GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — In honor of Veterans Day, an event featuring the first female Army reservist to graduate Ranger School was held Monday at Grand Valley State University’s downtown campus.
The event at GVSU’s Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies was designed as a tribute to the men and women who have served.
“No matter what we do, we can never thank the vets for what they have done. There’s less than 1% that serve today and the sacrifices they make for all of us to enjoy the great life that we do,” Bob Hughes, co-chair of Grand Rapids-based Armed Forces Thanksgiving, said.
Armed Forces Thanksgiving presented a $45,000 check the West Michigan Veterans Coalition, which connects current service members, veterans and their families to various resources.
“The vets that they’re helping, you can actually see the results. It’s not often you give money and actually see people do great things with it,” Hughes said.
The guest of honor at the event was U.S. Army Reserve Lt. Col. Lisa Jaster, who said she first became interested in the military at age 7.
“My paternal grandmother sent me a book written by one of the first women to graduate from the United States Military Academy,” Jaster said. “It was fantastic to see both what our soldiers were doing in Iraq in 1991 as well as read a book about women who were breaking barriers.”
Eventually, Jaster herself graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point herself. She was commissioned in 2000 and was on active duty until 2007. She joined the Army Reserve in 2012 after a five-year break. In 2014, Jaster received an email looking for women interested in Ranger School, a nine-week training course considered one of the toughest for soldiers.
“The next month I turned 37, which is very old. Ranger School is for 22-year-old males at the time on average,” Jaster said.
Encouraged by her senior enlisted advisor and her husband, Jaster entered Ranger School.
“On day zero, almost 400 people showed up to my iteration of Ranger School. Breakfast on day one, we had already lost about 25% of those people,” Jaster said.
Jaster went on to graduate Ranger School, becoming the first female Army reservist to do so. She said being alongside younger men at the time was important.
“Seeing someone who was older than average, who was a mom, who did Army part-time succeed and be able to carry the weight right next to them changed how they looked at women in the military,” Jaster said.
As veterans are thanked for their service this Veterans Day, Jaster wants the community to keep a message in mind.
“Don’t just think about our service time. Think about that it is ingrained in our spirit that we want to be part of improving our community and let us do that,” Jaster said.
