[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 10]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 14208]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         HONORING CAPTAIN KRISTEN GRIEST OF ORANGE, CONNECTICUT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ROSA L. DeLAURO

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 15, 2015

  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to rise today to 
pay tribute to an outstanding member of our military and recent U.S. 
Army Ranger School graduate, Captain Kristen Marie Griest. A native of 
Orange, Connecticut, Captain Griest recently became one of the first 
women to complete the 62-day combat leadership course--shattering a 
gender ceiling as she joins the ranks of our country's most elite Army 
members. Though she will not yet be able to serve in the 75th Ranger 
Regiment, her hometown community and her state could not be more proud 
of her accomplishment.
  A graduate of Amity Regional High School in Woodbridge, Connecticut, 
Kristen Griest was known as a quiet leader and a tough competitor, 
always pushing herself to succeed. A track and softball star in high 
school, she entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in 
the fall of 2007. Following her graduation, Kristen went on to serve in 
the military police because, as her brother, Chief Warrant Officer 2 
Michael Griest, an Army aviator himself, said ``it was the closest she 
could come at the time to serving in combat.'' She was deployed to 
Afghanistan in 2013 as a military police officer and upon her return 
took up the challenge of Ranger School.
  With courses including phases at Fort Benning in Georgia, on the 
mountains of northern Georgia, and in the Florida Panhandle swamps in 
and around Eglin Air Force Base, The U.S. Army's Ranger School is 
considered one of the military's most difficult courses physically and 
mentally. Critics of allowing women into the military's most elite 
units had used the argument that no woman has demonstrated she can keep 
up with men by passing Ranger School. Along with fellow graduate, 1st 
Lieutenant Shaye Haver of Copperas Cove, Texas, Kristen has 
successfully challenged such notions, demonstrating that women should 
be allowed the same opportunities as their male counterparts to join 
our military's elite forces.
  Kristen recently received her black and gold Ranger tab along with 
her fellow Rangers, but will return to her previous unit instead of 
joining her male colleagues in the 75th Ranger Regiment. Perhaps soon 
we will see that ceiling shattered as well. Today, I am proud to stand 
today to join her parents, Thomas and Laura; her brother, Michael; her 
many family and friends, as well as the community of Orange and the 
State of Connecticut in extending my sincere congratulations to Captain 
Kristen Marie Griest on the outstanding accomplishment of successfully 
completing the rigorous training at the U.S. Army Ranger School. She 
exemplifies the very best of our military and our nation.

                          ____________________