Posted on 02/26/2010 4:44:12 PM PST by SandRat
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 2010 – Female sailors will begin serving on submarines by the end of next year, with Naval Academy graduates leading the way, Navy leaders told a Senate committee yesterday.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Navy is in a good position to move forward with integrating women onto submarines.
“We think we learned a lot about integrating women in the services years ago, and those lessons are relevant today,” Mabus said. Those lessons, he said, include having a “critical mass” of female candidates, having senior women to serve as mentors, and having submarines that don’t require modifications: the SSBN ballistic missile and SSGN guided-missile subs.
Finally, Mabus said, “We have the lesson learned to make sure any questions are answered, … and we’re very open and transparent on how we’ll do this. We think this is a great idea that will enhance our warfighting capabilities.”
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates notified Congress on Feb. 19 of the intended change to Navy policy. Mabus had pushed for the change since taking office in May. Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations, endorsed the change, saying in a statement released in September that his experience commanding a mixed-gender surface-combatant ship makes him “very comfortable” integrating women into the submarine force. The Navy changed its policy to allow women to serve on combatant ships in 1993.
“We have a great plan, and we’re ready to go for the first women to come aboard in late 2011,” Roughead told the Senate committee yesterday. In a prepared statement to the committee, he said the change would enable the submarine force “to leverage the tremendous talent and potential of our female officers and enlisted personnel.”
Besides the incoming officers from the academy, the first women submariners will include female supply corps officers at the department head level, Roughead said. The change will be phased in over time to include enlisted female sailors on the SSBN and SSGNs, he said. Women will be added to the Navy’s SSN fast-attack submarines after necessary modifications can be determined, he said.
“This initiative has my personal attention, and I will continue to keep you informed as we integrate these highly motivated and capable officers into our submarine force,” Roughead told the committee.
Sorry to inform you IC.
Most gals are in support roles and most cant/wont tote that bale alone.
There are some very capable women out there but this stuff usually ends up with lowered physical standards or some other shipmate doing twice the work.
Doing twice the work for another never ends up good unless you are getting twice the benefit *wink wink*
Then that’s an entirely different can of worms.
I’ll say this. I have a coworker who is a young fellow that was a navy instructor. He had a female student that was performing poorly. She was taken for counseling by son chiefs and Petty Officers. They laid out all she needed to do academically as best they could but she just seemed all the more frustrated and finally yelled “What do you want me to do!!?”
The Senior Chief thinking that they had made the situation clear said “I think you know what to do” (he was trying to instill self confidence in her after the come to Jesus talk)
She dropped on her knees right between his legs!
They where like WTF?
Now I don’t tell this stuff to be rude. And I am not saying every woman would act that way, but I have seen way to many that think that is the thing to do, and that just wont fly on a submarine.
That stuff wasnt issued in your seabag.
You cant depend on an emotional person on a submarine
(USS L Mendel Rivers, SSN-686)
I have a long term friend that retired from subs just a few years ago, I was Army and every knows those kind of stories, but his submarine stories were very different, with tales like what you described, it sounded psychologically intense and brutal and he said that if a new guy could not fit in that he had to go, he pointed out that if the crew turned on you, it was terrible.
You know what will happen if females become the object of that negative focus, the establishment will remove male heads until she fits in, no matter how many careers it ends.
Well, it’s a rough business isn’t it?
Surely you understand that our social conscripts make the job all the more difficult.
It’s tuff to turn it off and turn it on.
But that IS WHAT IS EXPECTED if you are to serve.
I’m confused about how this is going to work.
Right now in the Army and on surface ships, when chicky decides she’s tired of playing soldier she gets knocked up so she can get sent home.
In the first gulf war, it was amazing to watching chicks down at the shower racks trying to get knocked up and make a few bucks in the process so they could leave the theater.
How’s that going to work when you have to stay under the surface 90 days at a time?
Perzactly.
And no one benefits.
Nope. Only on showboat “family cruises”
Even without a fight, it's a distraction. Put young, physically fit men and women in cramped living conditions on a sub, and you will have men thinking about women when they should be paying attention to their jobs.
In a men's facility? Yeah, I think Affirmative Action played a big role in securing your position.
I see a lot more misandry from you alone than I see misogyny from the collective on this thread.
Yep. Been happening in the private sector for over 20 years.
I think they'd end up "doing it" the same way. Although being that close to Nuc reactor might act as an artificial contraceptive.
Razor blades now. LoL
Your tagline suits you well. It’s clear that it really is a disguise, albeit one which is wearing thin.
He likes yanking your chain.
You are way to thin skinned.
I could have worked at the women's prison, I had a choice of assignments. I did not want to work with the lesbian officers. I knew a person who worked there and she said that the sexual harassment by the lesbian officers was unbearable so I chose a men's facility to avoid such.
Naughty
You couldn’t put up with a few naughty ladies?
So much for reality on NCIS
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