US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has announced a landmark decision that he is opening all jobs in combat units to women.
According to The Washington Post, for the first time in the US, female service members will be allowed to join the country’s most elite military forces.
Women will now be eligible to join the Navy SEALs, Army Special Forces and other Special Operations Units. It also opens the Marine Corps infantry, a battle-hardened force that many service officials had openly advocated keeping closed to female service members.
Carter made it clear that there are going to be no exceptions.
Carter’s announcement caps three years of experimentation at the Pentagon and breakthroughs for women in the armed services.
Earlier in 2015, two female soldiers became the first women to ever graduate from the Army’s grueling Ranger School.
