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.
I am totally against this. Men, there are no reason to sign up for these special units. They won't be special any longer.
Obama, must you ruin everything with your idealogical idiocy?
WASHINGTON — Have you ever heard a retired Soldier say, “They can’t touch me now; I’ve retired.”? Fortunately, for the sake of military justice, this is not true when it comes to retired Soldiers who violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) while they were on active duty or in a retired status.
Under Article 2 of the UCMJ, the Army maintains court-martial jurisdiction over retired personnel. Army Regulation 27-10, Military Justice, states “Retired members of a regular component of the Armed Forces who are entitled to pay are subject to the provisions of the UCMJ . . . and may be tried by court-martial for violations of the UCMJ that occurred while they were on active duty or while in a retired status.” Department of the Army policy, however, does limit these trials to cases where extraordinary circumstances are present. The Army normally declines to prosecute retired Soldiers unless their crimes have clear ties to the military, or are clearly service discrediting. If necessary to facilitate courts-martial action, retired Soldiers may be ordered to active duty.
The regulation adds that “Retired Reserve Component Soldiers are subject to recall to active duty for the investigation of UCMJ offenses they are alleged to have committed while in a Title 10 duty status, for trial by court-martial, or for proceedings under UCMJ, Article 15.” Forfeitures imposed under the UCMJ, Article 15 may even be applied against a Soldier’s retired pay.
I’m all for women doing what they want but physically they just cannot compete with men and its stupid to try to say they do.
Can I clean you out at a poker table playing Hold Em? Probably. Can I run through the jungle carrying a SAW and a 230 lb guy on my back? Not on your life. :-)
Yeah, Demi proved it could be done, right?
Not to say I told you so but I don’t think it was all that long ago we all said this was coming to the various teams.
Absolutely, correct. But I wouldn't close the door to the 0.0001% who can.
It is the effect of putting women in the military close to or in combat. It is how it goes on navy ships, so much and so commonly that it is not even remarked any more.In a society women may determine the goals by their preponderance in the electorate or in the implied electorate in a less democratic system but men will run the operations side of it always and they will run it all with an eye to their own needs and benefits and power.
Indeed. Most guys can’t either. Yet here we are.
For the last week or two I have been getting “The Military Channel” for free. They recently showed Ranger training including Mountains and Swamp.
In my youth I was a very fine athlete. I still hold a couple of college records from the early 70s. there is no way I would even try Ranger training or any other elite. I just could not push myself that hard.
“As someone mentioned earlier, our government may be getting close to the point where it can’t be trusted with a competent military, anyway, so ... silver lining!”
Exactly. I would rather face a squad of screaming little girls than men.
Thanks, they published a pretty blunt reminder to retirees didn’t they?
How many more need to die from the scourge of political correctness?
It is not idiocy.it is perversity and it may not even originate with him. Valery Jarrett seems to be the source of most everything in this administration. I wonder what her source is.
There goes those two down the drain.
I find the timing of their “reminder” highly suspect. Another stark example of the Obamites placed at all levels of authority within the DoD, both in and out of uniform.
So will the obstacle course include parallel parking a Humvee?
They are definitely going to lower the standards.
Change SEALs to BEAVERs.
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