Two women are about to make history by becoming the first female soldiers to graduate from the Army's exhausting Ranger School.
They're among the 96 students who will graduate from the intensive training program Friday in Fort Benning, Georgia.
This was the first year the Army opened the course to women on a trial basis.
"This course has proven that every Soldier, regardless of gender, can achieve his or her full potential," Secretary of the Army John M. McHugh said in a statement.
Unlike the male graduates, the two women can't apply to join the 75th Ranger Regiment, an elite special operations force.
The Pentagon isn't expected to make final decisions about exactly what combat roles women will be allowed to fill until later this year.
The fact that women aren't allowed to perform certain roles comes as a surprise to many millenials, said Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow for defense policy Janine Davidson.
"This is an important moment and an important week because I see it as reality and perception catching up with each other," said Davidson, a former U.S. Air Force aircraft commander and senior pilot. "Women have been on the front lines in Afghanistan and Iraq. ... So you see policymakers in the Pentagon are ready to say, 'We don't see any reasons why women can't be (in certain roles).'"
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