Military to open all combat positions to women
Army National Guard Officer Candidate Alessandra Lipari struggled to complete a pull-up as her platoon lined-up for breakfast during Phase One of Officer Candidate School and training at the Connecticut National Guard’s 169th Regional Training Institute at Camp Niantic in East Lyme, Conn. on July 22. (Sean D. Elliot/The Day via AP)
WASHINGTON » Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced today he is ordering the military to open all combat jobs to women, rebuffing requests by the Marine Corps to exclude women from certain front-line combat jobs.
Declaring that “we are a joint force,” Carter said that while moving women into these jobs will present challenges, the military can no longer afford to exclude half of the population from grueling military jobs. He said that any man or woman who meets the standards should be able to serve, and he gave the armed services 30 days to submit plans to make the historic change.
Carter’s order opens the final 10 percent of military positions to women, and allows them to serve in the military’s most demanding and difficult jobs, including as special operations forces, such as the Army Delta units and Navy SEALs.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Gen. Joseph Dunford, former Marine Corps commandant, had argued that the Marines should be allowed to keep women out of certain front-line combat jobs, citing studies showing that mixed-gender units aren’t as capable as all-male units. Carter said he came to a different conclusion, but he said the integration of women into the combat jobs will be deliberate and methodical and will address the Marine Corps concerns.
Dunford did not attend the news conference to announce the change, and when asked about that absence, Carter said he has discussed his decision multiple times with the chairman.
While noting that, on average, men and women have different physical abilities, Carter said the services must assign tasks and jobs based on ability, rather than on gender. He said that would likely result in smaller numbers of women in some jobs. Equal opportunity, he said, will not mean equal participation in some specialty jobs. But he added that combat effectiveness is still the main goal, and there will be no quotas for women in any posts.
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The decision comes after several years of study, and will wipe away generations of limits on how and where women can fight for their country.
Only the Marine Corps sought any exceptions in removing the long-held ban on allowing women to serve in dangerous combat jobs. The Army, Navy and Air Force have moved steadily toward allowing women to serve in all posts, and only the most risky jobs remain closed.
A senior defense official said the services will have to begin putting plans in place by April 1.
Carter has hinted at this decision for months, telling U.S. troops in Sicily in October that limiting his search for qualified military candidates to just half the population would be “crazy.”
He had given Dunford until the end of October to forward his review of the services’ recommendations on which jobs, if any, should remain closed to women. As Marine commandant, Dunford was the only service chief to recommend that some front-line combat jobs stay male-only, according to several U.S. officials.
Carter had pledged to thoroughly review the recommendations, particularly those of the Marine Corps, but said he generally believes that any qualified candidate should be allowed to compete for jobs. But the senior defense official said that while Carter recognizes there may be difficulties in opening the jobs to women, he has made his decision and all the services will follow it.
Answering a question from a Marine in Sicily, Carter said, “You have to recruit from the American population. Half the American population is female. So I’d be crazy not to be, so to speak, fishing in that pond for qualified service members.”
For that reason, the defense secretary said the military should recruit women into as many specialties as possible.
4 responses to “Military to open all combat positions to women”
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Women, as are men, should be required to register for the draft when they are 18. This would send out a good signal of equality.
Historically, the vote was limited to those who were liable for military service. Requiring women to register for the draft, and to be eligible for all military roles, would be a natural extension of their acquiring the right to vote.
The PC and dumbing-down of the military continues.
Bush sent men and women to their unnecessary deaths. Most were poor, white and from rural locations where most Americans never saw the pain that the poor paid for the whims of a low-intellect president who slept before 9-11.
I suppose this is a social experiment that has to be played out for good or ill. Other societies have seen women in combat roles, most notably the Soviet Union and Israel, though in varying degrees of voluntary service and never in heavy infantry combat units. Maybe in our country’s case it’ll work as it did in Joe Haldeman’s “The Forever War” (a novel praised by Robert A. Heinlein of “Starship Troopers” fame) where future female soldiers enjoy full parity with men in combat matters, though it should be said that female sexuality was dictated by “military custom (and law.)” It will be a fascinating transformation to watch.