First woman passes special forces assessment, could become first female Green Beret

A female soldier completed the Special Forces Assessment and Selection for the first time in the history of the United States Army Special Forces, commonly known as the Green Berets.

Officials told CNN that the soldier, whose identity has not been revealed due to the sensitive nature of missions that are handled by the Green Berets, completed the selection process and next will attempt the Special Forces Qualification Course.

{mosads}”Recently, a female successfully completed Special Forces Assessment and Selection and was selected to attend the Special Forces Qualification Course,” USASOC spokesman Lt. Col. Loren Bymer told the network in a statement. 

“We’re proud of all the candidates who attended and were selected to continue into the qualification course in hopes of earning their Green Beret,” Bymer continued. “It is our policy to not release the names of our service members because Special Forces Soldiers perform discrete missions upon graduation.”

CNN notes that the 24-day program completed by the solider is an intense test of a candidate’s mental and physical endurance.

Several woman have attempted the test since the Department of Defense began accepting women for its special operations jobs in January 2016.

The report comes a month after Defense Secretary James Mattis said “the jury is out” on the success of having women in combat roles.

At the time, Mattis said the sample size of women in the infantry was too small to determine how they are performing.

“This is a policy I inherited, and so far the cadre is so small we have no data on it. We’re hoping to get data soon,” Mattis said, adding that the department was still trying to give it “every opportunity to succeed if it can.” 

“Right now, it’s not even dozens, it’s that few,” he said.