Women In Combat Units, Final Decision Due...Will We Make The Deadline?

The Pentagon's highest-ranking officials are preparing to make final decisions about whether to open all combat jobs to female service members. It's been more than two years since then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta stunned the military community by announcing plans to change the longstanding rule technically excluding women from serving in combat roles — more than 300,000 jobs in all, many of Army and Marine Corps infantry and armor units.
Now deadlines looming later this year will force the military's top brass to either clear a path to eliminate all gender restrictions, or serve up a good reason why not by requesting a formal waiver to the force wide policy. "We've really tried to give them the time that they need to finish their studies," said Juliet Beyler, the Pentagon's director of officer and enlisted personnel management, who is overseeing the process. Any waiver request will land on Defense Secretary Ash Carter's desk and must be "based on a rigorous analysis of the knowledge, skills and abilities required to do the job," Beyler said in an interview. Service chiefs will have to submit any waiver requests this fall for Carter's review before Jan. 1, when the new policy is due to take effect.

http://www.armytimes.com/story/military/pentagon/2015/06/21/women-in-combat-final-phase/28930521/