'Days Of Rambo Are Over': Pentagon Details Women's Move To Combat

[Purveyor]

Women in America's armed services will have new options for what units they can join in coming years, the Pentagon says. The military said in January that it will end its combat exclusion that set a minimum size for units in which women could be deployed; the limit kept many women away from front-line combat units. The shift means women could join elite forces such as the Army Rangers and Navy SEALs.

Depending on the job, women could begin training to join combat units in the next one to three years, according to several military officers who spoke at a Pentagon briefing Tuesday afternoon. Integration into special forces units is expected to take the longest.

"The days of Rambo are over," said Maj. Gen. Sacolick, of the U.S. Special Operations Command Force Management Directorate. Noting that special operations groups are looking for people who can learn other languages and be deployed in a variety of situations, he added, "The defining characteristic of our operators is their intellect."

The change is expected to come slowly, with women not expected to begin training to join ground front-line combat units until at least 2014 or later. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has set a deadline of Jan. 1, 2016 for all positions to be open. Neither Hagel nor the top-ranking officers in military's branches attended Tuesday's media briefing.

Branches of the service are developing gender-neutral tests that will be tailored to their units, and they may request a special exception to the policy shift if they find that their female members can't perform the duties of a specific job.

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http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/18/193170940/days-of-rambo-are-over-pentagon-details-womens-move-to-combat

[Auggie]

1. I can't understand why anyone would want to fight in combat

[Aristus]

2. Lots of people want to fight in combat.

Until they actually do find themselves in combat. Then they change their tune pretty quickly.

I was a hot-headed 17 year-old when I enlisted as an M1 tanker. Thought I'd be hot-shit inside that tank. And I was a good tanker, too. Then I served in the Gulf. And although my unit didn't serve in combat (the ground war ended so quickly), our base got Scudded. That was all the hostile fire I ever care to see in my life!

There will always be a few twisted exceptions, like General Patton, who seemed to thrive on facing enemy fire. But they should not be listened to. And we should probably keep them on ice somewhere, away from the war machine until we ever actually do go to war.

[MotherPetrie]

3. I don't either. I can't understand why anyone would join the military, period.

Of all male-dominant institutions, that is the one that most needs to be opposed, not embraced.