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 dont 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 were very open and transparent on how well 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 were 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 Navys 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.
Also shouldn’t a “biker chick” be accustomed to some, er, male horsing around?
You are so full of crap, dear, your eyes must be brown. I've been here for TWO YEARS LONGER than you have, and FR is the same decent site it always was, even before you got here.
Jeez Louieeze, you are the EPITOME, the PERFECT EXAMPLE with your emotional histrionics, of exactly WHY women don't belong on submarines! Get a grip and try to be less of the stereotype idiot female, wouldja? You're giving the rest of us females a bad name.
Before or after they lower the physical exam requirements, to make sure "enough" women pass, like they have for firefighters, cops, soldiers etc?
What's next, women SEALs, who are allowed to do knee pushups, and a "bar hang" instead of pull ups?
No problem, if they need to get somebody up a ladder, they’ll just turn the sub upside down to help.
You would think a “biker chick” would not be so thin-skinned.
Im bored. the reactors are all hermetically sealed.
And that's only half the equation. Men are pikers compared to women when it comes to dishing out negative focus.
Forget #255.
Oh, I know, and I know you know. You were just a cc: on that one.
I never served, but they did try to recruit me for the NUPOC program when I was in college, many moons ago. I have a much better idea about the hardware involved than most.
Surface ships have MUCH more room per sailor, and many more open spaces, passageways etc where you are not crammed person to person 24/7, compared to subs.
But that “no sky” issue is also very big. It might be tight in crew quarters on a destroyer, but you have weather decks where you can feel the hugeness of the universe and feel your spirit fly with the sea birds. Horizon to horizon views of squalls, sunsets, sunrises, starry nights, and all the phases of the moon.
It’s a great psychological morale factor that the surface sailors get, that the sub sailors don’t have at all. Subs are literally close quarters pressure cookers, where when you undress, the guy on the bottom rack is about a foot from your butt.
Yeah, let’s put twenty year old girls into that equation!
Tell us about it. The most hurtful people I’ve ever known carried around a vagina, not a penis. I think that’s because people expect women to be nurturing, and when they aren’t it is a double trap.
Sex city.
Now, recall naval reality from the fire on the Forrestal to ships torpedoed and burning in WW2. That is naval reality, and it will happen again. War at sea is not an episode of Star Trek, folks!
When everything is going right, the sun is shining, nothing is burning and no one is dying, then women can handle most jobs, or have a male lift something for her, or turn something, or push or pull something for her without a problem, but when a third of the crew is dead or dying, metal is twisted and warped, the ship is burning and at threat of being lost, when hydraulics are out and ammunition and fighting equipment has to be muscled and wounded carried up and down ladders, then the 50% lessor, upper body strength of the female and the 1/3 less leg strength of the female, comes into play.
If it is a mixed-sex crew the sub will be named the USS Larry Flynt.
Stupid idea whose time will never come. No pun.
I really don’t want to get between a boorish argument, but you both need to use “too” as in very.
Where’s the anti-women comments?
Excellent and informative comments. Thanks.
Are you one of the owners of this site? If not I suggest you keep your opinion to yourself. She has every right to be on this thread as you or I do FYI. And she has been here years before you.
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