Navy SEALs to open to women

[[SS]Chief]

From here:

Navy SEAL candidates, known as BUD/S, near the end of the obstacle course at the Naval Special Warfare Training Center in Coronado. — Howard Lipin
Women may start training in Coronado as Navy SEALs in 2016, according to an Associated Press report Monday, which also said female sailors may join Navy Riverine units for initial training next month.

Details of the Pentagon’s plan for allowing women into the last bastions of male-only combat are expected to be announced today. In addition to the SEALs, Army Ranger units would open to women for training by mid-2015.

These changes would be especially felt in San Diego. All SEALs go through initial training at the Coronado compound off the Silver Strand, where the parent Naval Special Warfare Command also resides. The Navy’s Coastal Riverine Group 1 is headquartered in Imperial Beach and includes three squadrons of small boats in Coronado.

Physical standards for serving in close-combat units apparently would not change. One of the hot-button topics in the debate over integration of women has been whether physical requirements would be lowered — for example, would females be allowed to do fewer pull-ups and still qualify.

The services are reviewing standards for many jobs, including looking at strength and stamina, in order to set requirements for troops regardless of their sex.

Concerned about this issue, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, got language in the House defense bill passed Friday dictating that standards must be gender-neutral for specialty roles.

“This appears to be a decision to open eligibility while keeping standards already in place — rather than adjusting standards to take less-qualified individuals,” said Joe Kasper, Hunter’s spokesman.

“That may ultimately be something the Pentagon tries. But even those who are making decisions have to know that it would devalue the prestige of special operations and other specialties.”

One former San Diego SEAL said he has no doubt women can make the cut, physically.

Brandon Webb, a former SEAL sniper instructor, predicted that the problems will come in trying to integrate females in the rough-and-tumble culture of special operations, in addition to the fraternization issues raised by people working in small, tight-knit units in the field.

“The main issue that the military must face is the brash/candid environment and close-quarters culture of a special-operations unit that would make most civilian HR managers blush,” said Webb, who runs a website, sofrep.com, about the world of special operations forces.

He predicts sexual relationships will occur in field units.

“This is the main issue I see, and the only way around it is to either accept that this will happen and develop protocols to deal with it, or have all-female units,” he said. “I’m a fan of the latter.”

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel reviewed the plans and has ordered the services to move ahead, according to the AP report.

Under the schedules military leaders delivered to Hagel, the Army will develop standards by July 2015 to allow women to train and potentially serve as Rangers, and qualified women could begin training as Navy SEALS by March 2016 if senior leaders agree.

The Navy plans to have studies finished by July 2014 on allowing women to serve as SEALs, and has set October 2015 as the date when women could begin Navy boot camp with the expressed intention of becoming SEALs eventually.

U.S. Special Operations Command is coordinating the matter of what commando jobs could be opened to women, what exceptions might be requested and when the transition would take place.

The proposals leave the door open for continued exclusion of women from some jobs, if research and testing find that women could not be successful in sufficient numbers, but the services would have to defend such decisions to top Pentagon leaders.

Military leaders have suggested bringing senior women from the officer and enlisted ranks into special forces units first to ensure that younger, lower-ranking women have a support system to help them get through the transition.

In the Navy’s Riverine forces, women could begin training next month, with the goal of assigning females to units by October.

These squadrons of small, heavily armed boats provide maritime security in coastal and inland waterways. Their history goes back to river patrols in Vietnam. More recently, units worked the rivers of Iraq to stop weapons smugglers and provide intelligence.

While not part of special-operations forces, the Riverine squadrons may be called on to do close combat.

This news follows revelations of a growing number of sexual assault cases in the armed forces. Earlier this year, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said the sexual assaults might be linked to the longstanding ban on women serving in combat because the disparity between the roles of men and women creates separate classes of personnel — male “warriors” versus the rest of the force.

While the sexual assault problem is more complicated than that, he said, the disparity has created a psychology that lends itself to disrespect for women.

In January, then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey signed an order that wiped away generations of limits on where and how women could fight for their country. At the time, they asked the services to develop plans to set the change in motion.

The bulk of the nearly 240,000 jobs currently closed to women are in the Army, including those in infantry, armor, combat engineer and artillery units that are often close to the battlefront. Similar jobs in the Marine Corps are also closed.

[[SS]Chief]

Perhaps this is what sparked it all? From CNN.


Former Navy SEAL comes out as transgender: 'I want some happiness'

CNN) -- After years spent fighting in some of the world's worst wars, former U.S. Navy SEAL Kristin Beck says she knows what she wants.

"I want to have my life," she told CNN's "AC360" in an exclusive Thursday night.

"I fought for 20 years for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I want some happiness."

Beck recently came out as transgender.

She wrote about the experience in a book, "Warrior Princess: A U.S. Navy SEAL's Journey to Coming out Transgender."
Transgender former SEAL tells her story
Transgender ex-SEAL: I want happiness

Trapped in a man's body

It chronicles her life as a young boy and man, known then as Chris Beck.

Beck deployed 13 times, serving in places such as Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. She earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart along the way.

Though she's felt trapped in the wrong body since grade school, Beck didn't come out until after she left the military in 2011.

Doing so earlier would have been too big a risk.

Transgender men and women are banned from service.

"That's a chance that if I took it, I might be dead today," she said.

"There's a lot of prejudice out there. There's been a lot of transgender people who are killed for prejudice, for hatred. When the book came out -- some amazing support and some amazing praises -- but also some pretty amazing bigotry and hatred."

Beck says she doesn't need people to love, or even like, her.

"But I don't want you to beat me up and kill me. You don't have to like me, I don't care. But please don't kill me."

[[SS]Hobo]