Fort Leonard Wood female Soldiers striving to become one of the first Ranger-qualified females now have a training course structured specifically to help with their quest.

The pre-Ranger course, conducted by the 787th Military Police Battalion, is the brainchild of the battalion’s command sergeant major, according to Capt. Christopher Riggs, Company F, 787th Military Police Battalion commander.

According to Riggs, it was Command Sgt. Maj. Teresa Duncan’s, 787th MP Bn. command sergeant major, vision to ensure the females who wanted to compete for the Ranger tab would have the physical abilities and skill sets needed.

Soldiers destined to operate the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system will now learn their trade from fellow Soldiers.

The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense Instructional Facility, or THAAD, opened at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Jan. 23. Already, four classes are underway at the schoolhouse.

“This represents the culmination of a lot of activity to get the facility built, the instructors trained, and the training devices built and delivered,” said Brig. Gen. Christopher Spillman, commandant of the Air Defense Artillery School, located at the Fires Center of Excellence. “All of that required a monumental amount of work and coordination from various stakeholders across the air defense artillery community.”

Lt. Gen. Robert Brown, Army Combined Arms Center, or CAC, commanding general, visited Fort Sill, Jan. 20, to discuss the Army’s greatest asset — its Soldiers — and how the “human dimension” is vital to combating current and future conflicts.

The Army announced Jan. 15 that female Soldiers will be allowed, for the first time, to attend the Army’s Ranger Course and possibly earn the coveted Ranger tab.

FORT BENNING, Ga., (Sept. 17, 2014) — In addition to senior leaders from across the Army who visited Fort Benning Sept. 8-12 for the Maneuver Warfighter Conference, attendees at the conference also had an opportunity to hear from Fort Benning’s own.

Infantry School Commandant Brig. Gen. James Rainey provided an update on the Infantry Sept. 10, while Armor School Commandant Brig. Gen. Scott McKean spoke Sept. 11.

MONTEREY, Calif., – Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, Jessica L. Garfola Wright, says that the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center is the premier language provider to the Department of Defense, not only for resident instruction but also online foreign language training materials.

“When I first came here I thought, ‘well they teach just a little bit of language.’ I have had only a few hours here and I am thoroughly impressed with the in-depth quality and professionalism of what they do here,” said Wright in an interview Oct. 22.