said. “Every day I was like, ‘No, this is the hardest day of my life.'”

Griest, who will be promoted to captain Friday, is a 2011 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and a military police officer. Haver is a 2013 graduate of West Point and an Apache helicopter pilot.

Haver, a soccer star in high school in Texas, said the women were dispersed during Ranger training and did not turn to each other for support. She described her efforts as more of a personal challenge than any effort to shatter a gender barrier.

“It was never about the women trying to beat the men through Ranger School,” Haver said.

The women were among 20 female soldiers who qualified to take the first gender-integrated Ranger School course beginning April 20, and the only ones so far to reach the finish line, although a third is still eligible.

Both failed the difficult first phase of the course twice but were allowed to start over – a so-called “Day 1 recycle” – in an unusual accommodation that has prompted sniping online from critics who claim the women received special consideration that men rarely get.

The persistent strain of criticism, which began after women were admitted to the Ranger School but intensified as it became clear that at least two would finish, led leaders of the program to take the unusual step of issuing a defiant response on a Ranger-affiliated Facebook page.

The commanding officer at Fort Benning, Maj. Gen. A. Scott Miller, denied that he had granted any favors to the women or otherwise sought to influence the outcome. Instead, he cited the female soldiers’ success as proof that women can compete even in the military’s most arduous settings.

“I think we’ve shown that it’s not exclusively a male domain here,” said Miller, who served in the elite 75th Ranger Regiment and was among the U.S. forces involved in Somalia in the operation depicted in the movie “Black Hawk Down.

Among the rumors faced by leaders of the Ranger School this week were that the students in the latest course had been given more sleep than usual, that President Obama planned to attend Friday’s graduation ceremony , and that Miller had accompanied the candidates on training patrols.

All were cited on social media and in blogs as evidence that instructors were under pressure to ensure that females passed. But officials said the claims were wrong..

“This was an emotional event,” Miller said. “And when you have an emotional event, sometimes it brings out the best and sometimes it brings out the worst in us.”

In a measure of the exasperation among leaders of the program, Maj. Jim Hathaway, the No. 2 officer in the brigade overseeing Ranger School, wrote a lengthy post on Facebook on Wednesday saying he suspects some graduates will never accept the women.

“We could have invited each of you to guest walk the entire course, and you would still not believe,” he wrote. … “Nothing we say will change your opinion.”

Related Stories