Panetta Lifts Ban On Women In Combat

By Cheston Catalano with comments January 23, 2013 17:03

The decades-old policy is rescinded.

The [new] policy will make women eligible to serve as infantrymen on combat patrol and even in elite special operations units, like the Navy SEALS. However, women will have to meet strength standards that could keep them out of units where the physical demands are especially grueling.

Combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have already cost more than 130 women their lives and left more than 800 wounded.