“Why shouldn’t anybody who can meet these [standards] be accepted?” He also told Navy Times’ sister publication Defense News, he believes that if women can pass the legendary 6-month Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training, they should be allowed to serve. SEALs are highly specialized and trained to handle challenging warfare capabilities, including direct action warfare.
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Seals have carried out some of America’s most unsafe and storied raids, including the May 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda leader, in Pakistan.
Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the Navy’s retiring top officer, was in San Diego on Monday and addressed the same topic. “Second, that they are gender-neutral, and third, that they have something to do with the job”, he told the Navy Times.
“And to review that and see, ‘Does that standard make sense?”
Critics of the inclusion of women have questioned whether qualification standards would be changed to accommodate women, leading to less-elite fighters.
And that’s why the infantry may not be the best place to start in military gender integration. The dropout rate for the program is often more than 80 percent.
This is the first year women have been allowed to attend Ranger School in Fort Benning.
The decision about whether to allow women in direct combat roles would be made by someone above his pay grade, likely the Secretary of Defense.
Seal is an acronym for Sea, Air, Land teams, reflecting the special force’s capabilities.
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Navy officials have said they’re on track to open all jobs to women by next year, but this is the first indication that the SEALs are leaning toward accepting candidates, according to the Navy Times story.
