Posted on 06/17/2013 3:18:27 PM PDT by jazusamo
The Pentagon is planning to open the ranks of the Navy SEALs, the Army's elite Ranger units and other specialized combat outfits to female soldiers for the first time, according to reports.
The first opportunity female soliders will have to join the military's elite combat units will be with the Navy, according to Pentagon plans outlining the transition, obtained by the Associated Press on Monday.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel could officially announce plans to expand access to those units as soon as Tuesday, according to the AP.
Hagel's pending announcement builds upon former Pentagon chief Leon Panetta's decision in January to end the military's long standing ban on women in combat.
The time lines set by the Department of Defense (DOD) to open Ranger and SEAL units up to female soldiers and sailors are still being reviewed by senior military leaders.
Navy officials will open up the service's Riverine Forces to eligible female candidates, beginning next month, the Pentagon plan states.
Women sailors who fit the service criteria will be able to enroll in the Riverine Combat Skills course, a rigorous 33-day program designed to teach "basic expeditionary combat training necessary to ... perform high risk operations when assigned to Navy Riverine Force Organizations," according to a service website.
Next up will be the Army, whose leaders plan to open up the service's Ranger School at Fort Benning, Ga. to female candidates beginning in 2015.
The service's vaunted Ranger regiments specialize in small-unit combat tactics, airborne assault operations and are seen as the main entryway into Army Special Forces.
Service leaders expect to have new training and qualification requirements for female Ranger candidates by July 2015, the AP reports.
A year later, according to the Pentagon's plans, women sailors will be able to participate in the Navy's Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training program at the Naval Special Warfare Training Center in Coronado, Calif.
BUD/S is seen as one of the most intense training programs in the U.S. military, with roughly 70 percent of SEAL candidates failing to complete the program.
SEAL teams are responsible for some of the most sensitive counter terrorism and combat operations conducted by American armed forces.
Members of the Navy's Special Warfare Development Group, also known as SEAL Team Six, conducted the May 2011 raid in Abottabad, Pakistan that ended with the death of al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.
While allowing female soldiers and sailors the opportunity to join Ranger or SEAL teams is major milestone for the Pentagon, female soldiers have already begun to play a key role in U.S. special operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
All-women units, known as Female Engagement Teams, already work alongside American regular and special forces units to train and equip U.S.-backed local militias in Afghanistan.
Female soldiers and officers have also risen through the intelligence and personnel fields within Special Operations Command and the command's service components.
But with special operations forces set to grow, in both size and operational tempo, the opportunities for women within the command to take part in operations worldwide will only increase.
Those opportunities will likely fall under "indirect action" missions, such as long-term training and advising efforts with foreign militaries, rather than direct combat-type operations, like the Bin Laden raid.
LOL!
They train Seals at the Gulfarium. They get them to put basketballs through the net with near 100 per cent accuracy. Those are really highly trained Seals.
They also balance balls on their noses.
Why keep saying something so silly, the standards never remain the same, it has been 40 years and that argument is just silly and even dishonest.
Do you realize that females have a different set of standards in the military, and that every school that they start attending changes standards to accommodate their lack of being able to perform?
Listen as a recent graduate of paratrooper school and a graduate of 40 years ago compare notes.
Currently 107 or higher GT score for Ranger and 107 or higher GT score and combat operations ASVAB score of 98 or higher for SF.
The women who qualify as Seals will certainly be Wonder Women types, but they never will have the upper body strength and other unique inner and outer body make-up that men have....and which characteristics every Seal warrior needs if HE is to be unique, elite and effective.
Every day it's a new in-your-face from the lunatic in the White House, isn't it!
I'm getting so tired of being sick and tired....with three and a half long years still to go.....damn!
Leni
Here’s a more up to date one— can females
Rappel from a helicopter in full combat gear for assault?:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/news/how-to-rappel-from-a-helicopter
Or infiltration/exfiltration by a variety of means:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/7-93/Ch6.htm
Having viewed these operations at Camp Pendleton and elsewhere-— especially, how could women manage Special infiltration/exfiltration as described here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Patrol_Insertion/Extraction
...when you haven't eaten or slept in two days.
0.0001% not worth the effort.
PC at it’s worst. The military isn’t going to be worth a bucket of BS after this.
The point of all of this is to get the feminist vote, it has nothing at all to do with readiness, warfighting, leadership or even the military writ large. They are just a tool for the lefty politicians.
Just using the military to play politics. Problem is, there are times we really need a badass military to protect us.
The military really does have two distinct cultures, depending on the presence or absence of women. I was a spook by trade, but a support guy in a SOF unit for 5 years. I had to live in both worlds at times, and the difference is jarring. Intelligence is largely a modern corporate culture. SOF is an old school warrior culture.
In Military Intelligence, Soldiers are well conditioned to be cautious and civil in speech and writing, to the extent you find in any professional office setting. A SOF operator, on the other hand, makes an average of 5 career ending inappropriate statements during the course of given day.
Applying Big Army speech and living arrangement standards to SOF culture will annihilate it. People that seek out dangerous work are wired for assertive, outgoing behavior. Simply put, there isn't any way to square the concerns of modern policy with a warrior culture. They cannot coexist. Destroying the warrior culture to make room for modern policy concerns will cause most SOF operators to drift away into other lines of work.
There will be no unit cohesion if there are two standards. These are small units based on earned trust. Two separate standards will not work. Odierno is a huge disappointment. Dempsey is a lying classless SOB with a whole bunch of bling. There I said it. If the standards are lowered then becoming a SEAL or a Ranger has no meaning after 2014. No point in signing up.
WAFJ!
Have to disagree. Some women I have met are probably physically capable and mentally capable; they are just very rare, tough examples of the gender, not the standard.
Just remember the bosses in the Pentagon are political appointees; if not affirmative action, at the very least for outstanding political correctness.
I think if Obunghole wants this type of unit, it should be an all female unit.
Mixed units are NOT good for morale, unless they are “in the rear with the gear”.
Sad but very astute statement. BTTT
Re your Post #14.
You hit it out of the ball park.
Wow, 107 for SF, that is fairly recent.
Women are about to find out that they are women... if they have to perform at the same level as the men... not one woman will make it. Since we know they will bend whatever rules gives the left what they want... some will get through.
LLS
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