Panetta opens combat roles to women
By The Associated Press
This article was published January 23, 2013 at 3:33 p.m.
PHOTO BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
This Jan. 19, 2013 file photo shows Defense Secretary Leon Panetta speaking during a news conference in London. Panetta has removed US military ban on women in combat, opening thousands of front line positions.
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WASHINGTON — Senior defense officials say Pentagon chief Leon Panetta is removing the military's ban on women serving in combat, opening hundreds of thousands of front-line positions and potentially elite commando jobs after more than a decade at war.
The groundbreaking move recommended by the Joint Chiefs of Staff overturns a 1994 rule prohibiting women from being assigned to smaller ground combat units. Panetta's decision gives the military services until January 2016 to seek special exceptions if they believe any positions must remain closed to women.
A senior military official says the services will develop plans for allowing women to seek the combat positions. Some jobs may open as soon as this year. Assessments for others, such as special operations forces, including Navy SEALS and the Army's Delta Force, may take longer.
The official said the military chiefs must report back to Panetta with their initial implementation plans by May 15. The announcement on Panetta's decision is not expected until Thursday, so the official spoke on condition of anonymity.
Panetta's move expands the Pentagon's action nearly a year ago to open about 14,500 combat positions to women, nearly all of them in the Army. This decision could open more than 230,000 jobs, many in Army and Marine infantry units, to women.
In recent years the necessities of war propelled women into jobs as medics, military police and intelligence officers that were sometimes attached -- but not formally assigned -- to units on the front lines.
Women comprise 14 percent of the 1.4 million active military personnel.
Read more in Thursday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Comments on: Panetta opens combat roles to women
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Pobucker says... January 23, 2013 at 4:35 p.m.
This will be ok if the women are really warriors. Nothing wrong with it. But if it turns out to be a way to give the girls a "break", meaning promotions and command, and the women do NOT serve as warriors, then it is wrong. I guess we'll see what happens.
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Jackabbott says... January 23, 2013 at 8:33 p.m.
This is where equality merges into stupidity. Who in their right mind would want to go into mortal combat?
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inquire says... January 23, 2013 at 9:59 p.m.
I've never understood why any woman would want to be in the military other than in a nursing or support role, if at all. To me, it is the absolute opposite of what a woman is. I do not approve of two parents voluntarily being in the military at the same time. I think it is the height of irresponsibility. If money is the issue, there are other roads to earning more money that don't involve guns and killing.
A woman friend of mine is a veteran, and she tells me about how the women soldiers had to constantly move about in a group for every little thing they wanted to do to avoid being raped. When she goes to the VA hospital in Little Rock, she meets so many women veterans who were raped.
Until they can restore honor and discipline to how the male soldiers behave, they don't need to take in any more women for anything.
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