Navy to Seek Women Recruits and Widen Their Combat Roles

The Navy must recruit more women and give them more chances to serve on combat ships, even on submarines, the new chief of the service said Tuesday.

The Navy’s image, scarred by the Tailhook sex scandal, will improve “once everybody is recognized to be equal in the workplace,” Adm. Jeremy Boorda said in an interview with reporters.

Women serve on 57 of the Navy’s 406 ships, but Boorda said his goal is nothing less than all ships. “The goal is everything,” he said.

The new chief of naval operations announced his plans just 10 days after taking command of a service afflicted by recent reports of sexual harassment, lackluster leadership and cheating at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Boorda said he will give the men and women of the Navy the chance to prove that the service is committed to equal opportunity in the workplace.

“I want to do it as quickly as we can do it correctly,” he said.

The admiral added that the goal may take some time to achieve because women must be integrated into crews at a proper pace in order to maintain a balance of trained sailors, new recruits and fighting capabilities.

“We’re a profession that needs a lot of readiness, and it doesn’t make sense to exclude half the population, does it?” he said.

The four-star admiral said that current plans call for putting women on three aircraft carriers and 27 to 30 ships over the next three years, but that he has asked his staff to look into ways to integrate women into the service more quickly.

There are 55,600 women among the Navy’s 482,800 total force. About 8,000 women are on ships at present, and women are scheduled to be assigned to 10 combat vessels this year.

Although the issue of putting women on submarines has been under study, Boorda said he has asked his personnel chief to “look at it hard, again.” Complex issues of privacy and cost must be studied, since ships have to be reconfigured to accommodate private quarters for women.

Another reason for taking more women into the service, he said, is because his “bank” of recruits--those who have signed up to be drawn into the service several months later--has dropped.