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U.S. Navy SEALs Will Open to Women According to Top U.S. Navy Admiral

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Naval Forces News - USA
 
 
 
U.S. Navy SEALs Will Open to Women According to Top U.S. Navy Admiral
 
The U.S. Navy is planning to open its elite SEAL teams to women who can pass the grueling training regimen, the service's top officer said Tuesday, August 18, 2015, in an exclusive interview. Adm. Jon Greenert said he and the head of Naval Special Warfare Command, Rear Adm. Brian Losey, believe that if women can pass the legendary six-month Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training, they should be allowed to serve.
     
The U.S. Navy is planning to open its elite SEAL teams to women who can pass the grueling training regimen, the service's top officer said Tuesday, August 18, 2015, in an exclusive interview. Adm. Jon Greenert said he and the head of Naval Special Warfare Command, Rear Adm. Brian Losey, believe that if women can pass the legendary six-month Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training, they should be allowed to serve.
A U.S. Navy SEAL fires an MK11 sniper rifle from an MH-60S Knighthawk helicopter, assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 9 and deployed with the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) during a training flight in the Arabian Sea.
Picture: US Navy
     

The move to integrate the military's most storied commando units comes the day after news broke that two women had passed the Army's arduous Ranger course. Nineteen women began the course, which has about a 45 percent passing rate.

The Navy has said it is on track to open all ratings to women by next year, but this is the first indication that the SEALs are leaning toward accepting candidates. Greenert didn't specify a timeline for allowing women candidates into BUD/S training.

Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command is also conducting a review of its standards with an eye to including women, according MARSOC head Maj. Gen. Joseph Osterman. The SEALs would be the latest, and the last, of the traditionally male-only branches to open to women during Mabus' tenure.

It's not clear how many women will attempt to join the SEALs when it opens to them. The percentage of women in expeditionary specialties, like Seabees and Navy divers, are exceedingly low.