Leon Panetta will reportedly drop the news tomorrow.
The services must now develop plans for allowing women to seek the combat positions, a senior military official said. Some jobs may open as soon as this year, while assessments for others, such as special operations forces, including Navy SEALS and the Army’s Delta Force, may take longer. The services will have until January 2016 to make a case to that some positions should remain closed to women.
The groundbreaking move recommended by the Joint Chiefs of Staff overturns a 1994 rule prohibiting women from being assigned to smaller ground combat units.
As long as military personnel of both sexes still have to get through the same boot camp and other field testing, I don’t see how all the doomsayers can worry that our armed forces will be undermined with substandard performance.