Portions of this article republished from Navy Times
Release Date: August 19, 2015
By David Larter and Meghann Myers
Hope Hodge Seck and Mark D. Faram contributed to this report
The 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 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.
“Why shouldn’t anybody who can meet these [standards] be accepted? And the answer is, there is no reason,” Greenert said Tuesday in an exclusive interview with Navy Times and its sister publication Defense News. “So we’re on a track to say, ‘Hey look, anybody who can meet the gender non-specific standards, then you can become a SEAL.'”
The push to integrate the storied SEAL brotherhood is coming on the heels of a comprehensive review led by Losey, the head of Naval Special Warfare Command, that recommended women be allowed under the same exacting standards required of male candidates. Final approval is still pending. It also comes the day after news broke that two women had passed the Army’s arduous Ranger course. 1st Lt. Shaye Haver, 25, and Capt. Kristen Griest, 26, received their Ranger tabs Friday, becoming the first women ever to successfully complete the U.S. Army’s Ranger School at Fort Benning, Ga. — a grueling course that puts a premium on physical strength and endurance.
Here is one story attesting to these soldiers’ toughness. 2nd Lt. Michael Janowski, who was partnered with Haver for much of training, remembered an evening patrol when he was having a tough time. “I was struggling, and I asked at the halfway point if anyone could help carry some of this weight… (Haver) was the only one to volunteer to take any of that weight. She carried it the last half of that ruck. She saved me. I probably wouldn’t be (graduating) if it wasn’t for Shaye.”
Can we expect women in SEAL teams, wearing Green Berets and in other special forces units? It looks promising and a decision is expected by the end of the year.