A Hawaii-based combat engineer became ‘triple-tabbed’ by completing three of the Army’s most demanding courses, Ranger and Sapper school, and a Hawaii-based Jungle course. Earning all three is rare for any soldier, and nearly unprecedented for a woman.
1st Lt. Mackenzie Corcoran completed the triple-training journey when she graduated from Ranger School at Fort Moore. She is the 135th woman to graduate from Ranger School since 2015, and just became the 8th woman to also finish Sapper school.
Corcoran earned the Jungle tab in late 2022 by completing the Jungle Operations Training Course, which is run by the 25th Infantry Division’s Lighting Academy in Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, where Corcoran is assigned. Soldiers who complete the course can wear the Jungle tab, though only while assigned to Army units in the Pacific. The Army did not clarify if any other women have earned all three tabs.
Corcoran joined the Army in May 2021 after graduating from William & Mary college in Williamsburg, Virginia with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. Getting through as many Army training courses as possible, she said, was always a goal.
“You are going to be your biggest advocate,” she said, “the best time to go is yesterday.”
Corcoran told the Army in a release that the toughest moment she faced was, perhaps surprisingly, in Sapper school, during a cold, rainy night of training. The course teaches combat engineers to develop their leadership skills and advanced engineering techniques on limited rations and sleep. With just an hour to sleep and eat during a day, she said, her class was told to run laps in pouring rain, cutting their usual one hour down to 20 minutes.
When finally allowed, Corcoran huddled under her poncho, wet and exhausted, choosing to eat while she could rather than sleep.
Subscribe to Task & Purpose today. Get the latest military news and culture in your inbox daily.
“It was miserable, we were all miserable,” Corcoran said. When a friend joined her, he confided that he was thinking of quitting.
“We are three days away from finishing,” she told him. “We’re not quitting.”
At Ranger School, she drew inspiration from other women who had graduated the course, including a friend from college, 1st Lt. Erin O’Hara.
O’Hara graduated from Ranger School in 2023. She and Corcoran were two of three women on William & Mary’s 12-person Army ROTC Ranger Challenge team in 2019. In that year’s regional competition, the team took second place out of 50 teams.
“Ranger was physically easier than Sapper, but with so much time to my thoughts, it made it more mentally challenging,” Corcoran said.
Ranger School is considered one of the Army’s most challenging courses for soldiers where students get pushed to their physical and mental limits. The course emphasizes individual combat skills while implementing leadership principles. Ranger School candidates learn how to plan and conduct military operations at a small unit level and take their experience back to their home units to pass along lessons learned.
Ranger School is made up of three phases that lasts 62 days: Benning, Mountain, and Florida. Darby Phase and Mountain Phase takes place in the woods and mountains of Georgia, and the final phase takes place in the coastal swamps of Florida. Soldiers have two attempts to pass each phase but if they fail, they must start over. Corcoran herself had to redo the Benning Phase.
“Having people that truly believe in you,” Corcoran said, “is the biggest step towards Ranger.”
Corcoran’s second tab came after attending the 12-day Jungle Operations Training Course in January 2022 where soldiers learn how to navigate and operate in jungle environments. She finished the Lightning Academy and immediately hungered for more so she went on to pursue her Sapper tab.
“It taught me that I can accomplish an Army school and inspired me to really pursue Sapper,” she said.
Corcoran said she wants to attend Air Assault School and Pathfinder School, and earn her Expert Soldier Badge. She also plans on attending the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program 2, a three-week course that selects soldiers for assignment with the 75th Ranger Regiment.
“No one realizes how far our bodies and minds can actually go until we push them to the limit,” Corcoran said.
The latest on Task & Purpose
- Suspended 4-star general denies he pressured panels to promote officer
- Navy must consider moving EA-18Gs from Whidbey Island to El Centro after noise lawsuit
- Air Force vet who fled to Russian military says his call sign is ‘Boston’
- 10th Mountain soldiers summit 46 highest Adirondacks peaks in one day
- Anglers, Squids, POGs and ‘AAA-0’ —Military nicknames we love