There is a cartoon that circulates annually this time of year. With a picture of a young boy at the table and hands in prayer position and a set of dog tags in the opposite corner, the cloud reads, “Thanksgiving is a day we take pause to give thanks for the things that we have. […]
In August, two women graduated from the Army’s storied Ranger School. They demonstrated that physical strength, mental toughness, and leadership are not gender specific. They are found in exceptional men and women. Ranger School is considered the Army’s premier small unit leadership school. Only 3% of the Army has earned the Ranger Tab. Individual performance […]
Sixty graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the US Naval Academy at Annapolis recently signed this letter to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, in response to the Marine Corps’s requests to keep some of their units closed to women. Read the letter here.
Earlier this week, I had the honor and privilege of attending the graduation of US Army Ranger Class 8-15. Since its inception as the one of the Army most challenging small unit leadership development course, 77,000 men have earned the Ranger Tab. Less than 3% of Army Soldiers graduate from Ranger School. Class 8-15 include […]
Ret. US Army Ranger Jeff Struecker argues women shouldn’t serve in combat roles, citing a “social issue.” West Point graduate and Army vet Donna McAleer tackles that argument saying that our military should be led by the best and brightest regardless of gender. On August 21, two women will graduate from the Army’s storied Ranger […]
Two women have crossed rivers, scaled walls, and jumped over a gender barrier to make it through the U.S. Army’s toughest training program. In this article, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon captures just what this achievement means and marks a moment in watching policy transform into reality for those involved with then Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s […]
Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) and Claire McCaskill (MO) have become the faces and voices of outrage and action over the crisis of sexual assault in the military. The reason why two civilian female senators who never wore a uniform have done so is because, as members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, they had to. […]
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, upon the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s unanimous recommendation, last week signed the repeal of the combat exclusion policy of 1994, opening more than 200,000 military jobs to women. This was a military decision endorsed by politicians about military readiness, strategic decision-making, and national security. More than a year ago, the Army […]