Kristen Marie Griest

Kristen Marie Griest is one of the two first women, along with Shaye Lynne Haver, to ever graduate from the US Army Ranger School, which occurred on 21 August 2015. Ranger School is an intense 61-day combat leadership course oriented toward small-unit tactics. It has been called "the most physically and mentally demanding leadership school the Army has to offer".

Early life and education
Griest attended Amity Regional High School in Woodbridge, CT, where she ran track and played softball. She is a member of Orange Congregational Church in Orange, CT.

Military Career
Griest graduated from the United States Military Academy in 2011. She also served in Afghanistan as a military police officer.

Griest began Ranger training in the spring of 2015 as part of a one-time pilot program to see how women would do in Ranger School. She started the course with 19 other women, marking the first time women have ever been allowed to participate through the course. At the culmination of 2 attempts to successfully complete the first phase, all women had failed one academic requirement or another. Griest, along with Shaye Haver and one soldier still in training, was given the opportunity to start from the beginning, commonly referred to as a "Day 01" recycle. Recycles are very common, and are frequently offered to male Ranger students as well. The three of them began training with Ranger Class 08-15. Griest and Haver would go straight through the course without recycling any other phase.

Although Griest has graduated from the premier leadership course in the US Army, she along with any other female is not allowed to serve in Ranger/Infantry roles in the US Army due to the Pentagon's exclusion policies on women in combat.