U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter was expected Thursday to announce a military policy shift that would allow women to serve in all combat positions within the armed forces, the Associated Press reported exclusively. Carter is giving the armed services until January 1 to submit plans to make the historic change. Army leaders have recommended opening all combat arms jobs to women, while Corps leaders want to keep some jobs male-only, according to officials familiar with the discussions.
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Carter said the decision was part of his commitment to build a force of the future.
The announcement comes more than 20 years after women were officially excluded from serving in small ground combat units back in 1994.
A senior defense official says all the services will have to begin putting plans in place by April 1.
He had given Dunford until the end of October to forward his review of the services’ recommendations on which jobs, if any, should remain closed to women.
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There are about 240,000 male-only jobs in the military, a lot of them in infantry units in the Army and Marine Corps. But in the case of Ranger School, one instructor took to Facebook to push back against those reports, defending the women’s performance and saying that it’s impossible to change some people’s opinions regardless of fact.
