Vol. 10, Issue 30
Page 3
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Army looking at opening more combat jobs to women By Julia Henning, Army News Service WASHINGTON — Last month the Army announced its plan to integrate women into combat roles, opening positions within 27 brigade combat teams, which include nine National Guard brigade combat teams. The Army also opened positions within field artillery battalions down to the company level, so that female officers could be battery commanders and platoon leaders. Other positions throughout the Army are being examined and could possibly open to women under the “Soldier 2020” initiative, said Col. Linda Sheimo, chief of the Command Programs and Policy Division at the Directorate of Military Personnel Management, Army G-1. The Army’s “Soldier 2020” initiative is about having the best Soldiers possible in the Army by 2020, Sheimo said. Part of that will be re-evaluating standards and validating gender-neutral standards for Army jobs, she explained. The Soldier 2020 initiative requires the scientific validation of all physical fitness standards that are currently in place. This evaluation could make way for the development of a pre-test, so that individuals can take more time to train and prepare on their
Staff Sgt. John Zumer / 10th AAMDC Public Affairs
From the American Revolutionary War to the present recent overseas contingency operations, women have served a vital role in the U.S. Army. As women expanded into different roles in the U.S. Army, it was clear that the heart of a warrior was not limited to one gender.
own for certain jobs. “We’re not lowering standards,” Sheimo said. “We are ensuring that every Soldier knows what the standard is. The reality is that you will have some cases where men will not be able to meet that minimum requirement, they just won’t have the physical capability, and there might be some women that do.” By summer 2015, recommendations will be made to Army senior leadership
Commander gets tough on combating sexual harassment, assault FORT MEADE, Md. — Better communication between leaders and troops is key to combating sexual harassment and assault, said the Army’s top civilian leader. Secretary of the Army John McHugh spoke last month during a meeting with Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention, or SHARP, representatives. “We have to do everything we can in leadership and within our ranks to talk about and face up to this problem,” he said. “This is the main challenge we face today beyond being at war. “You can succeed from this day forward in virtually every aspect of your military career,” he continued, “but if you fail at this, and that is leading on the issue of sexual assault, you’ve failed the Army.” Also last month, McHugh detailed a new directive that will make the Army the first military branch to require behavioral... To read more, click here.
about what jobs can and cannot realistically be opened to women, she said. Women fighting for their country is nothing new. From enlisting undercover like Deborah Sampson, to firing cannons like Molly “Pitcher” Hays McCauley, women have been fighting in combat since the Revolutionary War. In the 1940s, the Army first made headway into incorporating women into the ranks. It was
then, in 1942, the military allowed women to serve as part of the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps, later the Women’s Army Corps. In 1978, that organization was dissolved and the WAC was integrated into the Regular Army. In 1994, then Secretary of Defense Les Aspen put into effect the Direct Ground Combat Definition and Assignment Rule, or DGCAR. The rule prohibited women from being assigned to... To read more, click here.
Army spouse gets a chance at life thanks to medical breakthrough at LRMC
LANDSTUHL, Germany — When a patients’ life depends on a 13hour flight and a complicated lung bypass machine for survival, there’s a lot of fear that something could go wrong. But for the wife of an Army Soldier stationed in Germany, it was not only a smooth medical evacuation flight across the Atlantic, but also a first in military medicine. On July 10,2013, a team from Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, or LRMC, flew an Army spouse from Ramstein Air Base, Germany, to the San Antonio Military Medical Center in Texas while connected to a portable heart-lung bypass machine called ECMO, which stands for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. The machine oxygenates the patient’s blood outside their body, allowing the organs to rest and recover on their own. So far the specialized 6-person Acute Lung Rescue Team from LRMC has flown American, British and Italian military patients from downrange to LRMC since 2010, but this was the first transatlantic flight in the history of ECMO. Until now the patients... To read more, click here.