FORT BENNING, GA. — At first glance, the scene unfolding here in the rolling Georgia woodlands would appear to be unremarkable.

Two-by-two, bellies in the dirt and hands behind their backs, buddy teams of soldiers with shaved heads snake across the ground under the eye of the attentive instructors.

"Get your face down, Ranger!" one shouts.

"It's an obstacle course – have some fun!" yells another to exhausted soldiers ordered to crab-walk to the evocatively-named "Belly Buster," a station that involves running headlong into a stomach-high moving log.

It would seem to be a snapshot like any other in the 63-year history of the Army's elite Ranger School. Except for one thing: For the first time ever, some of these buzz-cut soldiers are women.