It also opens the Marine Corps infantry, a battle-hardened force that many service officials had openly advocated keeping closed to female service members.
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Carter said the Marine Corps had asked for a partial exception, but he made the decision to override that request because he said, “We are a joint force”.
“We have to take full advantage of every individual who can meet our standards”, Defence Secretary Ashton Carter announced at a Pentagon news conference yesterday.
Carter had pledged to thoroughly review the recommendations, particularly those of the Marine Corps, but said he generally believes that any qualified candidate should be allowed to compete for jobs.
The Marine Corps has long held concerns that integrating women into combat units could erode morale in all-male platoons and lead to increased sexual tension that would undermine fighting capability. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said it would “strengthen our armed forces” and Representative Niki Tsongas called it a “long overdue” move that would eliminate some of the barriers to advancement that women face in the military.
Carter said Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Paul Selva will oversee the decision’s short-term implementation, ensure there are no unintended consequences to the joint force, and periodically update Carter and Dunford. In 2013, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta issued a directive that all positions be opened to qualified women by January 1, 2016.
He says women will be able to fill all jobs now limited to men, including infantry and some special operations units.
The ruling came after a three year review that had seen appeals by certain sections of the US Marines who claimed men and women would not form efficient combat groups.
Women in Congress who had served in the military hailed Carter’s announcement.
The defense secretary couched his announcement as part of a long-term evolution within the US military, from opening military academies to women in 1975 to allowing women to fly fighter jets in 1993. Women will also now be able to join special forces teams like the Navy SEALs, Delta Force, etc., if they qualify. The US military is now an all-volunteer force, but young men are still required to register in case the draft is reactivated.
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Earlier this year, First Lt. Shaye Haver of Copperas Cove, Texas, and Capt. Kristen Griest of Orange, Connecticut became the first two females to graduate from one of the military’s most challenging courses, the Army’s elite Ranger School.
