The Marine Corps shouldn’t open all of its combat jobs to women, the commandant said Thursday. But Gen. Robert Neller added that the service is prepared to salute smartly and follow orders from Pentagon leadership.
Each of the services last year had the opportunity to ask Defense Secretary Ash Carter to keep some positions closed to women. The Marine Corps was the only service to recommend keeping the ban in place for some jobs, based on a study of an experimental gender-integrated unit.
“It was based on the findings of that evaluation that Gen. [Joe] Dunford made his recommendation for an exception, and I supported that,” Neller said at an Atlantic Council event. “Marines, one of our attributes is we follow orders, so we’re executing the plan. We had developed a plan all along in parallel based on the assumption that there wouldn’t be an exception.”
The Marine Corps conducted studies that found women performed worse and were more likely to be injured than their male counterparts in combat situations.
Still, Neller said that he wants to bring more women into the Marines and that there are some positives to the Pentagon’s decision. For example, if the best communications person is a woman, that person can now serve in an infantry unit.
“I want to increase the number of female Marines. I think there are some things in this decision that will, there’s no doubt in my mind, will make us better,” he said. “But the ground combat is a different animal.”
