when i went to bed...

last night, I took a newspaper from a few days ago that had an article I thought I should read. And now that I did - there was something in it you need to know about too. It was in the local newspaper, but of national interest: about the three females that successfully completed the Ranger Training program based here at Ft. Benning.

The story was actually about a man who had dropped out of the program early on due to medical problems, was given the necessary care, and eventually successfully completed the rigorous training to graduate and become a Ranger. This young soldier was at West Point Military Academy at the same time as one of the females, who was his superior  - they did not get along. You can imagine how harsh the discipline and overall environment is at the Academy, where senior classmen make every possible effort to force out those not tough enough to graduate and become officers in the US Army. Especially females who go in expecting they have to be even tougher, with staff and fellow cadets demanding even more from females than fellow males. Females have been admitted to West Point (and I assume the other military academies) since the early 1980's.

The story in the December 21, 2015 Columbus Ledger Enquirer Newspaper is titled:"Battle Buddies", a sort of follow up to all that has been in the media over the past year. Interesting reading, providing some history, and new information to the public. If you have followed the news, you are aware there has been  much coverage about the three women who successfully completed Ranger School. One is a helicopter pilot, one is an  MP and the third is a Major in the Texas National Guard, working in a civilian job as an engineer in Texas. Her name is Lisa Jaster, and she is a mom, with two small children. As she was working her way through the different phases of the training, she did not see her family for the six months. And was given the opportunity to 'recycle' portions she did not successfully complete, so much of that time was repeating areas she had already done, but not to Ranger standards. The training takes place in the swamps of Florida, a mountain portion in north Georgia, and at Ft. Benning.

This is both clever and amusing, and shows you how resourceful she is: She and her husband could  not communicate, allowing her to let her family know if she had successfully completed the training. But they had agreed if she was going to graduate, become a Ranger, she would withdraw exactly $20 at the ATM. Any other amount would be the signal that she had not been successful. So when she finally got word that she had completed all the necessary tasks, she immediately went to the ATM and made a withdrawal for twenty bucks!

Here's the quote near the end of the article. " I don't know much," Jaster says of that moment (graduation), "but I am a Christian woman. I feel like not being able to hug my family - not being able to be with my family - is what hell would feel like. And being able to hold them again after being away a long time is what heaven would feel like."