Secretary Mabus Indicates He Is Open to Women Joining the SEALs

Secretary Mabus Indicates He Is Open to Women Joining the SEALs
We have seen it happen before – albeit only on the silver screen. Many will remember witnessing actress Demi Moore take a clipper to her head, shaving off her glorious, dark mane, which was documented in a scene for the movie G.I. Jane. In the film, Ms. Moore played the first woman to undergo SEAL training, Lt. Jordan O’Neil.

More than a decade after the movie hit theaters, the SEALs remains to be a team that is open exclusively for male applicants.

In an interview with the Navy Times, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus confided that he believed that all Navy jobs should be open to women – including submarine attack crews, as well as the elite SEALs – if they qualify. Incidentally, the plot of the movie G.I. Jane also begins with a candidate for Secretary of Navy, who was being pressured to fully integrate the service.

Secratry Mabus was quoted by the Navy Times: “It’s my notion that women should have the same opportunities as men in the Navy… They should be able to go as far as their talents take them. They should be able to serve in whatever communities. The only reason I’m being a little hesitant for the SEALs is some of the physical things you’ve got to go through to be a SEAL. I think women ought to have whatever opportunities men do.”

While that was not exactly a full blessing, the statement does indicate a certain level of openness to that possibility.

In addition to SEAL teams, special warfare combatant-craft crewmen (SWCC), Fleet Marine Force corpsmen serving in direct combat units and riverines, are also closed to women. Enlisted women are also barred from serving on board coast patrol craft and frigates.