Army Rangers to women"
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.
Once the USMC has been compromised, its over....
Back in the 80’s, USAF pilot training, classes usually numbered around 50-60 pilot trainees.
Of those, usually around 5-7 were women.
Sometimes not one of the women in the class had “the right stuff.”
In that case, the strongest weak one was identified, received extra (out of the syllabus) training, was given extra check-rides and they did everything but staple a Samsonite handle on her back to ensure at least ONE female passed per class.
I assume it’s “discriminatory” to look back now and examine service history for how these girls did in their flying careers.
David Hackworth was accused of doing such as recently as Viet Nam.
I was aboard the USS LaSalle, tied up pier-side. USS Puget Sound (a ship with women on it) was doing a port call, along with a DESRON.
The females from PS were paired up on ship with PS males until they went ashore. On shore, they started to chase other sailors from other ships.
This caused all sorts of trouble. It seemed like every 18-yr old sailor was fighting over a women. . .and on the pier they were--big riot.
Remember, they are still kids and still have hormones.
That is true.
A lone female has the power to define the level of banter and ribbing that goes on in elite units, or any units for that matter.
Saw it personally in the fighter pilot world where our “hog logs” went away and one had to be careful and guarded whenever a female was around. . .never knew what would set her off, if anything, didn’t know, but did know the risk to your career and future flying fighters was in the hands of a single female in the squadron.
There is a two-year funding cycle for federal troops. Nothing new there.
Each year a PB is submitted (POM) with every off-year considered the APOM.
“Call the Pentagon its their bright idea and if memory serves its all men up there”
Given what is happening to the military, I’m not sure you are correct.
Kidding aside, the chief’s may be male but their support staffs are nearing 40% female, and that is the staff making the arguments and shaping data to support or deny policies.
In 1969 I was stationed at Wichita Falls, Tx (Sheppard AFB)and started dating a drop dead gorgeous WAF.On my meager pay I took her out for burgers & movies and after a couple of weeks thought things were going quite well. Until my roomy seen her. He told me she was boinking half the guys on the base, which I didn’t believe. One night he told me I needed to go to the baseball dugout about 2 blocks away. Well, there she was in the dugout servicing 7 guys. So much for love.
Nice nail job. LOL!
True. Back then the argument was made (behind closed doors) to justify a non-performing female to graduate was because the female would be going to a crew aircraft so she would have more time to learn and not kill herself. Of course, a male pilot trainee would get no such dispensation.
Now, females are in fighters.
Karen Hultgren, anyone?
And it will get this bad in the military.
http://www.wnd.com/2013/06/feds-pull-alice-in-wonderland-on-free-speech/
Not in my lab you didn't! Show up in heels and a dress, and you'll get sent packing. Slacks and steel-toed boots would be more like ...
And yes, I did have to "educate" a nice young lady with a Ph. D. from a prestigious university.
Yes, he must ruin everything, yes it's ideological, no it's not idiocy.
It's calculated malice.
His Heinous, Barackula the Destroyer wishes to turn America into Kenya.
Most welcome...Don’t blame you for not reading all, there’s a lot of posts. :-)
I believe they should let in those in wheelchairs, the blind, the mentally ill, quadrapalegics and, finally, ancephalics. Equality for all...enough of this arrogant meritocracy stuff.
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