First female Army infantry officer assigned to Ranger training battalion

Capt. Kristen Griest, the first female infantry officer, has been assigned to the 4th Ranger Training Battalion of the Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade at Fort Benning, according to a U.S. Army official.

Griest, one of the first three women to earn the coveted Ranger tab last year, will be a platoon tactical trainer in the battalion, said Army spokesman Col. Patrick Seiber with Public Affairs at the Pentagon.

Griest, 27, will be one of more than two dozen recent Captain’s Career Course graduates in that role, Seiber said.

“Capt. Griest is one of the 27 post Maneuver Captain’s Career Course pre-company command authorized to work in this role in the 4th, 5th and 6th Ranger training battalions,” Seiber said on Thursday.

Griest, a 2011 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, recently graduated from the Captain’s Career Course at Fort Benning and was granted a branch transfer from military police to infantry, making her the first woman infantry officer. She and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver were the first women to graduate from Ranger School, the Army’s most difficult combat training course, in August 2015.