A National Guard soldier was set to become the Army’s first female Green Beret since the Pentagon’s opening of all combat jobs to women in 2016. She’ll be the first woman in history to finish the yearlong qualification course and be assigned to a Special Forces operational detachment. But 40 years earlier, another woman passed the course and fought for her right to be recognized. Her name is Kate Wilder.

In 1980, when Wilder, then an intelligence officer, entered the U.S. Army Special Forces Officer Course, she had already _______ (1) serving in the special-operations community for four years. Wilder got an intelligence-officer job because she had the one qualification that was required: she was a graduate of the Airborne School. As a jumpqualified military intelligence officer, Wilder assigned as its adjutant. She quickly learned the ins and outs of all the Army’s regulations regarding special operations, and found nothing stating that Special Forces training was male-only. So she applied. And after a long fight, she started the Special Forces Officer Course in 1980. Though she passed every single graded event, the head of the school called her the day before graduation and told her she would not be graduating. Wilder was livid, and she fought back. The Army conducted an investigation, and in 1981 she was _______ (2) a certificate of graduation backdated to 1980. Army regulations were changed after Wilder graduated, explicitly barring other women from attending the course — until 2016, when all combat jobs were formally opened to women.

Adapted from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/28/magazine/woman-special-forces-greenberet.html?