DOD announces all combat positions open to women

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said women will still need to meet the same training and standards to fight in the field as men. “Women will be subject to the same standards and rules that men will”, he said.

As The New York Times reported, Carter’s decision overturns a 1994 Pentagon ruling which kept women from artillery, armor, infantry and similar combat roles.

The Marine Corps, however, which has a 93% male force, launched a almost year-long, $36 million study aimed at determining whether female Marines could effectively serve in combat roles.

Women from Long Island have participated in combat areas in Iraq and Afghanistan, serving in various capacities, including as convoy truck drivers, military police and helicopter pilots. In January 2013, then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta ordered the services to lift the ban on women serving frontline combat jobs.

Earlier this year, First Lt. Shaye Haver of Copperas Cove, Texas, and Capt. Kristen Griest of Orange, Connecticut became the first two females to graduate from one of the military’s most challenging courses, the Army’s elite Ranger School.

“I want to see the grounds upon which any actions that we take at the first of the year are going to be made”, Carter said at the time. This decision recognises the strength of all of our service members and will expand leadership opportunities for the many qualified women of our armed forces, Senator Sherrod Brown said.

Implementation won’t happen overnight, Carter said.

“I am announcing my decision…to proceed with opening all these remaining occupations and positions to women”, Mr Carter told reporters at the Pentagon.

All women will be able to work in Pentagon with no barriers.

After lengthy reviews, the Army, Navy, Air Force and U.S. Special Operations Command had recommended that women should be allowed to serve in their infantry and armored units. The Marine Corps was the only service that objected, citing a study that found all-male infantry units performed better than mixed-gender infantry units. The Marine Corps asked for a partial exemption, but Carter explained why he was denying that request: “We are a joint force, and I have chose to make a decision which applies to the entire force”.

“Fifth, we’ll have to address the fact that some surveys suggest that some service members, both men and women, have a perception that integration would be pursued at the cost of combat effectiveness”, he said. Among other things, it is an acknowledgement that American women have risked, and often sacrificed, their lives in every war since the Revolution.