WASHINGTON Two women have made military history after becoming the first female soldiers to pass the U.S. Army's grueling Ranger Course, the Army said on Monday. 
 
 The two, along with 94 men, passed the 62-day leadership course, which teaches students "how to overcome fatigue, hunger, and stress to lead Soldiers during small unit combat operations," it said in a statement. 
 
 In April, 19 women and 381 men began the first Army Ranger school that included women. The course, based at Fort Benning, Georgia, includes training in woodlands, mountainous terrain and Florida swampland. (www.benning.army.mil) 
 
 Army Rangers are rapidly deployable troops trained for mountain, desert and swamp terrain and often go after special operations targets. 
 
 "Highlights of the course include a physical fitness test consisting of 49 push-ups, 59 sit-ups, a five mile run in 40 minutes, and six chin-ups; a swim test; a land navigation test; a 12-mile foot march in three hours; several obstacle courses; four days of military mountaineering; three parachute jumps; four air assaults on helicopters; multiple rubber boat movements; and 27 days of mock combat patrols," the statement said. 
 
 A graduation ceremony will be held at Fort Benning on Friday. The U.S. military began a process two years ago to open thousands of frontline combat jobs to women. The service branches have been developing gender-neutral requirements for all jobs in the military and evaluating whether to recommend that any remain closed to women. 
 
 The Army had faced resistance to allowing women to serve in combat units, but since such experience is a factor in promotions and job advancement in the military, women have had greater difficulty than men in moving up to the top ranks, officials have said. 
 
 About 90 percent of senior Army infantry officers qualified as Rangers, which should allow women graduates to better compete with their male counterparts. 
 
 Nearly 12 percent of U.S. forces deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan were women. They represented about 2 percent of U.S. military deaths in those wars. 
 
 (Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Mohammad Zargham) ||||| CLOSE The first two women to ever be admitted to the Army Ranger School are scheduled to graduate from the rigorous training program Friday, military sources said. Unlike the men though, the women still are unable to join the infantry or other combat jobs. USA TODAY 
 
 A female Army Ranger student lifts a rucksack onto her back on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, at Camp James E. Rudder on Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. (Photo: Nick Tomecek, AP) 
 
 Corrections & clarifications: The initial headline on this story misstated the status of the two female soldiers who will graduate from Army Ranger School this week. They are not yet eligible to join the Ranger regiment. 
 
 WASHINGTON — Two female soldiers will graduate from the Army’s legendary Ranger School this week, the first women to complete the course since it was opened to them on an experimental basis this year, the U.S. Army said Monday evening. 
 
 The two were part of a group of 19 female soldiers who passed a rigorous screening process to begin the physically demanding course that had been closed to women since it opened more than six decades ago. Their names were not revealed. 
 
 The graduation on Friday will mark a key milestone on the military’s ongoing efforts to open front-line combat units to women. The military services have pledged to do so without compromising standards. 
 
 Students in the grueling two-month course are required to survive on little food and sleep despite demanding physical activity, including carrying more than 100 pounds of gear through mountains and swamps. It is considered the Army’s most physically challenging course. 
 
 The women started the regimen in April, but like many men they were required to retake a phase of the course if they didn’t pass on the first go. 
 
 Graduates get to wear the coveted Ranger tab, which signifies their completion of the Army’s premier small unit leadership course for the infantry and other front-line troops. 
 
 "Each Ranger School graduate has shown the physical and mental toughness to successfully lead organizations at any level," Army Secretary John McHugh said in a statement. "This course has proven that every soldier, regardless of gender, can achieve his or her full potential." 
 
 But the women will not be able to join the infantry or other so-called ground combat jobs, including the Ranger regiment, which remain closed to women, at least through this year. 
 
 Opening the course to women is part of an assessment that all services have been ordered to undertake to determine how best to open the infantry, special forces and other ground combat jobs by next year. The Pentagon has ordered that all occupations be open to women after this year. 
 
 The services can request a waiver from some jobs, but would need to provide an extensive justification for doing so. 
 
 The military services have been steadily opening jobs to women over recent years, but the infantry and special operations fields are the most physically demanding and require that troops live close together in often primitive field conditions. 
 
 "I promise you that the one thing we will not compromise on is standards," Gen. Martin Dempsey told a group of U.S. servicemen in Baghdad recently. 
 
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– They took on the swamps, and they won. Two female soldiers have made US military history by passing Army Ranger training and will graduate at Fort Benning this Friday, the military says. They were among 19 women and 381 men in the first Ranger School class to allow females and will graduate alongside 94 men who also made it through the 62-day course, reports Reuters. Calling the training "tough" would be an understatement: The military says it includes a "physical fitness test consisting of 49 push-ups, 59 sit-ups, a five-mile run in 40 minutes, and six chin-ups; a swim test; a land navigation test; a 12-mile foot march in three hours; several obstacle courses; four days of military mountaineering; three parachute jumps; four air assaults on helicopters; multiple rubber boat movements; and 27 days of mock combat patrols." The milestone comes as the military debates which roles will still be off-limits to women now that combat roles have been opened up, the New York Times reports. The services have until Jan. 1 to make their case. Getting the Rangers badge is seen as a key step toward leading troops, especially in the infantry, but while Army Secretary John McHugh says "each Ranger School graduate has shown the physical and mental toughness to successfully lead organizations at any level," many roles remain closed to women, including membership in the Ranger regiment, USA Today reports. (The Marine Corps infantry training course had its first female graduates in 2013.)