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.
When you hardly ever post here, that's understandable. Three pages into his posting history take you back 3 years.
It's no wonder he's out of touch with what's going on.
It’s part of the charm that makes DU sofa king wee todd did.
It’s a stupid idea.
Ma’am, we’ll sign you up for duty on the USS PMS.
Well the parenthetical (editorial) remark called it a stupid idea. If one’s goal is to maintain the efficiency and effectiveness of the US military it is a stupid idea. If one wants to reduce the effectiveness and efficiency of the US military it’s positively brilliant. Obama and his people must love this.
Sheesh.
Actually, it's presumptuous to assume that the OP intends his/her parenthetical title opinion to be universal. You see, this is a conservative site, and people here generally do not presume anyone is ever talking for "the group." But when paid Rat trolls come on and use previously stored screen names to try to inject liberal political correctness, they don't know that.
Oh, you made a slick try at recovery when exposed for not recognizing a commonly accepted FR conceit, claiming "parenthetical comments have lately gotten way out of hand" - (really? where are your examples?). And of course your pathetic (but common liberal) effort to imagine conservatives can be controlled through "decorum scolding" had to be tried, now didn't it? But overall, you're like every other leftist poseur that tries his luck here - you're transparent, rather than invisible.
Just to make sure you understand clearly - I'm laughing at you, troll.
Cat fight! Cat fight!
Wow. This is going to give a whole new meaning to ‘’going down’’. I don’t think this is a good idea.
Are you serious? If you don’t put (Barf Alert) in the title, your thread will be clogged up with 25 or 30 people saying, ‘Where’s the Barf Alert?’.
Submarine ping. Just one...
Feelings understandably run deep on both sides, and it’s not immediately clear that it’s as idiotic as, say, a gay Navy, especially if they segregate the sexes. I’d feel a lot better about it if this were an experimental project, not a general announcement of policy. Methinks, personally, a mixed crew is just asking for cat fights and sexual harassment.
They post crap and wonder why people call conservatives racists, and sexist, etc.
Common decency does not apply at FR anymore.
You’re also allowed a tag line after your screen name, just in case you never noticed that, either.
Sorry about that, I really did misunderstand your first comment.
Now when I read it I see it correctly, thanks for the patience.
Mixed crews in cramped quarters for long trips are a bad idea. I think both ladies and gentlemen can agree on that.
Whether I agree or not, the total disrespect of women in general is sickening.
No problem - I figured it was just a simple misunderstanding.
Touchy, touchy.
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