NNS320. SECDEF Aspin Lifts Ban on Combat Flights for Women WASHINGTON (NNS) -- In a DoD press briefing held at the Pentagon today (April 28), Secretary of Defense Les Aspin announced major changes to the future roles of women in the military, including permitting women to compete for assignments in aircraft engaged in combat missions.

Chief of Naval Operations ADM Frank B. Kelso II expressed the complete support of Navy leadership at all levels regarding the change in policy. "We have women flying F-18's today, we have women in our electronic warfare squadrons, and we think that they can transition into combat squadrons within a period of a few months if the combat exclusion law is changed so they can go on carriers, and then I think within six months we can make this happen," said ADM Kelso.

ADM Kelso continued, "As you know, we also have four women in command of ships today. We have ships in the fleet that are 40 percent manned by women, so I think we know that we can go forward in this direction and do it in a satisfactory way for all of them. We will submit the legislation to make this happen as soon as we can.

"So I'm very pleased to be a part of this. I want to say that I think we owe a great debt to our young men and women in uniform, that they have brought us to this historic occasion to make this step to go forward, and the Navy is ready to go with it," said ADM Kelso.

The current wording of Title 10, U.S. Code 6015 (amended by FY-92 Authorization Bill), referred to by ADM Kelso, states, "Women may not be assigned to combat duty in vessels or in aircraft that are engaged in combat missions (other than as aviation officers as part of an air wing or other air element assigned to such a vessel), nor may they be assigned to other than temporary duty on other vessels of the Navy except for hospital ships, transports, and vessels of a similar classification not expected to be assigned a combat mission."

The text of SECDEF Aspin's statement is as follows: QUOTE: The essence of the new policy is that the military services are to open up more specialties and assignments to women. First, all of the services are to allow women to compete for assignments in combat aircraft.

Second, the Navy is to open up additional ships to women. Third, I am instructing the Navy to draft a proposal, which I shall forward to Congress, that would remove the last legislative barrier to the assignment of women to combat vessels.

Fourth, the Army and Marine Corps are being instructed to look for opportunities for women to serve in positions such as field artillery and air defense.

The result of all this will be that the services will be able to call on a much larger pool of talent to perform the vital tasks that our military forces must perform in the post-Cold War world. With that smaller force, we are expected to meet a diverse array of challenges, from deterring aggression by a major military power to delivering humanitarian aid to places such as Somalia. In order to do the jobs well, we need to recruit the best talent we can find and assign the most qualified individual for each military job. Right now, we aren't doing that. Many important military jobs are closed to women, and as long as that is the case, we cannot be sure that we are putting the very best person in the job.

Women have proved that they can contribute to the readiness and effectiveness of the force. We know from experience that women can fly our high performance fighter aircraft. We know from experience that they perform well in assignments at sea. And we know, from Operations Desert Storm/Desert Shield, that women stand up to the most demanding environments.

So, we are acting on what we know. Much that I am directing the services to do can be done fairly quickly.

For example, I expect that, within a matter of weeks, women who have been trained to fly the Army's Blackhawk helicopter will be competing for assignments to train for high-performance helicopters such as the Cobra and the Apache. The Navy already has developed a list of ships that can be opened up to women. However, there is still much to do in order to ensure that the services implement the policy consistently.

We need to examine a number of areas, such as deployability policies and the "risk rule," that may be affected by this change in policy.

I am establishing a committee, consisting of the senior personnel officials at OSD, the services and the Joint Chiefs, to oversee work on some of the longer-term issues.

The steps we are taking today are historic. They will open up a range of new opportunities for women in the Armed Forces. They also constitute a vital part of our effort to ensure the readiness and effectiveness of our military forces.

I want to thank the chiefs of the military services for helping us get to this point. All of them have been working on this and their ideas are reflected in the new policy. UNQUOTE.

Compiled from official sources

RADM Evans Addresses Opportunities for Women in Navy

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- RADM Marsha Evans, the Executive Director of the Standing Committee on Military and Civilian Women in the Department of the Navy, will visit several naval facilities throughout the month of May to talk to Navy people about opportunities for women in the Navy and the Navy's continuing efforts to ensure an environment free of sexual harassment. RADM Evans' schedule is as follows:

 Date                Place
 -------------------------
 May 3-4         Naples
 5               Sigonella
 6               Rota
 7-8             London
 10              Keflavik
 17              Seattle (Bremerton/Whidbey)
 18              San Francisco
 19-20           San Diego (NASNI, NTC, NAVSTA, Miramar, SUBASE)
 23-24           Yokosuka
 25              Sasebo
 27              Guam
 28-29           Hawaii (Pearl Harbor, Barbers Point)

The Standing Committee on Military and Civilian Women in the Department of the Navy is a permanent committee formed in July 1992 to advise the Secretary of the Navy on ways to ensure the effective integration of women within the service.

Compiled from official sources

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