Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has lifted the military's ban on women serving in combat -- a move that will allow women into hundreds of thousands of front-line positions and potentially elite commando units -- a senior Pentagon official said today (January 23, 2013), according to the USA Today website.
The Pentagon official spoke anonymously, because Panetta had not yet made the announcement. Panetta and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey -- Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- are scheduled to announce the policy change on January 24.
Panetta's decision overturns a 1994 rule banning women from combat roles.
The chiefs of the services -- Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps -- unanimously support the change in policy, the Pentagon official said. Women make up 14 percent of the 1.4 million active duty military personnel.
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