Panetta to lift ban on women in combat

(CBS News) The U.S. Military is making one of the biggest policy changes in its history. CBS News learned Wednesday the Defense Department is lifting its ban on women serving in combat. The official announcement will come Thursday from Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.

Panetta's order will make women eligible to serve as infantrymen on combat patrol and even in elite special operations units like the Navy SEALS. However, women will have to meet strength standards that could keep them out of units where the physical demands are especially grueling.

Combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have already cost more than 130 women their lives and left more than 800 wounded.

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Some, like Dawn Halfaker, were on the front lines commanding a Military Police Platoon in Iraq, where she lost her arm fighting alongside of the infantry.

"There's not a big difference at all, in many of the missions we did with infantry. We were with artillery units, we were all fighting the same fight, doing the same thing," Halfaker said.

The best machine gunner in Halfaker's platoon was Victoria Rivers, who was tapped to go on missions with Special Forces.

"Working side by side with Special Forces, it was pretty cool," Rivers said.

But Rivers acknowledges some military jobs may be too demanding for women.

"There's jobs that women can't do physically because they just don't have the strength, the physical strength, to do it," she said.

The Marines recently opened their infantry officer school to women, but the first two who volunteered dropped out. In the Army, an infantryman carries a 63-pound pack, which could go to more than 100 pounds, depending on the situation.

Panetta's order will open 200,000 more jobs to women, primarily in the Army and Marines. Combat experience is considered a prerequisite for a promotion into the top jobs. The services will have until May to draw up a plan for opening all units to women and until the end of 2015 to actually implement it.

If the military wants to keep a unit like Navy SEALS or Army Green Berets off limits to women, they will have to justify it to the Secretary of Defense.

[tjl456]

Tell the young women that deployed and came home with no legs or arms that they were not in combat. That being said, I now want every 18 year old woman to register for selective service and I want the same percentage of women to be drafted as is in the population, and I think that is 51%. You elected him, live with it.....

[bluecollarjoe]

What truly upsets conservatives about this is that when our war casualties begin including more women, the political fall-out will make war a truly last resort (as it should have been all along). How many wars, "police actions" and "interventions" has the US engaged in that (despite the nationalist propaganda of the time) were predominately for economic gains or territorial grabs? (Indian wars, Mexico, Hawaii, etc, etc...)

[jgg000010]

our enemies must be thrilled that we are now proudly stocking our military combat forces with gays and women.

[signseeker1717]

I doubt our enemies CARE about the sexual orientation or gender of our military forces - it's RESULTS that matter. Alexander the Great was gay, as were the Spartans. And Boadicea was a woman. We should be so lucky.

[Bleddyn71]

Sign Seeker

Alexander was bi as was Hannibal and Frederick the great. Get your facts straight. The Spartans also where not gay... if that was so they would have not existed more than a generation of two. **** poor scholarship.

[signseeker1717]

True, some call Alexander "bi" because of his marriage to Roxanne (which was likely done for dynastic reasons). However, all his OTHER behavior, before, during, and after the marriage, points to a preference for MEN - his lifelong passionate attachment to Hephaestion case in point. MANY units of the Spartan army (including the defenders of Thermopylae) ARE believed to have been gay (likely pairs) to build camaraderie and devotion to duty. I should have been more specific - I forgot how LITERAL some people can be on these boards. I didn't mean the entire Spartan PEOPLE.

But my ORIGINAL point was that gays and women have served effectively in the military for thousands of years, and I stand by my point.

After all, THAT is the subject of the article.

[crabnebula]

Okay ladies, you wanted complete equality with men? Now you're dying of lung cancer at the same rate as men and soon you'll be able to die in the field of combat right along side your male buddies.
Congratulations, you've really come a long way.

[aubfmet]

If they want equality, the should start out with one of those boot camp haircuts.

[signseeker1717]

I believe many of them ALREADY do. This is the same condescending BS that was used to try scare women away from The Citadel, assuming recruits would care more about their APPEARANCE than their country, duty and career. Didn't work then, won't work now.

[nancy_naive]

In 10 years, 152 women were killed in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Leon Panetta said that 19,000 military women were sexually assaulted last YEAR.
Being in combat roles just means that they can kill their attackers.

[ammo17]

this volunteer military is not working out too well,the draft will be coming back very soon if we keep on getting involved in every countries wars.africa is up next,where are they going to get the manpower?think about it!

[Social_Adjudicator]

"Be careful what you wish for"..... "Things are not what they seem"

[nancy_naive]

Yeah, like join the military and get raped.

[nohater]

women should be right in the thick of combat on the ground like men. it's about time they are ordered into combat. lets not forget these women are volunteering for military service. no one is forcing women, or men, to put their lives and limbs on the line.

[signseeker1717]

The women THEMSELVES have requested this inclusion. Yes, indeed, they have volunteered, and know EXACTLY what they are getting into. And they are accepting the challenge, as they long have, with courage and professionalism. You want to know about willingly putting life and limbs on the line, ask newly-elected Rep. Tammy Duckworth.

[quincytodd]

What a thrill, a chance to kill! What a sickening scenario this is! These broads really turn my stomach upside down with their desire to kill people. I killed a turtle when I was ten years old and that still bothers me to this day. I'm glad I'm like them!

[signseeker1717]

Do you think the "broads" have any more "desire" to kill than the MEN, or do they just want to serve their country in every capacity than they can?