Coloradan hopes to break down barriers for nurses

Throughout her life, Molly Murphy has been both tough and girly. Now she's taking that combo to the U.S. armed forces as the first female nurse to graduate from Army Ranger School.

Growing up in Lone Tree, Colorado, Molly played tackle football and rugby, but she was also a cheerleader.

"I like to balance it. I'm like -- nursing, Army, football, cheerleading, you know?" Molly said.

Her mother passed away when she was 8 and Molly grew up as the only girl in a military family, the middle child in between two boys.

"After her mother passed away, then it was kind of Molly and three boys," Molly's father Dan Murphy said. "I did my best to still make her a girl, but she enjoyed the sports and the competition. She was just as good or better than the boys were."

Molly graduated from Highlands Ranch High School and then attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. When Molly joined ROTC in college, becoming the fourth-generation military recruit in her family, her dad was surprised.

"I generally thought my boys would go into the military and not my daughter, but she was up for the challenge," Dan said.

"My uncle was only ever trying to get my brothers to join, and ironically, I was the only one who ended up joining the Army. My little brother is in the Air Force," Molly said.

She went on to become a nurse and complete a number of military schools before deciding to tackle Ranger School.

"Two other male nurses went, and guys that I did some of these competitions in schools went. So I thought, 'Well, if they can go, I can go,'" Molly said.

Molly says only 144 women have graduated from the elite school since it began allowing them to attend nine years ago. Molly looks up to them and hopes she too can serve as a role model for other girls and nurses.

While she wasn't a fan of having to shave her head, Molly says she never felt unwelcome at Ranger School.

"They were actually very inclusive. Every time they spoke, they said 'he or she, him or her.' I was shocked for the Army," Molly said. "The guys around me were really hyping me up and cheering me on and really trying to get me through the school."

After three months of intense physical and mental training, Molly graduated Ranger School in July, becoming the third nurse, and first female nurse, to do so.

"I went in with no knowledge of combat arms, and it's a combat arms school," Molly said, "being a nurse was very different to go through the school as not only a female, which is already hard on its own, but also from a non-combat arms profession to try and go through and rely on my nursing skills to get me through."

Today, Molly works at the Pediatric ICU at Walter Reed Medical Center in D.C., while she waits to be deployed as an Army nurse.

"Those two circles usually don't cross over, a caretaker type person and a go-getter enough to want to be in the Army Ranger and the swamps and the mountains," Dan said. "They do seem to cross over with Molly. She is a little bit of a unicorn."

Molly's nails are painted, and she's waiting for her hair to grow back as she continues to shatter stereotypes about women and nurses.

"Nurses are just women that are here to care for people," Molly said, speaking of an old mindset. "I'm hoping that me going to this school, along with the two guys who came before me, can show Ranger Regiment or special ops that we can keep up and we have a lot of skills to bring to the table."