This Female Army Captain Collapsed On A March, And The Solders' Reaction Left Everyone Stunned

Sarah Cudd was an army captain based in Fort Knox, Kentucky. Part of the training for her and her fellow soldiers was to face a very strenuous challenge. However, Sarah almost didn't pass the test after falling to her knees just a few feet from the finish line. Her companions weren't about to let her give up, and it was all videotaped. The video went viral and has been viewed more than one million times on YouTube. Servicewomen are forging new career paths for themselves and the next generation. Today, females make up about 15.6% of our military.

Sarah Cudd attempted to complete the test in 2015 with a group of two hundred and thirty-nine candidates. Cudd's experience stood out and became an online sensation. 

The Expert Field Medical Badge is a special skills badge in the United States Army that was created in 1965. The badge is awarded to U.S. military personnel and North Atlantic Treaty Organization military personnel who complete a set of qualification tests. 

One of the tests that need to be completed to receive the Expert Field Medical Badge is called the 12-mile Foot March, also called the Ruck March. It must be completed in three hours or less while carrying a backpack weighing fifty pounds.

The video shows Sarah Cudd moving toward the finish line with her rifle in hand. However, her knees give out, and she falls to the ground. She was completely exhausted, but she managed to get back on her feet. 

Her fellow soldiers gathered around her and started shouting, "Get up!" and "You got it, ma'am!" Their motivation gave Sarah the determination to lean on her rifle and get back on her feet. She was unsteady, but as the soldiers continued shouting supportive comments, she managed to finish those last few steps. 

Sarah's determination and her fellow soldiers' support took her across the finish line. She collapsed again, but this time, her fellow soldiers were screaming with joy. She crossed the line in about two hours and forty-seven minutes. 

Then there is Marine Corps Sergeant Shannon Ihrke. She enlisted when she was nineteen years old and in college and was in a dire financial situation, which pushed her to find other options besides working full-time. Being in the Marine Corps also meant that she would be traveling the world while serving.

Shannon worked really hard trying to climb the ladder and was eventually rewarded with a new rank: Sergeant. However, while in the Marines, she battled the stigma that comes with being a female Marine. 

Shannon Ihrke had a secret that she finally revealed during an interview in 2019. She opened up about her childhood and how she always thought she was a boy. 

Shannon stated in an interview, "I decided to research the different branches of the military, and a Marine Corps recruiter caught me on the way out from talking to an Air Force recruiter." When she was signing up for the Marines, the man didn't think she had it in her to be a Marine. 

After being honorably discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps, she walked a fashion show runway for a friend. After her modeling debut, she started getting lots of calls, so she decided to pursue a career in the industry. 

Shannon is also a horse lover and began working with animals and horse training. She instructs kids on how to ride. She has about six horses and has been training for roping competitions. 

In October 2019, Shannon started a new chapter in her life, Motherhood. She welcomed daughter Aryana River, and in June 2020, she revealed she was expecting another baby in December of that year. 

All women that enlist in the Corps are sent to Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in South Carolina for a twelve-week boot camp training. They have to pass a Physical Fitness Test and a Combat Fitness Test. 

The soldiers that want to become an officer in the Marine Corps are required to take three months of training at Officer Candidate School in Virginia. If they successfully complete that training, they will continue training at The Basic School and then move on to more training based on their specialty. 

Women are constantly pushing through the barriers and paving the way for their female counterparts to follow. Women in the military continue to prove themselves every day, and more and more women are signing up. 

Opha May Johnson was the first woman to become a Marine on August 13, 1918. She enlisted after the Secretary of the Navy permitted women to enroll for clerical duty in the Marine Corps. 

In 1942, Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, authorized the Marine Corps to create a Women's Reserve and accept women applicants for commissions and enlistments. 

President Theodore Roosevelt signed a bill creating the United States Navy Nurse Corps on May 13, 1908. The members of the Navy Nurse Corps provided medical care to service members, military families, and other people in need around the world. 

There were hundreds of women who participated in the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program during World War II. The pioneer female pilots helped ferry and test military aircraft around the country. The members were officially recognized as Air Force veterans in 1977, and in 2010, they were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. 

The 1990s were a brand new era for women serving in the armed forces. Women constituted fifteen percent of naval personnel fighting forces in Iraq and Kuwait during the first Gulf War. The repeal of the Combat Exclusion Law in 1994 allowed women to serve on combatant ships for the first time. 

Kristine Holderied spent ten months in Spain forecasting weather for the Navy when she became one of the five Navy students to be accepted to a graduate program. Kristine was the first woman to finish at the top of any service academy class. 

Brig. Gen. Diana Holland is a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She became the first woman to serve as the West Point Commandant of Cadets. She oversees discipline and training for the academy's approximately four thousand two hundred cadets. 

Joan C. Bynum was a Navy nurse who became the first black female to be promoted to the rank of captain in 1978. The Navy expanded the types of ships on which women could be stationed to include oilers, tenders, and other types of auxiliary ships. 

In the 1970s, maternity uniforms were introduced when women were first permitted to continue serving in the military throughout and after their pregnancies. Today, all branches of the military offer pregnancy uniforms for expecting female service members. 

The military class of 1980 broke ground by being the first to have women graduate from the U.S. Military Academy, the Naval Academy, the Air Force Academy, and the Coast Guard Academy.

World War I was the first-time women were allowed to openly serve in the United States Military. There were large numbers of American men that were being sent to war overseas, which meant that stateside replacements for the roles that were left behind. 

During World War II, there were three hundred and fifty thousand American women who served in uniform. They were not allowed to fight but instead did clerical work, drove vehicles, repaired airplanes, worked in laboratories and cryptology, rigged parachutes, and test-flew planes. 

In 2005, Army Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester was involved in an enemy ambush on her supply convoy in Iraq. Due to her brave actions, she was awarded a military medal. In addition, she was also the first woman to ever receive the Silver Star for direct combat action since World War II. 

President Bill Clinton rescinded the "Risk Rule" in 1994. The rule essentially allowed women to serve in all positions in the military except for direct ground combat roles. It allowed many more women to still engage in combat as aviators, Air Force personnel, sailors, and other roles. 

In 2013, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that the ban on women in combat would be lifted entirely. Women service members would be allowed to serve in direct ground combat roles. 

During World War I, the first women police officers served and were called Women's Patrols. Their job was to maintain discipline and monitor women's behavior around factories or hostels. 

The Women's Royal Army Corps, or WRAC, was what all women in the British Army belonged to between 1949 to 1992. The WRAC was formed in 1949, and for most of its existence, the women performed administrative and other support tasks. 

Private Lucy Gartshore served with 210 Battery, Royal Artillery, and then joined the Royal Logistic Corps. She said of her experience, "I refer to it as a man's world because I've found that although men mean well, they jump in instinctively and help you out. I was at my old battery for five and a half years. It was hard to get used to as you have six people on it." 

In 2006, Private Michelle Norris of the Royal Army Medical Corps and her unit came under attack at Al Amarah in Iraq. Norris rescued the wounded commander of her Warrior vehicle by climbing up the side of it and dragging him to safety inside, all while under sniper fire. 

Sergeant Chantelle Taylor was on her second tour of Afghanistan in 2008 when her convoy was ambushed near Marjah. During the firefight, Taylor became the first female British soldier to kill an enemy combatant. 

Even though women are proving themselves every day in the military, there are still some former officers that remain concerned. They are concerned that women will not be able to meet the same physical demands as men and, as a result, lower the overall standards of fighting units. 

Chief Petty Officer Stella Sierra-Chierici is a jet engine mechanic on the F/A-18F Super Hornet in the Navy. She stated that not many women would get to do what she does. She often had men tell her they would not work for her because she was a woman. 

Rear Adm. Wendi Bryan Carpenter was the first female Navy pilot to instruct in the T-44 Pegasus trainer for the advanced maritime prop pipeline. She was also one of the first female instructors in the EC-130 aircraft for the "Take Charge and Move Out" squadrons. 

Tech. Sgt. Holly Ward served in the Air Force starting in 2006. She stated that she was the only woman on her team in all three of her overseas deployments. She lived separately, was left behind on major movements, often forgotten about, and asked to form up more than an hour before the male soldiers. 

Captain Helen Perry served in the Army Reserve from 2016 until the present. She took company command within the Army Special Operations community, and most of the men under her command had never worked with a female soldier before. 

Marcella Hayes began her career in the military as an ROTC cadet at the University of Wisconsin. She graduated from Army Flight School and earned her paratrooper badge. 

Captain Linda Bray was among the seven hundred women who participated in Operation Just Cause in Panama in 1989. She led the 988th Military Police Company and became the first woman to command American soldiers in battle. 

Nancy Harkness learned to fly when she was just sixteen years old and earned her commercial pilot's license while in college. In 1935, she was hired by the Bureau of Air Commerce to work on its air-marking project. 

Ruby Bradley is one of the most decorated women in U.S. military history. She was assigned to 2nd lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps in 1934 and was then sent to the Philippines. There, her base fell under the control of the Japanese authorities, and she and her team were held captive. 

Ann E. Dunwoody came from a family that served in the military, and she wanted to follow her family's legacy of service. She was a commander of one of the largest commands in the Army, which employed more than sixty-nine employees throughout the U.S. and one hundred and forty-five countries. 

There are physical concerns with women in the military. Among active-duty female troops, motherhood accounts for fifty-eight percent of hospitalizations. 

There are social concerns with women in the military. There is a concern that women in the military will result in romantic relationships on the front line, which could disrupt a unit's fighting capability. The other concern is that women are at risk of being captured, tortured, and possibly sexually assaulted. 

There are tactical concerns with women in the military. However, one study showed that the group intelligence of an organization rises when women are on teams. Others have said that men have a harder time seeing women wounded or killed.