Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will remove 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. senior defense official confirmed Wednesday
This policy change will initiate a process whereby the services will develop plans to implement this decision, which was made by the secretary of defense upon the recommendation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a senior defense official said
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
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. Women comprise 14 percent of the 1.4 million active-duty military personne
Time has come to rescind the direct combat exclusion rule for women and to eliminate all unnecessary gender-based barriers to service, Dempsey wrote in the memo, dated Jan. 9
Dempsey explained that the vote to lift the ban was unanimous among the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Joint Chiefs of Staff unanimously join me in proposing that we move forward with the full intent to integrate women into occupational fields to the maximum extent possible, Dempsey wrote, according to the Washington Times report.To implement these initiatives successfully and without sacrificing our warfighting capability or the trust of the American people, we need time to get it right
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