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To assuage fears that different standards will apply to men and women in Ranger School, women have been required to sport short haircuts, as well.“The standard for the Ranger course is for students to have the shortest haircut authorized by AR 670-1,” Col. William Butler, deputy commandant of the U.S. Army Infantry School, told Army Times.The idea is to maintain strict standards of hygiene. Short hair makes it much easier to spot ticks. Women are not allowed to have hair extending more than one inch from the scalp. If there are any bangs, they may not fall below the eyebrows.Nineteen...

The IDF is poised to establish one or two new mixed-gender battalions, which will be permanently based along Israel's borders on routine patrol and observation missions, according to Army Radio. However, the Head of the IDF Fortitude Forum, Col. (res.) Raz Sagi, told Arutz Sheva there is a lot of bluffing and leftist meddling behind the changes announced. The idea of creating specialized units for the “softer” combat routine of patrolling and observation along peaceful borders, so as to let the fighting combat battalions spend more time training, is not a bad one, he opined. “But it also means that...

Once the warrior ethos of the U.S. military has been extinguished, it cannot be re-lit without a great deal of hard work and time “First of all, is this [women being admitted to Ranger School] being done because there’s a requirement in the force, or is this just an experiment in social justice?”—Former Congressman and retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Allen West For the first time in the history of the legendary U.S. Army Ranger School, the course will be open for women to attend as Ranger Students beginning in mid-April. This comes as a direct result of the demands...

Two lawsuits have been filed seeking information about the U.S. military’s plan to use women to “close with and kill” the enemy, based on reports that suggest having women in “tip of the spear” fighting units such as the Rangers and the Navy SEALs may be counterproductive. The Obama administration announced two years ago it would make female military personnel eligible for assignment to direct ground combat units, including the infantry, beginning in January 2016. Under the military’s structure, women would be ordered into such positions. Various military agencies and units since then have been analyzing the safety and effectiveness...

The U.S. Army’s plan to conduct an integrated Ranger School assessment in 2015 is looking good — interest is so high that the number of female volunteers must be cut to 160 candidates. All women selected by their commands and units will take part in the two-week Army National Guard Ranger Training and Assessment Course. Those who successfully complete the pre-Ranger course at Fort Benning, Georgia, will then move on to Ranger School, which is held 11 times a year.

Some of the Navy's first female submariners were secretly videotaped while undressing and showering on board the USS Wyoming, a ballistic missile submarine, service officials confirmed Wednesday. Navy officials are investigating a 24-year old male sailor who is accused of making and distributing the videos, according to a Nov. 14 incident report circulated among the service's senior leaders, according to Navy Times, which first reported the story. The male sailor has only been identified as a second class petty officer, according to Navy Times.

The U.S. Army is opening the door for women to go to Ranger school. It's one of the first steps in the broader effort to allow women to begin moving into more grueling combat jobs.

Women soldiers could be issued with special sports bras as part of their kit to better protect them on active service. Defense chiefs are considering “adequate support” for servicewomen after complaints that their rigorous duties risked damaging their breasts. One solider said she had spent the last two decades having to buy her own bras because official kit is not good enough. She is also calling for the reinstatement of a “hosiery allowance” to let soldiers buy their own undergarments. But the move could cost to Ministry of Defense hundreds of thousands of pounds to properly kit out its 15,000...

New book shows women in combat suffer much more serious non-combat injuries, alleges IDF cover-up. A new book sums up 13 years of research on female participation in IDF combat units and declares the feminist experiment in the Israeli military a failure. “Lochamot Betzahal” by Col. (res.) Raza Sagi, a former infantry regiment commander, points to high rates of serious injury among women serving in combat units, and to involvement of radical political groups behind the scenes of the campaign for combat service by women. ..... "The study found that a particularly high percentage of women who served in combat...

VIDEO AT LINKAt a petite 5’3’’, Sage Santangelo may not look like a combat fighter at first glance. But the female second lieutenant has never let that hold her back from pursuing her dream of becoming an infantry officer in the Marine Corps. Growing up, Santangelo found she was always able to keep up with the guys and enjoyed playing hockey on all boys’ teams. But when she joined the Marines, Santangelo found the playing field changed; she was segregated into female-only training units and as a woman, was relegated to less strenuous physical training than her male counterparts. And...

The military is taking steps to prepare women for combat roles in 2016. The Marine Corps announced that it would give young female lieutenants who wash out of the grueling Infantry Officer Course a second shot, same as their male counterparts. The Army is conducting a study to test just how fit a soldier has to be to engage in combat. The study involves 60 women and 100 men. CBS News reported on both developments last week. The Marine Corps announcement came after Marine 2nd Lt. Sage Santangelo took the Infantry Officer Court and wrote about her experience last month...

As peacekeeping has evolved to encompass a broader humanitarian approach, women have become increasingly part of the peacekeeping family. Click on the image to see the full infographic Women are deployed in all areas – police, military and civilian – and have made a positive impact on peacekeeping environments, both in supporting the role of women in building peace and protecting women's rights. In all fields of peacekeeping, women peacekeepers have proven that they can perform the same roles, to the same standards and under the same difficult conditions, as their male counterparts. It is an operational imperative that we...

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. Beginning this week, all female Marines were supposed to be able to do at least three...

Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, the Chief Rabbi of Ramat Gan, has come out with strong statements against mandatory military service for women. Rabbi Ariel was particularly outspoken regarding combat service for women, but made it clear in an interview with Arutz Sheva that he opposes mandatory non-combat service as well. Female soldiers should serve strictly in a volunteer capacity, he declared. […] Rabbi Ariel then made a clear distinction between male and female recruits. “We are against the approach of ‘enslaving’ girls. Women are not combatants. Women and men cannot serve together in the field in combat—it is dangerous to security,...

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 Army should use photos of “average-looking women” when it needs to illustrate stories about female soldiers, a specialist recommends — images of women who are too pretty undermine the communications strategy about introducing them into combat roles. That’s the gist of an internal Army e-mail an Army source shared with POLITICO. “In general, ugly women are perceived as competent while pretty women are perceived as having used their looks to get ahead,” wrote Col. Lynette Arnhart, who is leading a team of analysts studying how best to integrate women into combat roles that have previously been closed off to...

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.

The USS Virginia and the USS Minnesota will be the first two gender-integrated fast-attack submarines, the Navy announced Tuesday. Six women — four nuclear-trained officers and two supply corps officers — will report to the subs by January 2015, after completing the nuclear submarine training pipeline, according to the Navy. Women are already serving aboard the ballistic missile subs the USS Wyoming, USS Louisiana and USS Maine, and the guided missile subs USS Florida, USS Georgia and USS Ohio. The Navy in 2010 officially changed the policy that had previously prohibited women from serving aboard submarines. Since then, 43 women...

An Army officer writing in a prestigious journal says the services should not overemphasize physical strength when deciding whether a woman qualifies for direct ground combat. Col. Ellen Haring, on the staff of the U.S. Army War College, says commanders need to downplay obstacle courses and judge a service member’s ability to stay calm and think quickly. The Pentagon has lifted its ban on women serving in the infantry, tanks and special operations, and the branches are examining all their physical standards in preparation for introducing women into these units in 2015. Some military analysts fear the Pentagon will discard...

Senior military personnel are considering now giving women different military training than men, The Washington Times reports. The effort was proposed by Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Niki Tsongas at a recent House Armed Services Committee hearing because so far, she says training systems do not “maximize the success of women.” Though the armed services have promised that combat standards will be the same regardless of gender, senior officers are considering initially separate training systems. Army Lt. Gen. Howard Bromberg, serving as deputy chief of staff for personnel, considers separate training programs to be more about considering all soldiers as individuals, citing...