Woman Commander Leads Way for New Female Combat Engineers
Army Lt. Col. Lynn Ray has become one of the key female officers in the Pentagon’s grand design to have them serve as combination role models and taskmasters in moving women into previously restricted military occupational specialties.
The implementation plan varies from service to service, but the bottom line is that “the standard is the standard across the board” for men and women, said Ray, the first commander of the newly formed “Pioneer” Regimental Engineer Squadron of the storied 3rd Cavalry Regiment of the First Cavalry Division based at Fort Hood in Texas.
“I think it’s a fantastic thing that we’ve opened up the combat engineer 12B MOS to enlisted soldiers. I think it’s phenomenal. I think everything comes in the time that it should, and I think the time is right — where our society, our military and the way we think — is more open to it,” Ray said.
However, the “young ladies” seeking to make the grade in her unit will get no slack, Ray said. “As a woman deciding on whether women qualify as 12 Bravo — well, I look at them as just the same, the same training, the same reception, the same standards that need to be met by a male soldier. That is the absolute most important thing.”
Of the 760 troops in her squadron, about 60 now are enlisted women, Ray said. “They are volunteering to do something, break the mold, go outside of themselves — that tells me they want to be a combat engineer, they want to be in that MOS. They weren’t forced into it. That’s half the battle.”
“I did not shave off the standards or anything when these young ladies got here, and they have not disappointed” thus far, Ray said.
ARMY OPENS UP POSITIONS
The Army opened up combat engineer positions to women last June ahead of Defense Secretary Ashton Carter’s historic decision last December to lift all restrictions against women, including in the infantry, armor, artillery and special operations.
The decision reversed generations of military tradition and was not without controversy. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford was conspicuously absent from Carter’s announcement at a Pentagon news conference. As Marine Corps commandant, Dunford had sought “exceptions” for the Marines from opening all billets, but his recommendation was rejected by Carter and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus.
In March, the services submitted their “implementation” plans for integrating women into new billets that were reviewed by Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work and Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
In a statement, Carter said the department’s top priority was to implement the changes “the right way, because the combat effectiveness of the world’s….
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