By
Karen Parrish, AFPS, WASHINGTON, Feb. 9, 2012 - Military women,
particularly soldiers, will see more than 14,000 new job or assignment
opportunities because of policy changes the Defense Department announced
today.
The changes are included in a report the department submitted to
Congress today, based in part on findings the Military Leadership
Diversity Commission reported in March.
Today's report includes a "vision statement": "The Department of
Defense is committed to removing all barriers that would prevent service
members from rising to the highest level of responsibility that their
talents and capabilities warrant."
A Pentagon news release accompanying the announcement quotes Defense
Secretary Leon E. Panetta as saying women have proven themselves in and
out of battle.
"Women are contributing in unprecedented ways to the military's
mission," he said. "Through their courage, sacrifice, patriotism and
great skill, women have proven their ability to serve in an expanding
number of roles on and off the battlefield.
"We will continue to open as many positions as possible to women so
that anyone qualified to serve can have the opportunity to do so," the
secretary added.
The biggest barrier DOD is lifting is a 1994 policy prohibiting women
from jobs -- such as tank mechanic and field artillery radar operator
-- that take place near combat units. With that bar removed, more than
13,000 Army jobs will be available to women soldiers for the first time.
The second change is an "exception to policy" that will allow the
Army, Navy and Marines to open select positions at the battalion level
in jobs women already occupy.
The current policy, also set in 1994, bars women in jobs such as
intelligence, communications and logistics from assignment at units
smaller than a brigade. Nearly 1,200 assignments will open to women
soldiers, sailors and Marines under the exceptions.
As the law requires, the Defense Department will not implement the
new policies until Congress has been in continuous session for 30 days,
which should happen later this spring.
The report notes the policy changes reflect conditions already common
in the past decade's wars, where attacks can occur without warning and
battle lines can shift to formerly "rear echelon" areas.
"The dynamics of the modern-day battlefield are non-linear, meaning
there are no clearly defined front line and safer rear area where combat
support operations are performed within a low-risk environment," the
document's authors wrote.
Pentagon statistics show 144 military women have been killed (2.27%
of those killed) and 865 wounded (2.26% of those wounded) in combat and
noncombat incidents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some 20,000 (<1%)of the
205,000 service members [No, I don't know where the other 100,000 in Afghanistan are. This is the first I've heard of them.] currently
serving in Afghanistan are women, and they make up about 280,000 of the
more than 2.3 million troops who have served in operations over the
past decade.
The 1.4 million-member active-duty force now serving includes about 205,000 women(14.6%).
The report notes the changes will expand career opportunities for
women, provide a greater pool of troops from which combatant commanders
may draw, reduce the operational tempo for "male counterparts" by
increasing the number of service members available to support direct
combat forces, improve consistency in assignment policy, and give field
commanders more flexibility in meeting combat-support mission
requirements.
Pentagon Press Secretary George Little told reporters the policy
changes follow an extensive review that involved input from all the
services.
"We believe it is very important to explore ways to offer more opportunities to women in the military," he said.
Little said the department will continue to look for ways to increase
opportunities for military women. He acknowledged most of the positions
involve the Army, as the nation's primary ground force.
"Most positions in the Air Force are already open to women," Little
noted. "The vast majority of positions in the Navy are already open to
women, so most of these positions do involve the United States Army."
The report states that 99 percent of all Air Force positions, officer
and enlisted, are open to women. The figure is 66 percent for the Army,
68 percent for the Marines, and 88 percent for the Navy.
The 1994 Direct Ground Combat Definition and Assignment Rule
identified five elements affecting women's military service: direct
ground combat, berthing and privacy, collocation, long-range
reconnaissance and special operations forces, and physically demanding
tasks.
Today's report addresses two of these with full or partial policy
changes, and addresses the others by stating department officials are
working to establish gender-neutral job standards.
"This will mean a thorough analysis of job-related physical
requirements ... expected of service members," the report reads in part.
"These standards will help determine which specific positions presently
excluded under the special operations and physical standards criteria
are suitable for general assignment of both genders."
The report's authors acknowledged there are "practical barriers that
require time to resolve to ensure the services maximize the safety and
privacy of all service members while maintaining military readiness."
The
secretary directed the services to report results, six months after the
policies take effect, on their implementation of the new assignment
standards and their progress developing gender-neutral physical standards.
[Gender neutral PT standards?!?!? That is an admission by
the Secretary of Defense that the current Physical Fitness standards for
combat are out of reach by females, that they only way both sexes can
pass the same standards is if the standard is lowered.]
