New York Times writer Thomas Gibbons-Neff first broke yesterday that a National Guard soldier is set to become the Army’s first female Green Beret in the coming weeks. This report set off a frenzy of other news outlets such as Military.com, Army Times, Task and Purpose, and several others piggybacking off the New York Times article.

But this is far from true — the soldier has still a long way to go. And, in fact, there are two female soldiers in the course, sources with intimate knowledge told SOFREP. 

The first female candidate is undergoing the Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) part of the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC). More specifically, she is training to become a Special Forces Engineer Sergeant (18C). Statistically speaking, she does have a good chance of successfully completing SFQC but she still has multiple phases ahead of her (including the unique culminating exercise, Robin Sage).

Gibbons-Neff stated that “the woman, an enlisted soldier, is in the final stage of training before graduating from the roughly yearlong qualification course, or Q Course, as a Special Forces engineer sergeant. Her graduation is almost guaranteed, officials said, although occasionally soldiers have failed the course this late in the training or withdrawn because of injuries.” Gibbons-Neff does keep the names of his sources private, and for a good reason, since his information is not accurate.