Capt. Kristen Griest makes history as Army's first female infantry officer

Capt. Kristen Griest.
(Image credit: Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)

Military officials announced Wednesday that Capt. Kristen Griest, one of the first women to graduate from Ranger School, will become the nation's first female Army infantry officer.

She is expected to graduate from the Maneuver Captain's Career Course on Thursday. Griest, a 2011 West Point alumna, graduated from Ranger School along with another woman, Lt. Shaye Haver, in August 2015. The Army says that at least three enlisted women have signed up to become infantry soldiers, and they will likely begin training in 2017, Army Times reports. In December, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced that the military was lifting all gender-based restrictions on service, allowing women to serve in the infantry, armor, and Special Forces fields.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.