Women will serve on the USS Wyoming and three other U.S. Navy submarines.
Women will begin serving on four U.S. submarines in December 2011, the U.S. Navy announced Thursday.
Twenty-four are in training to be the first women to serve aboard U.S. submarines, the Navy's Submarine Group 10 said in a statement. The subs on which they will deploy are the USS Wyoming and USS Georgia, both homeported in Kings Bay, Georgia, and the USS Ohio and USS Maine, homeported in Bangor, Washington.
The Navy said it will not identify the women until they have completed their submarine training. The 24, chosen from graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy, ROTC programs and Officer Candidate School, began their training in July, the military said.
Three women will serve aboard each sub at any one time, two as submarine officers and one as a supply officer. The subs have crews of 154. The Wyoming and Maine are ballistic-missile submarines and the Ohio and Georgia are armed with cruise missiles. Each of the submarines has two separate crews - known as the blue and gold crews - that rotate duty time so the subs can spend the maximum amount of time at sea.
The submarine force is the last of the Navy's surface forces to allow women to serve. They have served on noncombat surface ships since 1973 and combat surface ships since 1993.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told Congress in February that the Navy would take steps to put women aboard submarines.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertising practices | Advertise with us | About us | Work for us | Help
Comment
Submarines operate completely different from surface ship. They dive and stay under water for a long period. The navy has to set up procedure how to deal with pregnant submariners.
The real problem isn't the fact that they are women. The problem is they are junior officers who are women especially picked for this. Being an old bubblehead, we prided ourselves in maintaining a working relationship with the arrogance of the new officers on board. Annapolis prepared them for leadership roles and gave them a commisson. It generally didn't give them much common sense. There is no room for glory grabbers on subs with the crews being so limited. Most submarine officers were pretty cool guys. However, some were overly impressed with their "pedigree" and made things difficult for all concerned. Officers on a submarine have a unique role to play and it is not the Admiralty's flag they're flying. These women will find that their duty is far different than any other service billet they may have chosen. They will know far less than the men they will be responsible for, that includes the engineering officers. They will be resented by their fellow male officers, and they will be very, very alone. The duty itself is incredibly burdensome when you understand the nature of and use of the weapons being carried. I hope it works out for them but I only see failure in the outcome.
I do believe that women should be given the opportunity to serve onboard, but, be mindful of the changes that will have a detrimental effect on the men onboard. Tight quarters for long periods of time, the instability of the female species especially when that time of the month comes around. the loneliness that is associated with serving on a submarine and why is it fair to expose this to 100+ men.
At least put 4 on each sub so the third woman does not have to smell the b and b from some dude when they hot rack
Wouldn't it be better to let them actually serve in the subs. It seems like serving on the subs would get them pretty wet.
Where were all the studies on the adverse affects on crew moral when this issue popped up? We got folks grandstanding about gays in the military yet it does not costs the services nothing to accommodate gays yet they spend millions to accommodate putting a few females on subs?
I do not have any issues with females serving in the armed forces but there should not be any double standards when it comes to performance and evaluations. If a man has to do 40 push ups to be fit to serve then a female should have to do the same, right? why the difference if they all get paid the same, right?
Subs are a close quarters highly isolated place of duty. There are only a few bathrooms to begin with on the subs. So you are telling me that you will either build and/or refit a few ships in order to accommodate a few females? For what political points? If you wanted females to serve on subs then you should have designated a few subs as female only subs and that would have made more sense.
P.S. I rode subs for 6 years.....So I have first hand knowledge of what it would take to accommodate females and the effect it would have on moral.
Show me a submariner that can do 40 pushups and I'll show you a Navy Seal that happens to be riding the boat.
Show me a Navy SEAL who is riding the boat and I will show you a NUB (non useful body), not a submariner
might as well have a single head for everyone to use too. our young service members are being asked to tolerate a lot of personal infringements-during wartime. perhaps its the nature of the future of the US military.
I'd rather have a female than a sissy in the military anyday. At least as Americans we'd have something to fight for.
Navy to put women on 4 subs in 2011
FOR WHAT?
These 24 woman who have been selected are cream of the crop - nuclear engineers mainly. They aren't going to be looking for any easy way out...
As a former submrine sailor I attended Basic Nuclear Power School Gradution this summer and had the chance to meet
some of these ladiies that are now starting Nuclear Power Training in Charleston... They are all Engineering Grads from
ROTC Programs and USNA and are all very smart or they wouldnt be there.... It will be difficult for the crew to change
and train them as JR Ofifcers but I would have loved to have served with them... I always stood Chief of the watch,
Diving Officer and Sonar operator watches..in addition to my medical duties while I served on submarine.. later
I served with a Submarine Squardron with a female doctor and she couldnt go to sea...there will be some bumps in the
times ahead of them but they will excell... Good luck and fair winds and following seas..
Thank You Sir, I mean Master Chief. Respect intended.
I wonder if these girls will name their inevitable babies after the submarines.
Oh I don't know, r*pe by a commanding officer?
Just to let you know that I've had my share of ballast tanks and maneuvering watches, not an internet drone. We had this argument back then and my answer has always been the same – when you tell me that women cannot be on a sub because the men will not "behave", you are in fact telling me that I am unprofessional and unable to control myself in the presence of women. Additionally, As a former sub sailor, I can assure you that there are no tasks on a sub that a woman could not accomplish on equal grounds with many men. Some of my sub buddies were not by any means "men of action".. Sam put it best:
Show me a submariner that can do 40 pushups and I'll show you a Navy Seal that happens to be riding the boat.
I agree wholeheartedly. I can do the 40 -barely, and not the best looking pushups you will ever see, mind you, but hardly a requirement on a sub. Ladies, come on down! No reason we should be the only ones eating "sliders"..:)
Hooboy! This will be like "Supergirls do the Navy", only real.