Tag Archives: Women in Combat

U.S. military leaders say women should have to register for draft

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. armed forces leaders said on Tuesday that women should be required to register for the military draft, along with men, as the military moves toward integrating them fully into combat positions.

Congress should begin to look at legislation requiring women to register for the Selective Service, they told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on women in combat.

“I think that all eligible and qualified men and women should register for the draft,” said General Robert Neller, the commandant of the Marine Corps.

The U.S. military is currently an all-volunteer force, but young men are still required to register in case the draft is reactivated.

The military leaders at the hearing said it would take years for women to be fully integrated into combat units, although they generally voiced strong support for the plan to skeptical committee members.

“Full integration will likely take several years,” Patrick Murphy, acting secretary of the Army, said.

Mark Milley, the Army chief of staff, estimated that full integration of women would take “no less than one to three years of deliberate effort.”

President Barack Obama’s defense secretary, Ash Carter, announced in December that the military would let women serve in all combat roles, a historic announcement greeted with intense skepticism by many Republican members of Congress.

Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, the committee’s chairman, objected to the announcement at the time. He said it would have “a consequential impact” on U.S. forces and their war-fighting capabilities.

At Tuesday’s hearing, McCain again expressed doubts, saying he worried there had not been enough planning before the announcement. “I am concerned that the department has gone about things backwards,” McCain said.

Some Republican critics of the plan have said they fear it would lead to the imposition of quotas mandating a specific number of women in some units, such as Marines in positions that might require hand-to-hand combat.

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus rejected that suggestion as “unacceptable,” adding, “It would endanger not only the safety of Marines, but also the safety of our nation.”

Many Democrats have expressed strong support.

Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the panel, said physical abilities alone do not determine whether a military unit is effective.

“Fighting and winning wars, as I’m sure our panelists know well, involves much more than that,” Reed said.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Dan Grebler and Jonathan Oatis)

Pentagon Opens All Military Positions to Women

Women will be allowed to hold any job in the United States military — including those in combat units — following a historic announcement by Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Thursday.

Carter said at a news conference that for the first time ever, women in the U.S. military will be allowed to do jobs from which they were previously barred, given they meet specific standards.

“They’ll be allowed to drive tanks, fire mortars and lead infantry soldiers into combat,” Carter reportedly said, according to a recap posted on the Department of Defense’s official website. “They’ll be able to serve as Army Rangers and Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Marine Corps infantry, Air Force parajumpers and everything else that was previously open only to men.”

The jobs will formally become available to women next month, according to the Department of Defense posting, though Carter acknowledged that it will take some time for full integration.

Carter said at the news conference that leaders from all branches of the military had spent the past three years studying the assimilation of women into the previously men-only positions, according to the Department of Defense. Leaders from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Special Operations Command didn’t indicate that women should be barred from any job.

While the Marine Corps reportedly asked that certain jobs be kept men-only, like machine gunner and fire support reconnaissance, the Department of Defense quoted Carter as saying “we are a joint force and I have decided to make a decision which applies to the entire force.”

The news wasn’t immediately welcomed by everyone.

Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) and Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), the chairmen of the Armed Services Committees in their respective legislative houses, released a joint statement in which they said Carter’s decision “will have a consequential impact on our servicemembers and our military’s warfighting capabilities.” They said they want time to review the materials that played into Carter’s decision, including a 1,000-page report from the Marine Integrated Task Force.

One of the findings of that report, according to a September 2015 news release, was that all-male units generally outperformed integrated units in tests designed to simulate combat situations.

“We expect the Department to send over its implementation plans as quickly as possible to ensure our Committees have all the information necessary to conduct proper and rigorous oversight,” McCain and Thornberry said in the statement, adding that they also wanted to see the department’s stance on if changes to the Selective Service Act might now be required.