Three women and 78 men have washed out of Ranger School after Monday morning's physical fitness test.
Monday was the first day of a one-time integrated assessment at the Army's famously punishing Ranger School.
The assessment is part of a wider effort to determine whether and how to open combat arms jobs to women, and it is a first for Ranger School, which until now has been was open only to men.
On Monday morning, 399 soldiers began the course, said Gary Jones, a spokesman for Fort Benning, Georgia, where the first phase of Ranger School takes place.
Of those soldiers, 19 were women.
A total of 81 soldiers did not pass the PT test— 78 were men, three were women.
That leaves 16 female soldiers still in training, Jones said.
The two-month Ranger School begins with the Ranger Physical Assessment. Students must do 49 pushups in two minutes, 59 situps in two minutes, complete a five-mile run in 40 minutes or less, and do six chin-ups.
In fiscal 2014, PT test failures made up the largest number of Ranger School failures.
On average, about 45 percent of Ranger School students will graduate. As many as 60 percent of all Ranger School failures will occur in the first four days during the Ranger Assessment Phase, commonly known as RAP week.
Twenty women qualified to attend the integrated Ranger School assessment after successfully completing the Army National Guard Ranger Training Assessment Course.
To prepare for the April assessment, the Army required female candidates to attend the two-week RTAC, setting aside seats for female candidates in each iteration of the course between January and April.
RTAC has historically been a strong indicator of whether a candidate will be successful at Ranger School. Data has shown that more than half of the soldiers who complete RTAC will successfully complete Ranger School.
Women who successfully complete Ranger School will receive a certificate and be awarded the coveted Ranger tab. They will not, however, be assigned to the 75th Ranger Regiment, which is separate from Ranger School.
Michelle Tan is the editor of Army Times and Air Force Times. She has covered the military for Military Times since 2005, and has embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Haiti, Gabon and the Horn of Africa.
