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The sailor who was slain during a shootout aboard a guided-missile destroyer at a Virginia base saved another sailor's life by jumping between her and a civilian gunman who was trying to board the ship, Navy officials said Wednesday. (snip) He parked his tractor-trailer cab near Pier 1, was able to walk onto the pier and began heading up a ramp toward the USS Mahan when he was confronted by Navy security, said Mario Palomino, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service special agent in charge of the Norfolk field office. The man then got into an altercation with a female petty...

The Marine Corps will open new combat jobs to women, allow women to volunteer for combat specialty training previously closed to them and create a co-ed experimental task force to evaluate how female Marines perform as part of a ground combat unit, Marine officials said. The task force will be made up of about 460 Marines, and about one quarter will be women, said Capt. Maureen Krebs, a Marine spokeswoman. The task force will look like a small battalion landing team with attachments such as artillery, tanks and amphibious assault vehicles — similar to the ground combat portion of a...

I KNOW that I will probably get some flack for this, but I just can't hold my tongue any longer on this issue of female Marines participating in combat. I've been following this story closely for the past two years, and let's just say that this is where the egalitarian rubber meets the road. If you haven't been following the story, here's the skinny: More than half of female Marines can't do three pull-ups, and that's the minimum standard that the Marine Corps designated to integrate women into combat jobs. According to the military, eight pull-ups is a perfect score...

More than half of female Marines in boot camp can't do three pullups, the minimum standard that was supposed to take effect with the new year, prompting the Marine Corps to delay the requirement, part of the process of equalizing physical standards to integrate women into combat jobs. The delay rekindled sharp debate in the military on the question of whether women have the physical strength for some military jobs, as service branches move toward opening thousands of combat roles to them in 2016. Although no new timetable has been set on the delayed physical requirement, Marine Corps Commandant Gen....

The Marine Corps has delayed the requirement for female Marines to do three pullups because most women have so far been unable to pass the test. For 40 years, male recruits were required to perform three pullups to prove their upper body strength for combat, where they would need to carry heavy equipment and potentially lift themselves out of mud walls. Starting Jan. 1, female recruits would have been required to do the same. But 55 percent of female recruits could not complete all three pullups, compared to just 1 percent of male recruits who could not, so the requirement...

(CNSNews.com) -- Females in the Marine Corps currently are not required to do even a single pull-up, and a deadline mandating that by Jan. 1, 2014, they be able to do at least 3 pull-ups as part of their training has been delayed for at least a year, the Corps quietly announced on social media. Unlike their female counterparts, male Marines have long been required to do at least 3 pullups as part of the Physical Fitness Test (PFT). That's the minimum requirement for males. - See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/barbara-boland/female-marines-not-required-do-1-pull#sthash.d11sA26X.dpuf

Rachel Washburn, age 25, hasn't had a typical career path, to put it mildly. She joined the Eagles' cheerleading squad from 2007 to 2009 while a student at Drexel University. After graduation, she joined the Army and participated in paratrooper training while ultimately following a path into military intelligence. Washburn, now a 1st lieutenant based out of Fort Stewart, Ga., served as part of a Cultural Support Team designed to attach women to existing special ops units with the express purpose of relating more effectively to local women.

On Sunday night, the Philadelphia Eagles will honor one of their own, a former cheerleader who has served two tours in Afghanistan as an Army intelligence officer. Rachel Washburn, age 25, hasn't had a typical career path, to put it mildly. She joined the Eagles' cheerleading squad from 2007 to 2009 while a student at Drexel University. After graduation, she joined the Army and participated in paratrooper training while ultimately following a path into military intelligence.

The U.S. Army general in charge of training recently wrote about the service's examination of gender neutral standards to open the infantry and other combat-arms jobs to female soldiers. The piece by Gen. Robert Cone, commander of Training and Doctrine Command, appears in the November issue of Army Magazine, the same month three female Marines made history by graduating from Marine infantry training. Last January, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered all services to open combat-arms roles to women that so far have been reserved for men.

The Marine Corps may have to change its physical standards in order to put females in positions to one day lead infantry platoons in combat. Both the Marine Corps and the Army continue to wrestle with the mandate that former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta issued in January, directing the U.S. military to open hundreds of combat-arms jobs that have been closed to female servicemembers. So far, the Marines have been out ahead.

It was back in March 23, 2003, just three days after the start of the Iraq War, when Private First Class Jessica Lynch's unit was ambushed in Nasiriyah, Iraq. Lynch was only 19 when she was captured, badly injured and raped by Iraqi forces and held hostage for nine days before her dramatic rescue by US Rangers on April 1, 2003. Controversy surrounds the "mythic" rescue story line. Lynch has blamed the Bush administration for exaggerating the bravery and success of the war with her story. "I knew that, even ten years later, I would not have been able to...

“She's a redneck boy's dream come true. Theresa Vail is a bowhunter, an M-16 sharpshooter, skydiver, national guard soldier, grease monkey, and also Miss Kansas. She's been a motorcycle racing queen and can skin out a deer with the best of them. And if that wasn't enough to melt your heart, she is also devastatingly beautiful. She is not, to say the least, your typical beauty queen contestant. She will also differ from past and present contestants in another way. She intends to let the whole world see her tattoos, which include the Serenity Prayer and the army's medical insignia....

As the U.S. military prepares to send women into the toughest combat billets for the first time, Pentagon medical officers have just released data showing that while “battle injuries” were the leading reason male troops were flown outside Afghanistan for medical care, “mental disorders” topped the list for female troops. That shouldn’t come as a complete surprise. After all, women remain technically barred from the infantry and other units where close-in combat is the norm. But the data also show that despite the ban, women were medically evacuated from Afghanistan at a rate 22% higher than their male comrades.

(CNSNews.com) - Why shouldn't women in the military have the same opportunities as men do? Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel asked on Thursday. It's not a matter of lowering standards, he said. In remarks at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, Hagel was asked how he feels about putting females on the front lines of combat -- "based on our social background of men being the protectors of women," as the questioner put it. Hagel's reponse: First, I think everyone understands, and this is the right thing, we can't lower standards. We have high standards. We should have high standards. Our...

When the Pentagon said earlier this year that it would open ground combat jobs to women, it was cast in terms of giving women equal opportunities in the workplace — the military workplace. But the move has practical considerations, too. The military needs qualified people to fill its ranks, and it's increasingly harder to find them among men. "It's fairly common knowledge that our population of military-age young men, who qualify for the military, is declining," Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said in an interview with NPR just after the Pentagon announced that women no longer be excluded from...

In a report by NPR’s Tom Bowman aired during Monday’s broadcast of “All Things Considered,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey explained why the military is having difficulty recruiting qualified young men. “I think it’s fairly common knowledge that our population of military-age young men who qualify for the military is declining,” Dempsey told NPR. “And so, as a very practical matter, we decided if in 2020 we’re going to need these young ladies and we’re going to need to attract as much diversity and as much talent as we can possibly attract, if that’s going...

For 15 years she has proudly served her country as a Royal Navy engineer, risking her life in Afghanistan when she fought against the Taliban. But far from showing Nicky Howse the respect she deserved as she flew back to her latest posting, Virgin Atlantic staff chose to humiliate her – by demanding that she remove her uniform because it was ‘offensive’. They warned the 32-year-old helicopter technician she would not be allowed to fly unless she took off her combat fatigues and wore a sleep suit instead. -snip She was confronted by a G4S security guard and Virgin Atlantic...

For 15 years she has proudly served her country as a Royal Navy engineer, risking her life in Afghanistan when she fought against the Taliban. But far from showing Nicky Howse the respect she deserved as she flew back to her latest posting, Virgin Atlantic staff chose to humiliate her—by demanding that she remove her uniform because it was “offensive”. They warned the 32-year-old helicopter technician she would not be allowed to fly unless she took off her combat fatigues and wore a sleep suit instead. … They told her—wrongly—that it was the company’s policy not to allow military personnel...

U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AFNS) -- The president of the United States nominated Maj. Gen. Michelle Johnson for the appointment to the rank of lieutenant general and for assignment to serve as Air Force Academy's 19th superintendent. If confirmed by the Senate, Johnson would become the first woman to hold the position. Currently serving as NATO's deputy chief of staff for operations and intelligence, Johnson is a 1981 distinguished graduate from the Academy where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in operations research. She was the first female cadet wing commander and the first female Rhodes Scholar from...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Another one of the many military jobs on the front lines of combat may be opening to women: Flying the high-tech helicopters that move special forces under cover of darkness for missions like the one that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. The Army's most elite aviation unit has proposed a test program to let women serve as pilots and crew chiefs, pending congressional approval. The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, based at Fort Campbell, Ky., and known as the Night Stalkers, decided to give women a trial as pilots and crew chiefs as part of...