First Lt. Mackenzie Corcoran had already racked up a record of impressive accomplishments as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army when she considered enrolling in Ranger School and earning the coveted Ranger tab.
The physical and mental demands of Ranger School, a program designed to prepare soldiers to lead their troops on difficult missions, are notoriously grueling. Mackenzie never doubted her ability to persevere, but one requirement gave her a reason to pause. She had to shave her head.
“I just didn’t want to go through all that,” Mackenzie said. “But I was also interacting with infantry officers who are all rangers and they kept encouraging me to do it.”
She also believed she had something to prove. Not to her fellow soldiers, but to herself.
Mackenzie is a member of the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks on Oahu in Hawaii.
After graduating from William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, in May 2021, she was commissioned into the Army at the rank of second lieutenant and reported to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri for the basic officer course as an engineer. After seven months, she went on to Schofield Barracks and began climbing the career ladder.
According to the U.S. Army, Ranger School is one of the military’s toughest training programs.
“For two months, Ranger students train to exhaustion, pushing the limits of their minds and bodies,” and learning the functional skills needed “to engage in close combat and direct-fire battles,” reads an online description of the school.
In the end, she was up to the challenge.
“I’m a big proponent of doing hard things,” Mackenzie said. “I’ve learned that if I just try, I’ll be shocked at how much my body can do.”
So, she shaved off her long brown hair and put herself to the test.
Last winter, she traveled to Fort Benning in Georgia for Ranger School. It was worth every sacrifice and hardship.
Mackenzie’s quest to earn her Ranger tab is rare for female soldiers. The training has been open to women for less than 10 years, and she says she was just one of over 100 women to graduate from Ranger School. She earned her Ranger tab last March.
A military family
Mackenzie, 25, grew up as an only child in a military family.
Her dad, Col. Joe Corcoran, is a decorated officer who serves as chief of staff for the U.S. Army Center for Initial Military Training and is planning to retire this summer. Her mother, Jennifer Lynn Corcoran, has a doctorate in social work. They live in Williamsburg.
Born in Italy, Mackenzie moved around the United States with her family, living in five states over the course of her childhood, including North Carolina.
She says moving helped her gain self-confidence.
“I never liked leaving the places I knew, but moving around definitely taught me how to make friends and become more outgoing,” she said. “It also helped me adapt to change.”
She was an 8th grader in 2012 when her dad took a post at Fort Liberty and the family moved to Fayetteville. They lived here for three years. At Fayetteville Academy, she swam and ran track and cross country. Her favorite subject was chemistry. Growing up and joining the Army was not in her line of sight.
“I never wanted to be in the military, and my dad didn’t want me to join the Army out of concern over how I would be treated as a female,” she said.
In the end, Mackenzie’s mother was the parent who convinced her to try Army life, starting with applying for an ROTC scholarship to college during her senior year of high school. She enrolled in William & Mary, majoring in chemistry. The ROTC provided her first taste of what the military might be like. She grew to love it.
“ROTC is a smaller group of people at college that I could get close to and share the hardships of getting up earlier than the others and going to physical training,” she said. “The greatest aspect of the military is it offers diversity and allows you to become friends with people you might not have otherwise encountered in your life.”
Despite his earlier misgivings, Joe Corcoran is proud of his daughter for earning her Ranger tab.
“I had no doubt that physically and mentally she was going to be successful,” he said. “Army culture is male-dominated, but she did well with her peers, met all the requirements, and she’s earned her position.”
Path to ranger
Mackenzie’s path to Ranger School started with a Jungle Operations Training Course, spanning 12 days and consisting of mobility training, jungle tactics, combat tracking and other skills, and situational training. She passed with flying colors and earned her Jungle tab.
From there, she was on to the Sapper Leader Course, “a demanding 28-day leadership development course for combat engineers that reinforces critical skills and teaches advanced techniques needed across the Army,” according to the U.S. Army website.
After earning her Sapper tab, Mackenzie found herself at a crossroads and unsure of advancing into the grueling Ranger course. But she also felt her career was at stake.
“A lot of officers go to Ranger School because they want to further their career in the Army,” she said. “Without the Ranger tab, you are stuck in the middle, and to advance you need to show you can push yourself to your physical limits and still be a strong leader.”
The U.S. Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment’s website tells the story of the Ranger Course and describes the series of rigorous tests soldiers must complete to earn their Ranger tab.
The Army created the Ranger Course during the Korean War, and it “was known as the Ranger Training Command,” according to the U.S. Army. In 1951, it “became the Ranger Department, a branch of the Infantry School” at Fort Moore (formerly Fort Benning), Georgia. “Its purpose was, and still is, to develop combat skills of selected officers and enlisted men,” the U.S. Army website reads.
The 61-day course is divided into three phases: the Benning Phase at Fort Moore, the Mountain Phase at Camp Frank D. Merrill in north Georgia, and the Florida Phase at Eglin Air Force Base.
The Benning phase assesses “a soldier’s physical stamina, mental toughness,” and puts in place the tactical requirements for the other phases of Ranger School, according to the U.S. Army. It is divided into two parts: Ranger Assessment Phase, aka “RAP Week” and Darby, a patrolling phase.
The 21-day Benning phase is grueling; only 50% of Ranger students finish, according to Army estimates.
Mackenzie says the first week will make or break a prospective Ranger.
“If you make it through RAP week, there’s basically an 80% chance you’re going to graduate from the course, one way or another,” she said.
Passing RAP requires a minimum of “49 push-ups, 59 sit-ups, a 5-mile run in 40 minutes” or less, “and six chin-ups,” according to the U.S. Army website. Included on the grueling list are a combat water survival assessment, “a night and day land navigation test,” and “a 2.1-mile two-man buddy run in Army combat uniform.” Students also confront the dreaded Malvesti obstacle course and complete a 12-mile foot march without water, while carrying an average load of 35 pounds.
The Darby phase includes the infamous Darby Queen obstacle course, “consisting of 20 obstacles stretched over one mile of uneven hilly terrain.” This phase ends with a series of patrols in a fast-paced, highly stressful, and challenging field exercise.
Students who make it through Benning will move on to the last two phases designed to develop and test a soldier’s ability to command and control platoons patrolling in adverse conditions including hunger, mental and physical fatigue, and stress.
“Going through Ranger [School] felt like getting thrown into the deep end of a pool,” Mackenzie said. “You can prepare for it physically, but I don’t think you’ll ever be mentally prepared for actually going through it.”
For Mackenzie, hunger, sleep deprivation, and withstanding the elements outdoors became both a way of life and the most challenging aspects of her military journey so far.
“We were getting two meals a day and four hours of sleep at the most,” she said. “The point of Ranger School is to learn what kind of leader we are when we’re at our worst.”
Psychologically it was challenging, too.
“We’re left standing out in the cold for hours with no one to talk to and left alone with our thoughts,” she said. “It tests our mental toughness and intestinal fortitude to not quit, rather to focus on why we are there and going through it.”
“I believe a big part of why I went to Ranger School was
Mackenzie Corcoran
to show other women what they can achieve. I always
say that I’m an officer in the Army who happens to be
a female rather than a female officer in the Army.“
Tough enough
Mackenzie’s dad never doubted she could hold up under the pressure.
“Growing up, she was a curious and inquisitive child, and someone who was very much into sports and outdoor activities,” Joe Corcoran said. “When we were stationed at Fort Liberty, we would drive past obstacle courses, and she wanted to get out there and go through them.”
In the end, Mackenzie embraced the hard work, long hours, and sensory deprivation for the chance to experience the adventures the Army is giving her.
In May 2023, Mackenzie was part of the 29th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team that received the Society of American Military Engineers’ LTG Emerson C. Itschner award for most outstanding engineer company.
The company had “participated in Operation Pathway exercises in Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei,” according to an article by 1st Lt. Jordan Balzano. Mackenzie was the engineer reconnaissance platoon leader in that effort.
“I just want to do cool things I never would have been able to do outside the Army,” she said. “Like go to Malaysia and Brunei, jump out of airplanes, traverse the jungle, and get paid for it.”
She also wants to pay it forward and serve as an inspiration to other women to enter the military and do hard things, like Erin O’Hara, a college friend who also graduated from Ranger School.
“I thought if Erin can do it, then I can do it too, and I believe a big part of why I went to Ranger School was to show other women what they can achieve,” she said. “I always say that I’m an officer in the Army who happens to be a female rather than a female officer in the Army.”
She also feels her military career has brought her closer to her parents and she hopes to relocate near them soon. Some soldiers who have their Ranger tabs take the next step on their career ladder and apply to the 75th Ranger Regiment, the Army’s “premier raid force,” according to its website. The Regiment requires an “intensive screening and selection process followed by combat-focused training.”
Mackenzie is still evaluating the many options she has for furthering her military career, and even if she chooses a different path, her father is proud of her.
Joe Corcoran acknowledges his daughter has already bypassed his own level of courage and ambition and sees power in her willingness to take on challenges that test the limits of any human being.
“While I believe I have self-confidence, Mackenzie has a lot more,” he says. “I hope she continues to build a pathway and chart a career that meets her expectations, and she enjoys her life in the Army.”
Read CityView Magazine’s “The Military Issue” July e-editionhere.
