Missouri S&T alumna Lisa Peplinski Jaster, CE’04, has completed what few men and even fewer women have — the U.S. Army Ranger School.

Jaster, 37, a 2000 West Point graduate, is a major in the Army as a reservist and the third woman to pass the course. She is the mother of a 7-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter.

“There is no quitting,” Jaster told the Columbus (Ga.) Ledger-Enquirer. “I can’t have quit in me. So, there was never an option to stop. There was never an option to quit.”

The course is the Army’s premier combat leadership course, teaching Ranger students how to overcome fatigue, hunger and stress to lead soldiers during small-unit combat operations. During the course, which forces participants to operate on little food and sleep, students learn to operate in woodland, mountain and costal swamp terrain.

A graduation ceremony was held Oct. 16 at Victory Pond for Jaster and the other soldiers who earned their Ranger tabs.

“Once you get in the field and once you start training shoulder to shoulder, gender stops mattering very quickly,” Jaster says.