DoD lifts ban on women in combat

[Deberg_1990]

Does this mean that women will now have to register with the Selective Service as well?



http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/art...ds-4218940.php






In a historic action, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta today will remove the ban on women in combat that has excluded them from jobs ranging from infantry squad leaders and tank gunners to commandoes.

The decision, praised by women's advocates but denounced by the conservative Family Research Council, ends a 1994 Pentagon policy that barred women from high-risk ground combat jobs.

Women often have seen combat anyway over the past decade, as 283,000 of them went to Afghanistan and Iraq, according to a Congressional Research Service report, with 144 killed and 855 wounded.

“I remember in 1990 when we went into the first Gulf War, there was an uproar about women going to the front lines and talking about women being taken away from their children and having to go to war, having to go into combat,” said Bexar County Sheriff Susan Pamerleau, a retired Air Force major general.

“Then when we went into the Iraqi war (in 2003), there were no longer those kinds of issues,” she said. “Those issues weren't raised because people were recognizing that we've done this for a long time, women are trained to do this.”

Military officials said Panetta would unveil details in a news conference this afternoon.

An implementation period is expected, though details of how the service branches will phase in the policy weren't clear.

Anu Bhagwati, executive director of Service Women's Action Network, which joined three officers and an Army staff sergeant in lawsuit led by the ACLU to overturn the policy, called the decision a historic moment.

The policy, and laws before it, were rooted in a military long segregated by color, ethnicity and gender. But barriers to women had fallen over the decades, especially after the Women's Army Corps was disbanded in 1978.

The combat exclusion policy had barred women from serving in around 238,000 jobs, said Bhagwati, who noted that many of those positions set the stage for higher-ranking assignments. Giving women the chance to compete for combat roles, she predicted, would improve retention and recruiting.

Women make up 14 percent of the 1.4 million troops in the armed forces



Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/art...#ixzz2IuPbDodW

[Aries Walker]

Incidentally . . .

Originally Posted by LiveSteam

Change a tire in the field on this ladies.

It's been done.



That's from 1945, and it's the Queen of England. I think women can change truck tires just fine.

[LiveSteam]

Originally Posted by Aries Walker

Incidentally . . .



It's been done.
That's from 1945, and it's the Queen of England. I think women can change truck tires just fine.

Two things pissed my dad off in his motor pool. #1 Gama goats. #2 females drilling on the weekends on the M35s. Changing tires & the battery

[Sorter]

Originally Posted by Brock

It's a bad idea, just like making women cops and firefighters.

I like women cops on tv

[Cheater5]

Originally Posted by dirk digler

Panetta and the Joint Chiefs Chairman stated today they aren't going to drop standards but we will see. If a woman can do the same standard as men then there really shouldn't be a problem. I think the issue is how they are going to incorporate the women into infantry platoons. That is going to be the real challenge.

Covered this in post #53 on page 4; probably too lengthy. The standards were already 'changed' (lowered) at many Infantry courses last summer Fort Benning in anticipation of this official announcement. Ranger Instructors have been told "they WILL graduate." Yes, I know this first hand.

Career advancement for women has a higher priority than the mission.

[mlyonsd]

I have no problem with it as long as physical standards aren't lowered to accommodate for women combat soldiers.

I'm guessing there are certain physical things a man has to do before going into combat mapped out by the military. That shouldn't change.

[BucEyedPea]

Originally Posted by mlyonsd

I have no problem with it as long as physical standards aren't lowered to accommodate for women combat soldiers.

I'm guessing there are certain physical things a man has to do before going into combat mapped out by the military. That shouldn't change.

Yeah well, there already are different standards for woman.

[notorious]

GI Jane didn't want different standards.

[BucEyedPea]

Originally Posted by notorious

GI Jane didn't want different standards.

Yeah, but that's Hollywood fiction. They also promoted the myth of the Wild West too!

[Branden Albert's Huge Balls]

There are gonna be some LOL stories about this.

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by GoWalrus

There are gonna be some LOL stories about this.

You mean like, "**** that truck tire!"

[BucEyedPea]

Originally Posted by dirk digler

Panetta and the Joint Chiefs Chairman stated today they aren't going to drop standards but we will see. If a woman can do the same standard as men then there really shouldn't be a problem. I think the issue is how they are going to incorporate the women into infantry platoons. That is going to be the real challenge.

Have you seen how much sexual assaults have increased in our military nowadays?

I read that in Iraq, women were afraid to go to the bathroom at night due to such assaults.

[Bowser]

Originally Posted by listopencil

You mean like, "**** that truck tire!"

[Otter]

I'd love to have count on some 130lb GI Jane to have to carry my wounded body out of enemy fire. "Guys I need you to help here! I'm a woman!".

This is dumb idealism at it's finest.

[Otter]

Originally Posted by RedNeckRaider

If they are going to be treated equal then run them through the same exact training with same exact physical requirements~

Aye-****ing-Men

See what I did there?

[Otter]

Originally Posted by Bowser

Just send BEP over to fight for us. She'll bitch, moan, and nag every single one of our enemies into submission/suicide.

We'll even throw you a parade, Pea.

Or send in cpSEAL Team 6: BP & Denise

I'm ready to commit suicide by stabbing myself in the brain with the blunt end of a rusty spoon for just suggesting it.