None of the women who played Enterprise Wings soccer with 1st. Lt. Shaye Haver are still on the team, but many of their minds are drifting back to the pitch in light of their former teammate's historical accomplishment.
Haver was one of two women to finish the United States Army Ranger course and graduate Aug. 21 with more than 90 other Rangers at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Haver and fellow graduate Capt. Kristen Griest are the first two women in the history of the ranger school, which opened in 1952, to complete each of the course’s three phases and earn the prestigious Ranger tab.
Ranger school was not something Haver considered until last November, when she got word the Army would open the course to women and was encouraged to take the challenge.
“I had a very supportive chain of command who encouraged me to do so,” Haver said in a press conference at Fort Benning. “The reasons why I chose to come were the same as these men here — to get the experience of the elite leadership school the Army has to provide to give me the opportunity to lead my soldiers the best I can.”
Leadership, however was a quality which began to develop within Haver long before the Army allowed her to enter Ranger school.
Her former Wings teammates, coaches and others who watched her play during her time in Enterprise in the early 2000s saw it on the soccer field.
“She knew how to motivate everybody, and keep them on track when we were training,” Cherisa “Reese” Duppstadt, one of Haver’s teammates on the club soccer team now known as the Enterprise Futbol Club, said. “All the way around, she’s everything you’d look for in a leader. She was there to back you when you had troubles. She was there to help you through everything you needed.”
The new Ranger’s ability to back teammates proved crucial in the field during training.
Some of Haver’s male Ranger buddies said they were initially skeptical whether women could handle the rigors of the Ranger Course, but they soon put the doubt to rest.
“We got to mountains, and there was one night we were doing a long walk. I was the 320 gunner so I had a lot of weight on me, and I was struggling,” 2nd Lt. Michael Janowski said. “I stopped and I asked at the halfway point, 'Hey, can anyone help take some of this weight?' I got a lot of deer-in-the-headlight looks. Shaye was the only one to volunteer to take that weight. She took the weight off of me, and carried it the last half of that road. (She) literally saved me. I probably wouldn't be sitting here right now if it wasn't for Shaye. From that point, (there was) no more skepticism. I knew she was going to make it straight through.”
The male Ranger graduates in the press conference panel were quick to affirm all standards and requirements for the Ranger tab were the same for the women as they were for the men.
For Haver and Griest, however, proving worthy of their teammates’ trust was more valuable than proving they were capable of passing the course.
“That was more important to us, becoming teammates with our Ranger buddies we're graduating with, than making a statement, whether it's for females of the future in Ranger school or females of the future in the military,” Haver said. “Every single time we accomplished something, it gave us that extra foothold in being part of the team. I can say without a doubt the team..accepted me completely as a Ranger. I couldn't be more proud and humbled by the experience.”
What was humbling for Haver was a source of pride for her former teammates.
“As little girls, I think all of us had dreams to grow up and play collegiate soccer. I was blessed to have been able to do that at Auburn, and I know so many little girls looked up to me while I was there, but what Shaye has done is beyond any collegiate dream,” former teammate Lydia Townsend said. “She is not only a hope to young girls playing soccer, but she and Kristen Griest have become a light and a role model to every person in this nation. I may have only played with her for a short time when we were young, but it was an honor to have such an amazing young woman as a teammate.”
While she was growing up, Haver’s athleticism drove her to maintain the physical fitness she needed to become a West Point graduate, a pilot and, later, an Army Ranger.
“I’ve always been an athlete,” she said. “I think that’s kind of what drove me to be physically fit and to accomplish the things I had to do for Ranger school in general.”
Haver played in the midfield for the Wings so physical fitness was in her job description on the pitch.
“Shaye was a center midfielder so she had to be the fittest of the fit,” Cassie Wilcox, another of Haver’s former teammates, said. “She was one of the oldest players on the team, and even though she joined later than many of us she was definitely a leader on the field. You have to be in the position she played. It's one where you have to see everything and think differently. Clearly, she was good at that in more areas than a plot of grass.”
The former midfielder also earned the admiration of Ohannes Younanian, her former Wings coach, who said he was not surprised by the historic accomplishment.
“She definitely met all of the challenges she had,” he said. “Knowing her personality back then…it doesn’t surprise me at all. She was driven. She knew what she needed to do, and I never had a complaint from her.”
While they were in the field during the 62-day Ranger Course, soldiers in Haver and Griest’s group encountered obstacles, including navigating Florida swamps in the darkness with little food or sleep without the aid of night vision and being struck by lightning.
Though Haver had to recycle through the course, she and Griest took full advantage of another opportunity to complete it.
In the end, those who persevered had a bond of trust with one another which even battle won’t break.
“I can say I would always have someone with a Ranger tab to my left and my right when it came to combat situations,” 2nd Lt. Erickson Krogh, who attended Daleville High School and participated in its ROTC program, said. “I don't care if that's a male or a female. If they have a Ranger tab, I want them next to me. These two females have showed they can serve by my side any time, because I know I can trust them and I hope they can trust me.”
Retired Lt. Col. Ralph Aaron, a former ROTC instructor at Daleville when Krogh attended, said the new Ranger showed he had what it took to succeed as a soldier while he was in high school.
“He was and is such an exceptional young man,” Aaron said. “He was on my rifle team, and he was just a great personality. (He was) a very athletic, very smart, very gifted young man. There was no doubt in my mind he would accomplish a lot in the military.”
Haver also worked hard to earn her Ranger tab, and she said it filled her with the same pride she experienced upon her graduation from West Point.
“To graduate from that academy and being part of the long gray line was something huge, and something I can keep pride in for the rest of my life,” Haver said. “Graduating Ranger school (is the) same type of historical significance to me, the same sense of pride. Being part of something that has been esteemed by our nation for so long… a well up of pride and personal accomplishment comes from just that.”
Though Haver knows women who undertake the Ranger course in the future will possibly look to her and Griest’s accomplishments for inspiration, she hopes they will be inspired by all of the Rangers who went before her.
“I think if females continue to come to this course, they can be encouraged by what we've accomplished. Hopefully, they're encouraged by the legacy the Ranger community has left,” she said. “That's good enough. It was good enough to make us come (to Ranger school), it was good enough to help us force ourselves through and eventually graduate.”
The milestone Haver reached was made possible because she was mentally resilient, which is what she said it would take for other women to have success in Ranger school.
“I hope they come with a strong mind, because that's what it takes to get through here,” she said. “ It’s realizing the mental side of the issue as you come (to the course) is going to be the most challenging thing you will ever face. My advice is once you get to that point, keep going and realize your mind can take a whole lot more than your body can.”
The magnitude of the women’s graduation from the school was far from lost on those who know Haver from her time in the City of Progress.
“We were very excited when we saw her on TV, that she had done this magnificent thing,” Susanne Markel, whose daughter played soccer with Haver, said. “It’s always great when you see students or team members go on and do great things. We’re excited she is doing so well. We hope she does continue to make history.”
The recent Ranger School graduate is an Apache pilot stationed at Fort Carson, Colo. with the 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, 4th Infantry Division who plans to continue in Army Aviation.
“My ability to be a role model (is) awesome, but I have been commissioned to be an Army leader. Period,” Haver said. “I’ll continue to do that until the day I get out, and then some.”
The historical significance of Haver and Griest’s accomplishment could broaden horizons for women in the Army and provide the catalyst for change.
“I’m hoping it will change a lot, and open up some new job fields for women in the military,” Duppstadt said. “Some, like Shaye and (Griest), can handle anything. She’s never met a match she couldn’t conquer.”
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