Free Republic

The $12.9 billion USS Gerald R. Ford, which can carry about 5,000, is the first new US aircraft carrier designed in 40 years. Of course, a lot has changed in 40 years. For one thing, it’s not uncommon to find women serving aboard such carriers these days. Women account for nearly 20% of the sailors in the US Navy. So, the ship’s designers adapted to the new reality. According to the Navy Times, the Ford has no urinals—only seated toilets with stalls.

Are recruiters, particularly in the Army and Marines, lying to (or at least misleading) young women who they try to recruit into military service? That’s a question which is asked and answered in the LA Times this week by two people who should know. Julie Pulley is a former West Point graduate Army captain and Afghanistan veteran. Rear Adm. Hugh P. Scott was a Navy medical officer and is an expert in medical physical standards. They discuss the current push to drive up the number of women going into combat roles and the unique stresses which the demands of those...

The Navy says it has its first female candidates for two elite special operations jobs previously closed to women — including a prospective SEAL. One woman is in the pipeline to be a SEAL officer, and another is on the path to becoming a special warfare combatant crewman. The news was first reported by Military.com, an independent website. The Navy declined to identify the candidates, citing security considerations. The announcement comes more than 18 months after the Pentagon declared that women can now serve in front-line combat positions. "They are the first candidates that have made it this far in...

More than a year after a mandate for the Pentagon opened previously closed ground combat and special operations jobs to women, officials say the Navy has its first female candidates for its most elite special warfare roles. Two women were in boot camp as candidates for the Navy's all-enlisted Special Warfare Combatant-Craft Crewman program, Naval Special Warfare Center Deputy Commander Capt. Christian Dunbar told members of the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Service in June. Another woman, who sources say is a junior in an ROTC program at an unnamed college, has applied for a spot in the...

The U.S. Army is telling women soldiers that they need to accept gender-confused, biological men in their showers, bathrooms, and barracks as part of a controversial policy to build “dignity and respect” for “transgender Soldiers.” The guidance is part of the Pentagon’s new “transgender inclusion” agenda launched by Obama and gaining ground in the Armed Services. Social conservatives are mounting a counteroffensive to ditch the “trans” program altogether. President Trump and the Pentagon have sent mixed signals on LGBT issues, with the DoD honoring gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender “pride” month in June even as Trump himself broke with Obama by not issue a...

Gannett paper, link only: http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/joni-ernst-female-veteran-senate-profile

Air Force cadet Hayley Weir had an idea that turned out to be a game changer. "It was just the concept of going out there and stopping a bullet with something that we had made in a chemistry lab." The 21-year-old Weir approached Air Force Academy Assistant Professor Ryan Burke with the idea. He was skeptical. "I said, 'I'm not really sure this is going to work, the body armor industry is a billion-plus-dollar industry," he noted. Weir's idea was to combine anti-ballistic fabric with what's known as a shear thickening fluid to create a less heavy material to use...

A new TV ad from the U.S. Marine Corps focuses on a woman in combat, the first commercial of its kind for the military branch. The woman starring in the new spot, Marine Capt. Erin Demchko, has served in Afghanistan and was a logistics officer on a Female Engagement Team, according to the Marine Corps website. “FETs build trust with local civilians to gather information and improve relations with the community,” says the website. “Capt. Demchko worked side by side with her fellow Marines to complete missions in the region.” The ad follows a young girl who stands up...

The Senate has confirmed Heather Wilson as secretary of the Air Force. Senators approved Wilson’s nomination 76-22, making her President Donald Trump’s first service secretary nominee to be approved by the GOP-led chamber. ... Wilson is a former Republican congresswoman from New Mexico. She had faced scrutiny from several Democrats for defense industry consulting work she did after leaving Congress in 2009. She is the first graduate of the Air Force Academy to hold the service’s top civilian post.

What do you do if you're a woman in the Marines, and you make a sex video, and your fellow Marines see it? Claim you're being sexually harassed, of course! It seems that a number of female Marines are having sex with male Marines and filming it, and then, when they break up, the male Marines share the sex videos with their comrades. This is said to have provoked a major crisis in the Marines. Marine officials said the branch was looking into a number of Marines, as well as current and former service members, who shared naked and compromising...

Hundreds of US Marines swapped naked pictures of female recruits and veterans — many of whom had no idea that they had been photographed — on a secret Facebook page, a report says. More than two dozen women — including active-duty and enlisted service members — were spotlighted on the social media site and identified by their full name, rank and military duty station, CIR reported on its website Reveal.

Increasing the number of women recruits would be “beneficial” to the Swiss army, a top commander has said. “For me, it would be desirable if we could significantly increase the proportion of women in the medium term,” said Corps Commander Daniel Baumgartner in an interview with Neue Zürcher Zeitung published on Wednesday. “Women think and act differently. That would be good for the army,” he added. While Baumgartner did not suggest that compulsory military service should be extended to women, he said a compulsory ‘information day’ should be introduced where women can find out about the opportunities the army could...

Captain Or Ben-Yehuda of the Israeli Defense Forces has cemented a legacy that will endure well past her lifetime. The young, decorated IDF Captain was in charge of a company of soldiers when they were violently attacked by nearly two dozen terrorists near the Egyptian border. Read full article at Tribunist.......http://tribunist.com/lifestyle/this-female-idf-soldier-fights-off-23-terrorists-in-ambush-attack-after-being-shot/

Captain Or Ben-Yehuda of the Israeli Defense Forces has cemented a legacy that will endure well past her lifetime. The young, decorated IDF Captain was in charge of a company of soldiers when they were violently attacked by nearly two dozen terrorists near the Egyptian border. Due to her leadership and bravery, she and her men were able to survive. Captain Ben-Yehuda was in charge of the Caracal Battalion which was stationed near the Israeli / Egyptian border. Three suspicious vehicles quickly approached the battalion’s position and Captain Ben-Yehuda along with a driver went to check them out. As they...

Navy Cmdr. Sarah DeGroot, commanding officer of the 420-person dock landing ship USS Rushmore, abruptly resigned Monday and walked off the job. ....

“If you train the same, if you can keep up, you can mentally do it, why not?” one veteran said.Women can hold any job in the U.S. Military under the Obama Administration, a policy that may change under the Trump Administration. Last year, after a series of intensive studies that took years to complete, Defense Secretary Ash Carter ordered the military to open all combat jobs to woman, allowing them to serve in some of the military's most demanding and difficult jobs, including special operations forces, such as the Army Delta units and Navy SEALs. Some female veterans, including Marine...

The U.S. Army’s first gender-integrated infantry office course has been completed by 10 of 12 women who took the challenge. A graduation ceremony was held Wednesday in Fort Benning, Georgia, to celebrate 166 officers who attained the infantry’s iconic blue cord. Many of the female officers will now move on to challenges that include Ranger school and Airborne school.

Word quickly spread around the world this week that a sailor gave birth aboard an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, and for good reason. Births aboard U.S. warships are rare. Births aboard a ship on a combat deployment are rarer still. But they’re not unheard of. The Navy does not keep statistics on the number of children born aboard its ships, but archived media reports show this is not the first time a sailor has had a baby at sea or aboard a ship in a combat zone. In one instance, a child died a day after being born...

The first female soldier to participate in the Army’s initial training program for the Green Berets — side-by-side with men — has failed to complete the course this week, The Washington Times has learned. The enlisted soldier is the first woman to attend the U.S. Army Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS), the first step toward earning the Special Forces tab and the coveted Green Beret. The Times reported in July that two female officer candidates have been accepted to attend an SFAS class that begins in the spring.

On Saturday, a sailor on board the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower visited the aircraft carrier’s medical department, complaining of stomach pains. The ship’s doctors would soon discover why: The sailor was pregnant. Hours later, she gave birth to a 7-pound baby girl.... ...Urban would not say whether there are standard repercussions for a servicewoman failing to self-report a pregnancy.... Infant diapers, baby formula and an incubator were flown out to the carrier on the day of delivery,