Army set to welcome first woman Green Beret next month

The Army is scheduled to welcome its first woman Green Beret to graduate from the Special Forces Qualification Course next month.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) released a statement Thursday commemorating the honor for the unnamed woman, saying, “The graduation of the first female U.S. Army Green Beret is an important and hard-earned milestone.”

One woman had previously completed the Q Course in the 1980s but was denied the opportunity to graduate, according to the Army Times.

While officials from Army Special Operations Command previously declined to comment on the first woman graduating from the Q Course, Stefanik is a member of one of the House Armed Services subcommittees with jurisdiction over SOCOM and announced the woman’s graduation is set for July 9.

“I hope she is the first woman of many to wear the illustrious Green Beret,” Stefanik said.

The first woman to complete the Special Forces selection course did so in November 2018, the first time for any woman to do so since the Army opened its special operations jobs to women in 2016.

Special Forces selection works as a gateway into the remainder of the Q Course. Still, it is not a direct guarantee for graduation or completion of the entire program, which encompasses being a specialist in medicine, weapons, communications, and engineers.

According to the New York Times, a report from 1981 shows Capt. Kathleen Wilder was informed before her graduation that she had failed a field exercise.

Wilder filed a sex discrimination complaint, which concluded that she was wrongfully denied graduation from the program after examination from Brig. Gen. F. Cecil Adams.