Posted on 09/24/2009 11:38:30 AM PDT by Ben Mugged
Female sailors can broaden their role in the Navy by serving on submarines, an activity currently prohibited by the Armed Service, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has advised the Senate Armed Services Committee.
According to Defensetech.org, a site run by Military.com, a group boasting a membership of 10 million veterans and active duty forces, Adm. Michael Mullen told senators in a recent survey that he's long been an advocate for improving diversity in the Armed Forces.
"I believe we should continue to broaden opportunities for women. One policy I would like to see changed is the one barring their service aboard submarines," he added.
The policy change would mark a huge shift for the Navy, whose submarines have been devoid of female sailors even though women began flying fighter jets and performing other seagoing combat roles 15 years ago.
Defensetech.org reported that Mullen, a former chief of naval operations and a surface warfare officer, wrote his endorsement of women serving in subs in his response to questions submitted by senators preparing for Mullen's confirmation hearing for a second term as chairman of the JCS. That hearing was held Sept. 15.
Opponents of females serving on submarines say space is too restrictive to accommodate privacy needs for women, in particular bathrooms. Another study -- conducted in 1994 -- noted that fraternization in close quarters, among other issues, could also complicate operations at sea
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I take it back. You are obviously well schooled in military law.
If Uncle Hymie were still alive this would kill him.
That is the purpose of it.
REMF is the worst perjorative in my dictionary (and I have plenty of 'em!). Unfortunately, I've had to deploy it quite a bit over the past 9 months.
I'd rather we completely leave Afghanistan if the REMFs in the Pentagon and the White House continue the current feckless strategy and rules of engagement.
How about having them meet the same height/weight/fitness standards as men do. That might be a good start, then they can worry about submarines.
I doubt the wives of submariners will have any more influence than the wives of surface guys.
Just another target sailor. He does not know the any thing about submarines.
Bob Dornan tried to get these statistics service wide; he was stonewalled and at this point they may not exist at all. From personal experience, I can tell you that the 7th Transportation group had upwards of 100 women either pregnant or post partum carried as nondeployable througout the 60 months I was familiar with the situation. The figure was static, some go, some leave and some get pregnant again.
That’s interesting; I’ve found the lowered standards accomodate shortcomings that the private sector would not tolerate. My experience is that the most grueling jobs (in the private sector) have no females or have females only on government funded progects where ‘diversity’ is mandated.
Actually, federal law specifically disallows any such claims by our uniformed members of our armed forces. There's a number of relevant laws and Supreme Court decisions to include, The Feres Doctrine and The Federal Tort Claims Act.
There are some limited exceptions to the Feres doctrine - most of them having to do with violations of the Privacy Act of 1974 - but, even in the wake of the Navy's Tail-hook scandal, the court's were reluctant to indulge such lawsuit over cases of sexual harassment in the military.
I had Tailhook in mind when I posted, and I was theorizing. I still think that if the accusations are extreme enough, sexual harassment suits will follow. In any event, laws supporting female accusations - alone - against men are so absurd and unbalanced anymore, I just think women on subs would be a legal nightmare for any man on the boats.
I'll have to disagree with your first sentence. The law is fairly well-tested in this regard. And, it's hard to imagine anything worse than Tailhook. I know, because I was an active-duty Navy JAG at the time.
With respect to the other problems that stem from women on a sub, I agree with your second sentence. When command is investigating and deciding the disposition of a sexual harassment complaint, one of the likely courses of action is to remove either the victim or the accused from the unit - either permanently or in some other more limited way. When you're at a depth of 400', it's tough to remove anyone from anything, let alone an accuser from the accused.
I know for a fact that these are arguments that have been made about this issue. But sadly, the current of political correctness is much stronger in the Navy (and probably the other branches of service as well, than the forces of logic and common sense.
-PJ
I think women on subs is a good idea. Women are smaller and can more easily fit into the very tight compartments. Plus, the men will be glad to have them.
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