Navy should let women serve on subs, panel says
WASHINGTON - A Pentagon civilian advisory panel has recommended that the Navy allow women to serve aboard sub marines, one of the last areas of the military that remain the exclusive preserve of men.
The recommendation is a landmark in the debate about the role of women in the military.
The Navy argues there is too little room on submarines to accommodate women's privacy needs, although it has permitted women to serve aboard most combat ships, including aircraft carriers, since 1994.
The only other areas off-limits to women are front-line combat positions in the Army, such as infantry, tank and artillery crews.
The Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services said the Navy should begin by assigning women officers to Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines, the "boomers" that roam the oceans armed with nuclear-tipped missiles. It did not recommend including female enlisted sailors.
Ohio-class subs are based at King's Bay, Ga.
In the longer term, the Navy should redesign smaller Virginia-class attack submarines to accommodate coed crews, the panel said.
"The submarine service is an elite, prestigious force that requires the brightest and best-qualified work force," the panel wrote in its recommendation to Navy Secretary Richard Danzig and Adm. Jay Johnson, chief of naval operations. "Navy women are highly capable and competitive and would volunteer for submarine duty."
The panel made its recommendations after a two-year study and consultation with the Navy on its objections.
Danzig said yesterday that he welcomed the panel's conclusions.
Danzig caused a stir in June by telling the Naval Submarine League that it was time to come to grips with the need to include women and broaden minority opportunities.
Johnson has opposed including women on submarine crews, mainly on grounds that it would be impractical to meet both men's and women's privacy needs. Johnson's spokesman, Capt. Jim Kudla, said yesterday, "We currently have no plan to change our policy."