The Navy Gets Its First Female SEAL Candidate

The Navy Gets Its First Female SEAL Candidate

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....

Female candidates for these jobs will have to complete the same training that men do, without any allowances for differing average physical capabilities.


https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/07/20/538338758/the-navy-gets-its-first-female-seal-candidate

You know, I don't really keep up with the gender makeup of our armed forces so I had already assumed we had been doing this for years. How sad. Great for the women specifically and the armed forces generally, but how very sad that this hadn't happened 10-20 years ago already and that this is only happening now.

How sad that there are females who are considering doing it at all.

We should be better than that, but I suppose it's inevitable that some will give it a try.

I have no idea how long recruitment for this branch of the armed forces has been open to women. Perhaps it has been open for some time and women haven't cared to do it until now. Perhaps these two are just being allowed to take the course as tokens in order to head off accusations of sexism.

Whatever.

it taken along time for women to break this " old boys " stigma in military. well done, women!!

ever since the american revolution, when women weren't allowed to fight. of couse, women helped out during the war in non-combat way. in sense, they did defended america.

military or old boys's nonsense, that if women can't pull the weight during their time in combat, they weren't allow in combat.

it took a long time, to get women to get in west point. military hate anything to with gays or transgenders, because in the bible. women, need to be build like a man to service in military. ( twilite's ex-wife, stella is built like a man, exactly, should she is build for four men together. stella is so so tough, she ate a telephone book in four bites. )

old boys's stigma that only women should military women stay and protect their homes and children. this crap that because they can't carry 60 or more pounds on their back. is nonsense, if they carry enough on their back, not belly ache about the weight and walking the miles with it. the military should get over and let them in.

some men are afraid to let women in things, because their pride. that men taught to protect their women. these men are facing the fact that women can protect them as well as service their country.

old boys in the military need to face that fact, old dinosaur way of thinking is out of date. they have except women aren't going to stay home and have their babies, not aim to have a better life. they will fight for their independence.

you'll old dogs in military, that women aren't try to better, or prove that they are equal to men in military. they want to fight beside you and service their country.

in military, listen up! women have right to service their country, they are your equal in many ways better than you. men can change to see what women are made of.

women break a lot of the barriers in soo many man's world. i still believe men get these stupid ideas from the bible. we shouldn't be so depend on the bible, that deals with ideas with equal rights.

congratulation, women! you have conquer over another hurdle under the stigma that men must have something in their man's cave's crap. they are some men, they have bigger balls than women.

women should they are wrong, and drop your panties, and show them that you have as a bigger d***, they have.

Those who have never served in the infantry simply have absolutely NO idea of the physical (and mental) requirements to be an effective infantry soldier.

In Australia the pollies contracted a civvie firm to come up with a new set of physical tests (to replace the existing CFT and BFT) that are more "sympathetic" to women. Or put another way, women hadn't been able to pass the Infantry CFT and BFT and so they needed to lower the bar whilst telling us this would have no effect on performance. Utter Bollocks.

In the Infantry you are only as strong as your weakest link and lower performances increase the risk of death or injury to others. Of course those who have championed an outcome that will result in lower performances in combat units will never be the ones who are risking their lives. Yet they insist that others pay the price for their ideas.

By the way, the British Army is also looking at significantly overhauling their proficiency tests for combat units with the aim of making things easier for women.

So saying "Female candidates for these jobs will have to complete the same training that men do, without any allowances for differing average physical capabilities" means nothing if the training itself is changed to be less physically demanding.

A US Presidential commission that looked into allowing women into combat roles concluded with the following...

"Dilution of the combat effectiveness of a unit puts the mission and lives in jeopardy. Risking the lives of a military unit in combat to provide career opportunities or accommodate the personal desires or interests of an individual, or group of individuals, is more than bad military judgement. It is morally wrong."

Both of your posts are on point and well stated. (Thanks for the input.)

This/these points are exactly the concern that men of the armed forces (in general) and special forces units (in particular) have.

With the US Army's Rangers, women did (apparently) have to pass with the same standards, however they were/are (allegedly) given special treatment in the form of preparation training that the men did/do not get: Women were first sent to a special two-week training in January to get them ready for the school, which didn’t start until April 20.... etc Ultimately (reportedly) the women did take the same training and passed at the requisite level.

The Israeli military has started a female special operations group that has its own standards and its own specific mission criterion. So with them the issue of meeting the same standard as men, isn't an issue... well it is a different issue.

The US Navy SEALS have stated that their standards will not be modified. We shall see.

The US Marines have a new fitness test that is conducted 45 days into basic training. This test was designed after the decision to allow females into combat units. In the first 6 months 88% of females failed the tests whilst only 2% of males failed. I would however question the validity of a test where 98% of blokes are passing. A failure rate (for men) of approx 18-25% would be what you would expect if the test was appropriately set.

In Australia there have for years been load limits enforced for mixed units (non combat). This includes the amount of rations, water, ammo and other kit that can be carried. The result is that instead of units being resupped every 3 days they now have to be resupped every day, and that alone has a significant impact on a units efficiency. And yet despite these load limits muscular/skeletal injuries among women are some 6 times that of men...and we are not talking combat units here.

So having got their way with the military now maybe they will look to force the NFL to have women in their teams...

It is interesting to note that the IDF doesnt have ANY women serving in ANY of it's elite Infantry battalions, nor in MBT's etc etc etc

?

"There are also female operators in various roles in Special Forces units, including:

YAMAG
Unit 669
YABAN
Oket'z"


https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/women-in-the-idf-air-force-navy-and-special-forces

The units you mention are NOT infantry units.

YAMAG - formed in the 90's (and since disbanded) was a collective term for a number of criminal investigation units.
Unit 669 - specializes in search & rescue evacuations
YABAN - harbour protection
Oket'z - an independent canine unit that specializes in training and handling dogs for military applications

Correct...but the Navy SEALS are not an infantry unit either. They are a special forces unit.

In the U.S. military the Infantry is "the basic unit of the game. Its cost is very low and its recruiting time is the fastest. Yet, it is very slow and will probably suffer massive casulties before it reaches its target."

The Rangers being elite airborne light infantry combat formation.

"...but the Navy SEALS are not an infantry unit either. They are a special forces unit."

No they are not an infantry unit but, like the infantry (and unlike units such as 669, YABAN and Oket'z), the SEALS are tasked with combat orientated direct action tasks. These include carrying out small-unit, direct-action missions against military targets etc. So they are a VERY different beast to the units you mentioned.

The IDF equivalent to the SEALS is Shayetet-13 which does not have ANY women in ANY combat roles.