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Secretary of Defense James Mattis announced a historic nomination from the president on Tuesday. If confirmed, Marine Corps Col. Lorna M. Mahlock will be the first African-American female to serve as brigadier general, according to the Marine Corps office of public affairs. Last year, the Marine Corps 'made history' by welcoming its first female infantry officer. The woman, who wished to be unnamed, was the first female to finish training for a military occupational specialty (MOS), which was opened up to women in April 2016.

A British woman fighting with a Kurdish armed unit has died in Syria, her father has said. Anna Campbell, 26, from Lewes, East Sussex, died on March 15 in Afrin while with the Kurdish Women's Protection Units, the YPJ. It is feared she was killed by Turkish airstrikes. Ms Campbell - who had dyed her fair hair black so she would not stand out - is the first British woman to have been killed in Syria with the Kurds and the first Briton to be killed in the battle for Afrin. Seven other Britons have died in the country while...

Homelessness among women veterans is expected to increase at greater rates as more women in the military reintegrate into their communities following their military service, according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. While women currently make up eight percent of the total veteran population and 14.6% of the active duty military, those figures are expected to increase to an estimated 16% by 2035. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4814612/Homeless-vets-tell-traumatized-sex-assault.html#ixzz4qZiSU0uc Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- The only woman in the Navy SEAL training pipeline has dropped out, a Navy special warfare official confirmed Friday. The female midshipman voluntarily decided to not continue participating in a summer course that's required of officers who want to be selected for SEAL training, Lt. Cmdr. Mark Walton, a Naval special warfare spokesman, told The Associated Press. The Navy has not released the woman's name, part of a policy against publicly identifying SEALs or candidates for the force. No other woman has started the long process required to become a Navy SEAL, Walton said...

A woman aiming to become the first female Navy SEAL officer quit about a week into the initial training, Task and Purpose reported Thursday.The unidentified female candidate dropped out in early August during a three-week course in San Diego that began July 24. It was the first assessment of potential SEAL officers before they can be sent on to more grueling courses, according to the website, which cited "multiple Naval Special Warfare Command sources."

“Navy SEAL officers are expected to lead from the front in all categories, especially in physical fitness.” Official Naval Special Warfare Website On Wednesday, August 2nd, 2017 the first female to gain entry to the SEAL Officer Assessment & Selection (SOAS) program voluntarily quit. The three-week course began Monday, July 24th, 2017 in San Diego, California home of the Navy SEAL training base, and by Wednesday it was all over for this candidate. Making history, in the summer of 2017 the US Navy accepted its first female officer candidate into the Naval Special Warfare officer screening pipeline called the SEAL...

In 2013, the US military lifted its ban on women serving in combat. Shortly after, the Marine Corps began what it calls an “unprecedented research effort” to understand the impact of gender integration on its combat forces. That took the form of a year-long experiment called the Ground Combat Element Integrated Task Force, in which 400 Marines — 100 of them female — trained for combat together and then undertook a simulated deployment, with every aspect of their experience measured and scrutinized. All branches of the military faced a January 1, 2016 deadline to open all combat roles to women,...

The $12.9 billion USS Gerald R. Ford, which can carry about 5,000, is the first new US aircraft carrier designed in 40 years. Of course, a lot has changed in 40 years. For one thing, it’s not uncommon to find women serving aboard such carriers these days. Women account for nearly 20% of the sailors in the US Navy. So, the ship’s designers adapted to the new reality. According to the Navy Times, the Ford has no urinals—only seated toilets with stalls.

Are recruiters, particularly in the Army and Marines, lying to (or at least misleading) young women who they try to recruit into military service? That’s a question which is asked and answered in the LA Times this week by two people who should know. Julie Pulley is a former West Point graduate Army captain and Afghanistan veteran. Rear Adm. Hugh P. Scott was a Navy medical officer and is an expert in medical physical standards. They discuss the current push to drive up the number of women going into combat roles and the unique stresses which the demands of those...

The Navy says it has its first female candidates for two elite special operations jobs previously closed to women — including a prospective SEAL. One woman is in the pipeline to be a SEAL officer, and another is on the path to becoming a special warfare combatant crewman. The news was first reported by Military.com, an independent website. The Navy declined to identify the candidates, citing security considerations. The announcement comes more than 18 months after the Pentagon declared that women can now serve in front-line combat positions. "They are the first candidates that have made it this far in...

More than a year after a mandate for the Pentagon opened previously closed ground combat and special operations jobs to women, officials say the Navy has its first female candidates for its most elite special warfare roles. Two women were in boot camp as candidates for the Navy's all-enlisted Special Warfare Combatant-Craft Crewman program, Naval Special Warfare Center Deputy Commander Capt. Christian Dunbar told members of the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Service in June. Another woman, who sources say is a junior in an ROTC program at an unnamed college, has applied for a spot in the...

The U.S. Army is telling women soldiers that they need to accept gender-confused, biological men in their showers, bathrooms, and barracks as part of a controversial policy to build “dignity and respect” for “transgender Soldiers.” The guidance is part of the Pentagon’s new “transgender inclusion” agenda launched by Obama and gaining ground in the Armed Services. Social conservatives are mounting a counteroffensive to ditch the “trans” program altogether. President Trump and the Pentagon have sent mixed signals on LGBT issues, with the DoD honoring gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender “pride” month in June even as Trump himself broke with Obama by not issue a...

Gannett paper, link only: http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/joni-ernst-female-veteran-senate-profile

Air Force cadet Hayley Weir had an idea that turned out to be a game changer. "It was just the concept of going out there and stopping a bullet with something that we had made in a chemistry lab." The 21-year-old Weir approached Air Force Academy Assistant Professor Ryan Burke with the idea. He was skeptical. "I said, 'I'm not really sure this is going to work, the body armor industry is a billion-plus-dollar industry," he noted. Weir's idea was to combine anti-ballistic fabric with what's known as a shear thickening fluid to create a less heavy material to use...

A new TV ad from the U.S. Marine Corps focuses on a woman in combat, the first commercial of its kind for the military branch. The woman starring in the new spot, Marine Capt. Erin Demchko, has served in Afghanistan and was a logistics officer on a Female Engagement Team, according to the Marine Corps website. “FETs build trust with local civilians to gather information and improve relations with the community,” says the website. “Capt. Demchko worked side by side with her fellow Marines to complete missions in the region.” The ad follows a young girl who stands up...

The Senate has confirmed Heather Wilson as secretary of the Air Force. Senators approved Wilson’s nomination 76-22, making her President Donald Trump’s first service secretary nominee to be approved by the GOP-led chamber. ... Wilson is a former Republican congresswoman from New Mexico. She had faced scrutiny from several Democrats for defense industry consulting work she did after leaving Congress in 2009. She is the first graduate of the Air Force Academy to hold the service’s top civilian post.

What do you do if you're a woman in the Marines, and you make a sex video, and your fellow Marines see it? Claim you're being sexually harassed, of course! It seems that a number of female Marines are having sex with male Marines and filming it, and then, when they break up, the male Marines share the sex videos with their comrades. This is said to have provoked a major crisis in the Marines. Marine officials said the branch was looking into a number of Marines, as well as current and former service members, who shared naked and compromising...

Hundreds of US Marines swapped naked pictures of female recruits and veterans — many of whom had no idea that they had been photographed — on a secret Facebook page, a report says. More than two dozen women — including active-duty and enlisted service members — were spotlighted on the social media site and identified by their full name, rank and military duty station, CIR reported on its website Reveal.

Increasing the number of women recruits would be “beneficial” to the Swiss army, a top commander has said. “For me, it would be desirable if we could significantly increase the proportion of women in the medium term,” said Corps Commander Daniel Baumgartner in an interview with Neue Zürcher Zeitung published on Wednesday. “Women think and act differently. That would be good for the army,” he added. While Baumgartner did not suggest that compulsory military service should be extended to women, he said a compulsory ‘information day’ should be introduced where women can find out about the opportunities the army could...

Captain Or Ben-Yehuda of the Israeli Defense Forces has cemented a legacy that will endure well past her lifetime. The young, decorated IDF Captain was in charge of a company of soldiers when they were violently attacked by nearly two dozen terrorists near the Egyptian border. Read full article at Tribunist.......http://tribunist.com/lifestyle/this-female-idf-soldier-fights-off-23-terrorists-in-ambush-attack-after-being-shot/