Pentagon chief: Open all combat jobs to women
After three years of study and debate, Defense Secretary Ash Carter ordered the military Thursday to open all military jobs to women, removing the final barriers that kept women from serving in combat, including the most dangerous and grueling commando posts.
First women move into Army platoon artillery
Under a canopy of trees on the edge of a large field, soldiers from Bravo Battery are lying in a circle as they pore over targeting charts. Nearby, others are preparing the howitzer cannons as helicopters swoop overhead. At the edge of the circle, the platoon leader watches as the field artillerymen go through their training exercise.
Women heading to Navy combat jobs
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — Anna Schnatzmeyer’s face is taut with concentration as she slowly maneuvers the Riverine assault boat away from the dock, using the
Plans would put women in most combat jobs
Military leaders are ready to begin tearing down the remaining walls that have prevented women from holding thousands of combat and special operations jobs near the front lines.
Under details of the plans obtained by The Associated Press, women could start training as Army Rangers by mid-2015 and as Navy SEALs a year later.
AP analysis: Soldiers’ combat stress felt far from front lines of battle
The gritty combat in Afghanistan is thousands of miles away.
But the analysts in the cavernous room at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia relive the explosions, the carnage and the vivid after-battle assessments of the bombings over and over again. The repeated exposure to death and destruction rolling across their computer screens is taking its own special toll on their lives.
Lawmakers, vet groups panning Pentagon’s new medal
The military’s new medal for cyber warriors should get a demotion, according to veterans groups and lawmakers who say it shouldn’t outrank such revered honors as the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.
Pentagon creates new medal for cyber, drone wars
They fight the war from computer consoles and video screens.
But the troops who launch the drone strikes and direct the cyberattacks that can kill or disable an enemy may never set foot in the combat zone. Now their battlefield contributions may be recognized with the first new combat-related medal to be created in decades.
Obama says Boy Scouts should allow gays
President Barack Obama said Sunday that gays should be allowed in the Boy Scouts and women should be allowed in military combat roles, weighing in on two storied American institutions facing proposals to end long-held exclusions.