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.
Of course the idiots on the left claim this will work simply because the US is doing it.
Gives a whole new meaning to “hot racking”.
Our diversity-goals Navy is increasingly more disgustingly liberal (and gay?) (http://www.diversityinc.com/article/7129/How-Is-US-Naval-Academy-Nurturing-Future-Leaders/) and our Army seems to be towed right along behind in their own little dinghy. As Mark Steyn put it, “The brain-addled “diversity” of General Casey will get some of us killed, and keep all of us cowed.” (http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=NGYzZTExZWU0NjZhYTM2ODdiNmU2NDMyNzUzMTk5NzY=) Air Force, though, is surprisingly conservative and Judeo-Christian, according to what I read.
Gezzz...Your comments are more of a distraction to this thread that anything.
No, just sick of the bullsh*t.
“COB - Take her down “ takes on a whole new meaning.
I guess that boats will have to be referred to in gender neutral terms in the future.
My favorite is MUST READ!!!
I can’t skip it fast enough.
If I may.. it was not to disrespect women in the navy, the army, the air force, the marines, or any other occupation. It was a statement on the Unrealistic Political Idea of placing women on submarines.
I am talking about some of the comments that were posted, not the article or subject of the thread.
>> Methinks, personally, a mixed crew is just asking for cat fights and sexual harassment.
That seems to trivialize the caliber of personnel that define the military.
If sub crews are open to the idea, what’s the problem? We’ve got babes in space, no?
Isn't that the truth!
Especially when, even if one does try to "read" it, it turns out to be a VIDEO in far too many cases; the "excerpt" being the entire caption of a Breitbart VIDEO.
No disrespect, Women in the Navy is stupid. This just adds stupidity on top of stupidity. My mother, the last time i checked was a woman, would agree with that statement 100%.
What I find sickening is all the political correct, leftist attitudes and lunacy where females are put into positions that are killing a whole lot of innocent people.
Like the grandma they put in charge of the lumberhead prisoner in Atlanta, who beat her senseless, broke her face, took her gun, escaped the courthouse and killed a whole bunch of innocent people in Atlanta, terrorizing the entire city.
Political correctness is a brutal killer.
This isn’t your grandmother’s Navy.
Adds some spice to the concept of "hot racking"
Here is the problem, based on experience.
There is very limited real estate on board a sub.
If 90 enlisted men have 4 toilets and 2 showers
and you “remodel” to make 1 toilet and 1 shower available for 14 women. You just stole from the original crew. They will be pissed.
If you let the women use the one shower and one head in the officers wardroom the enlisted men will see this as “special privileges”.
If you make the first women aboard officers, emotional creep will get into the command system and readiness will degrade in lieu of civility.
Submariners literally try to make each other crack on a minute to minute basis, Its a traditional way of finding out who is psychologically fit for the worst.
A lot of officers find out the hard way that the Chief of the boat has more respect from the men.
I love the ladies but IMHO they will crack or they will lower the standards.
There are 2 modes on the boat. Pushing shipmates to the brink to see what they are made of and trusting every shipmate to do the right thing while on the brink.
Its not for your average person.
Just my 2 cents. The camaraderie comes from being brutally honest. No one wants to treat a woman that way and from my experience most women in the service cant take it.
There are no desk jobs on a sub.
Even the fact that normal male joshing is now beyond the pale is a sign of problems to come.
I’m guessing the men will be a majority.
I would say within two months of going out, the sub will experience it’s first fight between two sailors over a woman.
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