Navy SEALs Ready To Welcome Women

A month ago, two female army rangers made history for being the first women rangers to graduate the U.S. Army Ranger School, as the Inquisitr reported. Now, the Navy SEALs are ready to welcome combat crew jobs to women. The commander of the Navy’s special warfare units says that jobs are open to women. However, the service may be forced to adjust the standards for women, as they may be subjected to greater risk of injury.

Read Adm. Brian Losey, head of the Navy’s Special Warfare Command, says that “there are no insurmountable obstacles” integrating women into the combat units, but there are “forseeable impacts” that will happen in the integration. According to the Navy Times, the Air Force, Navy, and Army are in discussion whether to ban or permit women from front-line combat jobs.

Despite the talks to alter the standards for women, Losey said that it will most likely not happen, as the standards have been followed for quite some time. Losey’s recommendation is not to consider gender identity during the screening process, so that the team will only consist of people who are qualified.

In 2013, as Quartz reported, the Marine Corps did a research effort in order to understand the impact of allowing women into combat forces. The year-long experiment, which the Marine Corps called the Ground Combat Element Integrated Task Force, consisted of 400 Marines, with 100 women who had to go through different facets of training and simulated deployment. According to the results, all-male teams performed better than mixed-gender teams in 93 out of 134 tasks.

January 1, 2016, is the deadline set when all U.S. military jobs will be open to women, unless leaders of special operations seek exceptions. Former commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, Eric Olson, spoke about the roles of women back in July, as reported by Defense One.

“They have served in our military information support roles, they have served in our civil affair roles, they have performed with great distinction, sometimes quite heroically. And there is much more opportunity for women to serve across the special operations community, so I see increased roles for women across special operations.”

However, he also said that that doesn’t mean he supports all military specialties to be open to women, but said that women can have special roles in combative environments.

The military services will be sending in their final recommendations regarding the issue soon to Defense Secretary Ash Carter.

[Photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Eric S. Logsdon / U.S. Navy via Getty Images]