In an historic 2015 announcement, Defense Secretary Ash Carter declared all combat positions would now be open to women. It was not welcome news to everyone, particularly those concerned that the military will be forced to lower standards to accommodate the new gender parity.
Included in this view was then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford, a Marine general with several tours of duty in the Iraq War and Afghanistan. At the time of the Carter announcement, Dunford presented an internal Marine Corps study with evidence that women suffered drawbacks not only in the more obvious areas involving strength and stamina, but were more likely to get injured in training and were much less capable of hitting a target. All of which Carter simply pooh-poohed as “just not definitive, not determinative.”
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