Posted on 02/24/2010 1:04:01 PM PST by Bulldawg Fan
The military isn't asking, it's telling.
In a letter to Congress last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates notified lawmakers that women will be allowed to serve on submarines for the first time in the Navy's 110-year history, ABC News reported. Congress has 30 days to pass a law to stop or delay the policy, but if it remains silent, women could be aboard Navy submarines in 18 months.
The lifting of the ban removes one of the last glass ceilings for women in the military.
Unless Congress steps in, women could be serving on Navy submarines for the first time in the service's history in about 18 months. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus told ABC on Tuesday that allowing women to serve on subs is "a great idea and the right thing to do."
Women have been assigned to surface ships for the past 17 years but were kept off subs in fear that the small space would create challenges. For years, the Navy said it was too expensive to refit submarines with separate living quarters so women could serve.
Tracy Moran, a columnist for USA Today, said the Navy should wait to repeal the ban until its ships were ready to accommodate them. "Allowing female officers to serve on the boomers, as the panel recommended, would be a mistake at this point," she wrote. "Instead, let the Navy first develop vessels that can accommodate co-ed crews, and let them develop a career path for women. This may take many years, but doing it correctly will be worth the wait."
(Excerpt) Read more at aolnews.com ...
What a farce, total lunacy. The idiots running the defense department need to be fired once and for all. This on top of the Major Hasan fiasco, the Air Force Academy pagan temple and every other destructive element in the military has to go, but it wont, not by a long shot. Idiots all.
Second question concerns privacy. Is there any on board a sub? Not that I know of. But hey, we’re all just alike, right? Those young sailors and sailorettes will sure behave because the idiot Robert Gates, Admiral Mullen and the rest of the assylum running the military told them to.
Don’t forget, she may not know that she is pregnant.
Looks like the ships will not be the only thing filed with seamen
ZERO understands little except get his opponent any way he can. He acts and reacts just like a two year old.
We should just ignore.
Their is no “glass ceiling” for not being on a boat. The vast majority of the navy is non-sub and they never liked us.
Do submariners still share beds? I know in WWII you shared the same beds, sheets and everything, once one person’s watch was done you rolled into the same bed as the person relieving your post.
Can’t call it the “silent service” anymore. Yak yak yak, yak yak yak.
Isn’t this Adm. Mullen’s new policy? Next administration the “good” Adm. is gone.
Glass ceiling. In a place where you are isolated for extended periods of time with no privacy.
That is to laugh. Yes, this will smash the separation of men and women bunking and showering and shaving and sH**ing.
I share your frustration, Dawg. The lunatics are running the asylum.
When it comes to abortions, the policy is don’t ask, don’t tell.
My friend’s company sells these huge baking ovens for industry. They sold some to the Navy for an aircraft carrier. The ovens have these huge revolving flat racks that rotate around. What some of the entrepreneurial women were doing is, when the oven was not heated, using the racks to have paid sex on, when they were rotated to the back of the oven where nobody could see. Then someone would rotate them back after a certain amount of time. Kinda like “living on the edge”!!
mmmm fresh baked bread!
I believe the Royal Navy have women on subs.
True of SSBNs (boomers), which stay submerged for ~6 mos; not so the SSNs.
With all due respect, I think Dawg implied that she might be pregnant before boarding. As far as the boat is concerned they are down a crewmember regardless the reason. Not unique to the Navy or any other service branch, but it hurts more on subs.
Hot racking. Yes one on watch the other in the kip. Subs don’t have enough racks (bunks) for the crew members on board. The most junior and least qualified folks get to hot rack. A rite of passage.
I believe the Royal Navy has four subs and three have not left the dock in years.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.