Defense chief to US military: open all combat jobs to women
Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Thursday he is ordering the U.S. military to open all combat jobs to women, rebuffing requests by the Marine Corps to exclude women from certain front-line combat jobs.
Declaring that "we are a joint force," Carter said that while moving women into these jobs will present challenges, the military can no longer afford to exclude half of the population from grueling military jobs. He said that any man or woman who meets the standards should be able to serve, and he gave the armed services 30 days to submit plans to make the historic change.
Carter's order opens the final 10 percent of military positions to women, and allows them to serve in the military's most demanding and difficult jobs, including as special operations forces, such as the Army Delta units and Navy SEALs.
