“There will be no exceptions”, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said at a news conference announcing the change, which negates a 1994 rule restricting women from artillery, armor, infantry, and other combat roles (at least officially; female soldiers often wound up in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan). “It’s a thrilling day for women serving in the military-and for women across the country”, the co-president of the National Women’s Law Center says.
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The armed services had been given a December 31 deadline to allow women into all of its units, including elite special operations ground combat position, or to request a waiver. In recent decades, the USA had opened about 90 per cent of military positions to women who time and again have proven that they, too, are qualified, ready and up to the task, Obama said.
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said women will still need to meet the same training and standards to fight in the field as men. A senior defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AP that all services will have to begin putting plans in place for combat integration by April 1. This change opens more than 10% of military jobs that were once closed to women.
The landmark decision is almost three years in the making. “They’ll be able to serve as Army Rangers, Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Green Corps Infantry, Air Force parajumpers and everything else that was previously open only to men”.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Gen. Joseph Dunford, was the Marine Corps commandant at the time and argued that the Marines should be allowed to keep women out of certain front-line combat jobs. Some military standards, including the scores on mandatory physical fitness tests, are scaled differently for men and women.
“We are a joint force, and I have chose to make a decision which applies to the entire force”, Carter announced Thursday. Carter said he overruled their objections.
Carter disagreed and said there will be no exceptions, but everyone in the roles will still have to meet the necessary standards.
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Women will be fully integrated into combat roles deliberately and methodically, the secretary said, using seven guidelines. The Marine Corps had released a study in September indicating that mixed-gender forces were less effective than all-male forces, but Carter said that study was “not definitive”. “Gender does not define the Service of a United States Sailor or Marine – instead, it is their character, selflessness, and abilities”.
